Why? Ireland isn’t in Schengen, and multiple EU countries aren’t using the euro, with no plans to adopt it (Poland, Sweden, Hungary, Czechia).
I’m British and I hope the UK and EU can have closer relations. But if the EU just wants to punish the UK for Brexit then that is going to go down badly with many Brits, so closer relations will become less likely.
“A stronger Europe is vital and the UK must be at the heart of it,” Starmer told an audience at the British Irish Chamber of Commerce on Friday.
“I will say here what I have said to European leaders. This is about responding to a permanent change of affairs, not an aberration of the Trump presidency. Things will not go back to the way they were before.
Is he right?
The CEO of Kärcher (the pressure washer company) thinks that too much regulation is hindering European industry, while this industry faces increasing competition from China.
Is he right? Should we slash regulations? Should we allow big companies to do whatever they like?
Apparently Burnham wrote a letter to ministers, in which he said this:
I am clear in my conviction that the Brexit deal negotiated by the Conservative government was not good enough for Britain… It has led to a decade of low growth, burdened businesses with more red tape and weakened our ability to control immigration. It is a harder Brexit than was promised at the EU referendum.
…we will need to consider the UK’s long-term relationship with the EU as part of our 10-year plan. I will set out the next steps for this process around the [UK-EU] summit.
Hopefully that summit brings some good news (i.e. closer relations between the UK and EU).
I’m just going to leave this here.
I definitely think Europe should have strong relationships with good allies, like Canada and Japan. Hopefully they would both be reliable.
Mexico, potentially yes, they could be a reliable ally. As for India I’m not so sure, because India seems to want to be quite friendly with Russia (I think India buys a lot of military equipment from Russia), and Russia has been waging war against Europe for the last 12 years.
I think more Europeans need to realise that the only countries which care about the security of European countries are European countries.
Stubb said in a statement on his conversation with Putin: “The discussion was frank and substantive. We are neighbouring countries to Russia. The outcome of this war will have a direct impact on our and broader European security. Ending the war requires direct discussions.”
Stubb and Stoere participated in the call as leaders of their respective countries and did not speak on behalf of Europe as a whole, they said, adding that the two Nordic nations will continue their longstanding support for Ukraine.
Maybe it’s not big news, but it’s interesting. Apparently this phone call related to upcoming peace negotiations in Abu Dhabi in the next couple of weeks, which will involve negotiators from Ukraine, Russia, and the US.
Oppressive authoritarianism? But tankies told me that China is a place of unbridled liberty. A land of milk and honey. Unlike the evil West which is always horrible and terrible.
Him seeming like a “weirdo” makes more sense when you look at his background. He was influenced by the hippie culture of the 60s and 70s. He travelled to India when he was a young adult and he got into Buddhism. I think all of that stuff inspired him to try things which are unconventional in western countries.
As for what you mentioned about jumping to the front of a transplant queue, yes that’s obviously selfish and wrong, if he did indeed do that.
Your in-laws sound like GB News viewers here in the UK. GB News is a right-wing news TV channel, and it has only existed for a few years. Previously people had to watch BBC News or Sky News, which are both pretty moderate. But now right-leaning voters can get sucked into GB News propaganda. They are never shown different sides of an argument presented fairly; instead everything they are shown is highly biased.
Maybe actually I’m making a mistake by comparing the French election with the 2024 US election because of the different voting systems.
I suppose leftist voters in France might think “if we can get Melenchon into the second round then moderates will have to vote for him to keep out Le Pen”. So then the second round polling between Melenchon and Le Pen might change when the reality sets in that Melenchon and Le Pen are the only two options. Which is different to the single-round US presidential election, where the only two realistic candidates to win were Trump and Harris. In that US election, every anti-Trump non-voter just helped Trump.
As for Melenchon being anti-Ukraine, I don’t know his stance in detail, but like you, I’m not in favour of anti-Ukraine stances.
I’m just looking at polling. In fact Melenchon now seems to be in second place for the first round, behind Le Pen, so perhaps he is likely to get into the second round. But the problem is that he fares worse than Philippe in the second round against Le Pen.
The most recent second round polls seem to show this:
Of course polling can change. Pollsters in 2016 thought Hillary Clinton would enter the White House. But still, at the moment, if Melenchon gets to the second round, it looks like a victory for Le Pen is more likely.
I guess with the French election I’m mainly thinking about the second round. If it’s Philippe versus Le Pen then hopefully enough people will back Philippe, because I think Le Pen would be worse.
In the first round maybe there’s more freedom to vote for who you really like. But if it ends up being Melenchon versus Le Pen in the second round, it could be pretty difficult to stop Le Pen winning.
I’m wondering if the 2027 French presidential election might turn out like the 2024 US presidential election did.
What I mean is: what if left-wing voters refuse to back the moderate (Edouard Philippe in France, Kamala Harris in the US), which just helps the far-right candidate to win (Le Pen in France, Trump in the US)?
Melenchon is liked by the left in France, but the polls show he fares much worse against Le Pen than Philippe does. If the second round is Melenchon vs Le Pen, then Le Pen’s victory becomes more likely.
Rich people pump money into politics in order to amplify their personal whims. Then they wonder why self-described socialist politicians are becoming more popular.
Apparently he has citizenship of the USA and Canada as well as South Africa:
According to Isaacson’s biography and an Esquire magazine profile of Musk, he became a US citizen in 2002
It’s odd to see Americans siding with Russia, to be honest.
I’m trying out Piefed. Lemmy looks like relatively good software, but I don’t like the political views of the developers behind Lemmy. Their whole shtick seems to be “non-western countries good, western countries bad”.
Of course, western countries have done many bad things. But I think plenty of non-western countries have also done bad things. I just don’t buy into a narrative which always tries to paint western countries as “the bad guys” and non-western countries as “the good guys”.
If you’re implying that Brits are all a bunch of Europe-hating backstabbers then I don’t think that’s true. I’m British and yes, some Brits don’t like the EU. Mainly older Brits. But a lot of Brits do like the EU.
According to YouGov, a British polling company, a majority of Brits have wanted to rejoin the EU for at least the last two and a half years, perhaps longer. Of course that level of support could change depending on the terms of rejoining the EU, but still.
Personally I think it would be good if the UK and EU forge closer relations in the coming years, but I don’t think rejoining the EU will be a realistic possibility for at least a few years, because eurosceptics in the UK continue to wield political power.