What on Earth is going on in the world today? It's gone mad

[GameSetAndMath]

Cameron quits MP also. What is he going to do next? A complete disaster due to miscalculated referendum which he need not even have put out?

 

[Kieran]

He's still only 49, so everything has ended for him very abruptly, in politics. He won an overall majority last year - and now he's resigned as an MP. I like Cameron but I was disappointed he resigned so swiftly as PM. He had a job to do, regardless of the fact he was against the Brexit, but he basically took his toys up off the floor, and said to hell with it.

I'd say he'll vanish for a while, write his memoirs, do a bit of lucrative after-dinner speaking, then maybe get a giant job on the board of some global corps, basically tapping up favours from his old political chums...

 

[Kieran]

Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature! :clap :clap :celeb:

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Frj2CLGldC4[/video]

 

[Kieran]

Okay so, Obama really can't leave office fast enough at this stage. While Putin gets to grin and announce a "peace deal" in Syria, after he has levelled Aleppo with a campaign of fire and degradation, and disintegration, on a scale that's raging hot and scarlet, even for that troubled region, what has Putin's Poodle been up to? Oh yeah, only attacking the only liberal democracy in the region. :cover

This time next year, when Obama liberals start attacking Trump for Putin's latest outrages, don't forget it was your bright spark who, when warned by Mitt Romney about Russia, told him that "the 1980's are calling, they want their foreign policy back."

What a spineless jerk...

 

[kskate2]

Kieran, do you think you could a better job given the exact same circumstances?

 

[Kieran]

Kieran, do you think you could a better job given the exact same circumstances?

That's a bizarre question, to be honest, but in foreign policy terms, I'm wondering what job exactly Obama has done, except alienate his only ally in the Middle East, allow a hungry and brutal tyrant like Putin become the most forceful and dynamic leader in the world, and stupidly lecture Britain on Brexit. Obama has been a disaster on the world stage, and he's made the world a less safe place. How I would do is irrelevant...

 

[kskate2]

I ask the question because I hear different theories on what has been done. I'm intrigued to know how you would have handled it given the same circumstances.

How do you think Trump will fair? He did a lot of talking on the issue during his campaign. I'm interested to see how much of it actually comes to pass.

 

[Kieran]

I ask the question because I hear different theories on what has been done. I'm intrigued to know how you would have handled it given the same circumstances.

How do you think Trump will fair? He did a lot of talking on the issue during his campaign. I'm interested to see how much of it actually comes to pass.

Trump will be a disaster with Putin. I said it in the US Election thread. But no more than Obama has been. Mitt Romney was right about Putin, and so was Hillary.

Obama is leaving the stage, it's best he doesn't do too much now that ties up Trump. Trump will just undo it anyway. I'm sure Obama is a nice guy in private, but he's had his turn, and he should leave with dignity...

 

[kskate2]

I ask the question because I hear different theories on what has been done. I'm intrigued to know how you would have handled it given the same circumstances.

How do you think Trump will fair? He did a lot of talking on the issue during his campaign. I'm interested to see how much of it actually comes to pass.

Trump will be a disaster with Putin. I said it in the US Election thread. But no more than Obama has been. Mitt Romney was right about Putin, and so was Hillary.

Obama is leaving the stage, it's best he doesn't do too much now that ties up Trump. Trump will just undo it anyway. I'm sure Obama is a nice guy in private, but he's had his turn, and he should leave with dignity...

It seems as though no one is listening to Mitt. Trump interviewed him for the position of SOS and instead of selecting Romney, he went in a completely different direction.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Certainly Obama let Putin become relevant. He should have been tougher on Putin.

However, I like the fact that Obama dropped the ball on Israel in the UN Vote. I fully agree with the text of Kerry's speech. My only problem is that it may be too little and too late to have any meaningful impact on the crisis.

 

[Kieran]

The thing with Putin is, Europeans know these kinda men, and Eastern Europeans know them even better. I've been hearing about putin for decades now, from the in-laws and others I know from the Baltic republics. They lived parts of their lives in Siberia, my wife's family: her father, aunts, uncles. They recognised Putin from the beginning, and knew his reputation. They never trusted him, and now they tell us terribly scary things that are going on in that region. John McCain (I think) said he looked into Putin's eyes and saw KGB. He wasn't wrong. The thing is though, Russia is still weak, relatively speaking. We need western leaders who are strong, and that kinda leadership has been lacking. Hence, putin has become daring. He can be reined in, but I have my doubts at the moment. He's very clever and cunning, politically, too. Obama was out of his depth with Putin...

 

[Kieran]

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the British government having to fight court cases about Brexit - and I read good arguments on both sides - parliament has now voted to say that Theresa May's government can decide when to trigger Article 50. This has been a very interesting legal battle, one where the leading barrister - David Pannick QC - in the recent court case against the government has admitted that although he was correct to battle against the government taking action without the sanction of parliament, and although he himself was a lukewarm remainer, he feels the people have had the ultimate say and Brexit should happen.

Now the music quickens and the dance begins, the sabres begin to rattle, and the threats are being made. I think it'll be a messy drawn-out process and the EU will ultimately be unable to survive in its present form the Brit-shaped hole that will be left behind. Will we then see a more benevolent, and democratic EU? Or will the whole thing slide into something terrible?

 

[Kieran]

Theresa May has called a snap general election, due on June 8th, the blurb being that it's all to do with Brexit, and that "the country is coming together [behind Brexit], but Westminster is not."

I think this election is a mistake, for a few reasons. Firstly, the British government formalised rules on general elections a few years back - that they should be held every 5 years - and so the next one isn't due until 2020. There's no reason to change this. Governments are meant to govern in the meantime between elections, not run to the country to seek approval when they feel they need it.

Plus, I think that although the latest polls show that people are still in favour of Brexit, or certainly have no huge buyers remorse relating to it, this is also irrelevant: the decision was made last June, and so has to be acted upon. A general election doesn't alter this. Another Brexit referendum by proxy is a silly, confused idea.

And also, although the hapless Jeremy Corbyn is miles behind in the polls, she's handed him a lifeline, by looking somewhat cynical in capitalising on recent opinion polls in her favour. This kind of politicking is poor form. It looks like she's trying to grab an easy increase in her parliamentary majority, to justify her Brexit strategy, whereas a strong leader wouldn't worry about the opposition, and be happy to face them when the election is legally due - in 2010.

This may backfire spectacularly, and only add more mud to the water...

 

[GameSetAndMath]

It appears that the actual details of exiting would be taxing and not many people would like the resulting challenges. Hence, if she runs at that time she expects to lose. On the other hand, if she runs right now, they have a good chance of winning. By 2022, people would have forgotten Brexit and moved on to new problems and so Brexit would not factor too much in the election results at 2022. I guess that seems to be the calculation.

What happened Sexit? I heard the Scots wanted to put on a referendum again on exiting from UK as they think Brexit is a bad idea. Did that new referendum happen?

 

[Kieran]

It's difficult to know what the effect of Brexit will be, but that's a good point, I hadn't thought of that. Basically, you're saying that May should get a larger majority in the bag now, because who knows how popular (or unpopular) she'll be when the next election is due. That's good political plotting, if that's on her mind, and in that case, I think the opposition are foolish for agreeing to fight an election. I read somewhere that the Parliamentary Act which states that elections should be held every five years also states that a snap election can only be held if two thirds of parliament votes for it.

May wouldn't have two thirds with just Conservative members, but once again Jeremy Corbyn has shown himself to be clueless at this level - he's backing her call for an election, even though it might mean the utter annihilation of his party. :cover

As for the Scots and Sexit, I think the situation isn't so clear cut. Firstly, it appears that just because the majority of Scots voted to Remain, this doesn't necessarily mean they also wish to leave the UK. I read many reports which state that the Scottish nationalist Party is losing ground, largely because they seem to be a one idea party, but they've been poor governors of Scotland. Interestingly, I've also seen speculation that there might be a referendum in Northern Ireland based upon the same fact, that Northern Ireland voted remain.

In this case, generally the blurb suggests that Ireland would then become a united country again, with north and south no longer divided. This presents its own issues, the first of which is, would we (southern Ireland) want them? Reasons for rejecting them could be simply economic - Northern Ireland gets £16b annually from London - we certainly can't replace that. But also, the Troubles up there are a recent memory, and the prospect of importing them down here, in reverse, with loyalist bombs in our towns, needs to be considered. So far, I think that a referendum on this would fail in Northern Ireland, although it'd be closer than it would have been say, maybe 15 years ago.

Another consideration would also have to be, do we want a United Ireland simply because the North wishes to remain in the EU? I don't think that should be the reason, especially since I believe it's time that Ireland had its own debate about our tenure in the EU, and should consider if it's good for us.

On the British general election, I have a sniffy feeling about it: I think that May was wrong to call it, and may live to regret that she did...

 

[GameSetAndMath]

The latest odds that Trump will be impeached or otherwise forced to quit before the full term of four years is now at 1:1 according to betting houses based in UK.

 

[Kieran]

The latest odds that Trump will be impeached or otherwise forced to quit before the full term of four years is now at 1:1 according to betting houses based in UK.

His ratings must be improving. :snicker

By the way, he took a pop at Syria and although Russia sulked, they took it. It was unilaterally approved too, I think, with even Hillary saying it's necessary. But Trump has been busy on the world stage this last few weeks. While I welcome him standing up to Russia, I also hope he doesn't start getting cocky, if you know what I mean...

 

[the AntiPusher]

The latest odds that Trump will be impeached or otherwise forced to quit before the full term of four years is now at 1:1 according to betting houses based in UK.

His ratings must be improving. :snicker

By the way, he took a pop at Syria and although Russia sulked, they took it. It was unilaterally approved too, I think, with even Hillary saying it's necessary. But Trump has been busy on the world stage this last few weeks. While I welcome him standing up to Russia, I also hope he doesn't start getting cocky, if you know what I mean...

President Obama actually tried to plan an attack strike vs Syria but he went the proper route of trying to get Congressional approval which was denied.

 

[the AntiPusher]

The thing with Putin is, Europeans know these kinda men, and Eastern Europeans know them even better. I've been hearing about putin for decades now, from the in-laws and others I know from the Baltic republics. They lived parts of their lives in Siberia, my wife's family: her father, aunts, uncles. They recognised Putin from the beginning, and knew his reputation. They never trusted him, and now they tell us terribly scary things that are going on in that region. John McCain (I think) said he looked into Putin's eyes and saw KGB. He wasn't wrong. The thing is though, Russia is still weak, relatively speaking. We need western leaders who are strong, and that kinda leadership has been lacking. Hence, putin has become daring. He can be reined in, but I have my doubts at the moment. He's very clever and cunning, politically, too. Obama was out of his depth with Putin...

Obama was out of his depth with Putin

President Obama primary focus was to rebuild the damaged US economy (the recession). His administration could have imposed sanctions on Putin but that's really all he could have done. What has Trump's administration done..not a damn thing..Putin says US Russian relations are at a new low although Trump has spent the past 20 months with his lips pressed to Valdimer's backside.. Lets be truthful people...We already suffering from a habitual lying so called World leader.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

So, can someone knowledgeable paint a brief picture of the two folks running in France election?