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Edited by Mrph1 on Jan 9th 2024 at 3:24:05 PM
Oh, bother.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Yep. Things are pretty damn weird in the UK. Case in point: the House of Lords were the ones who stopped Cameron's attempt to cut tax credits for low-income families. Yes, the House of Lords accused Cameron of being too hard on poor people. Apparently at least some of the Lords actually take the whole noblesse oblige thing seriously.
edited 28th Jun '17 10:03:28 PM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprised
Italy threatens to block foreign boats with migrants from ports
Basically, anything that doesn't fly under an Italian flag or is not part of an EU mission cannot land, if they don't receive help soon. It's also a political imperative as well, as people are getting veeery angry.
edited 28th Jun '17 10:55:34 PM by TerminusEst
Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
Angry at what? Migrants or the fact that EU immigration policy is "all the dirty work to the border countries"?
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
>Implying there's an immigration policy
The migrants, the Italian government and the EU (i.e. all the independent states who also don't like the migrants, their governments and the EU). The situation just feeds itself.
Meanwhile...
EU to resist Macron's call to curb Chinese takeovers -diplomats
While state-owned Chem China's $43 billion purchase of Swiss farm company Syngenta deepened concerns that Europe was ceding control of its advanced technology, many EU governments are too reliant on Chinese investment to limit Beijing's reach, the diplomats said.
"I don't think blocking Chinese investments is on the cards," one senior EU official said of the two-day summit in Brussels from Thursday, where leaders are set to discuss Macron's ideas for a so-called protective Europe that limits what many French see as damaging aspects of globalisation.
Macron, at his first EU summit since winning power in May, wants to make good on his election call for an EU mechanism to control foreign takeovers of important industries.
He has found support from Germany and Italy. Berlin, Paris and Rome are upset that the European Commission, the bloc's competition regulator, approved China's purchase of Syngenta, Beijing's biggest overseas sale to date, at a time when China maintains restrictions on foreign investment.
Chinese direct investment in the European Union jumped by 77 percent last year to more than 35 billion euros ($38 billion), compared to 2015, while EU acquisitions in China fell for the second consecutive year, according to the Rhodium Group.
"Europeans must understand that their mission is to regulate globalisation, being open but also very firm when competition is unfair," said a French presidency official.
But smaller European countries dependent on Chinese investment such as Hungary and Greece, where China has a majority stake in the country's main port, reject any steps against Beijing, going as far as to block EU statements criticising China's human rights record.
The French official acknowledged that some EU states were not prepared to let an EU institution take decisions for them.
"About half of member states already have their own domestic legislation on foreign investment. We're not ready for a European system yet," the French official said.
Free-trade advocates such as Sweden also want to avoid any measures that might contradict the bloc's rejection of the protectionism promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump.
In a compromise, EU leaders will agree to "examine ways to identify and screen investments from third countries in strategic sectors" according to a draft summit statement, which the French official said was already progress.
They will also stress the need for "respecting member states competences", EU code for limiting the power of the Commission.
One EU diplomat said that the summit declaration would essentially mean agreeing only to ask the Commission to provide guidelines on foreign takeovers. "We don't expect any legislative proposals," the diplomat said.
The issue highlights broader tensions with China, the EU's second-largest trade partner. Beijing is seen as an ally in the fight against climate change and Brussels welcomed President Xi Jinping's call for free trade at a speech in Davos in January.
But an EU-China summit in Brussels this month failed to agree a joint statement for the second year running, a diplomatic embarrassment as both sides disagreed over China's global trading status and whether Beijing should face harsh EU duties against low-cost exports.
edited 28th Jun '17 11:13:38 PM by TerminusEst
Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
Oh, bother.
The EU really should be taking Macron's advice. Letting mainland China sink even more claws into you is a bad idea.
Will probably end up as another area where the rules are different for each country, even on the EU level.
edited 28th Jun '17 11:21:16 PM by TerminusEst
Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
Oh, bother.
The smaller countries that take up China's poisoned chalices are going to regret it.
Disgusted, but not surprised
Thank god! I was hoping that without the UK meddling and France having a sane president for a change the EU would remember that the idea is to control globalisation, not to simply surge ahead with it.
Not surprised that a number of countries are resistant...and no, I don't think that this will one law which will be different in different countries. That would be pretty pointless. The big countries will be in trouble if China is allowed to influence the single market through the back door by buying up eastern Europe. No, I think this will be a case of the EU countries coming around step by step through a combination of agreements and bribery. Looks like Germany will have to open the purse again, but in this case it will be worth it.
Oh, bother.
Speaking of the UK, it's bitterly ironic that Brexit may very well open the gates for China to gain more economic influence over the UK. I suppose China will consider it long overdue payback. They're probably salivating at the prospect of using the UK as a deregulated tax haven ala Singapore.
edited 28th Jun '17 11:35:10 PM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprised
Maybe they can make a killing on selling them opioids.
Oh, bother.
I can just picture the CCP leaders celebrating with fine expensive liquor all night long after making the UK into a drugged up tax haven shell of its former self. Makes me sick.
edited 28th Jun '17 11:52:10 PM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprised
So UK would be the "Whore of the Occident"? Yin needs Yang.
Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
Oh, bother.
So Brexit might end up costing the EU 20 billion euros in lost payments from the UK
Especially bad news given the EU's plans for the future. This is bad news for the UK too since it means the EU has that much more incentive to demand more money in their "divorce" bill.
Disgusted, but not surprised
I won't worry too much...the EU will simply adjust the budget.
Latest news from Italy are sad but not unexpected at all. It looks too much like a reaction of the center-left government coalition to regain some consensus, days after the results of local elections. Of course, I cannot deny that it could have happened in any case, given the massive number of new arrivals this week.
Unfortunately, the idea that at least part of those elections have been conditioned by the migrant emergency and the discussions about a citizenship law (considered by some to be secondary compared to other problems), and that they are a sign of what may happen on a national level within a year, cannot be discounted; reportedly, many citizens hope right-wing mayors will have a tougher stance on taking immigrants in their municipalities, if not oppose the government outright.
As an example close to me, the Italian neighbor of the Swiss border town where I currently live, Como, faced its own migrant problem last year, with hundreds of them occupying the park next to the train station, while Switzerland tightened its grip on this side (for months, I could hear drones equipped with infrared systems patrolling at night). The situation was defused after the set-up of a new center to host the migrant, but still, it must have taken its toll on the center-left administration, which won with 75% at the run-off vote in 2012 but has now left place to a new mayor from a center-right coalition including Forza Italia and the Northern League. Local representatives of the League already talk about closing the center (and place the migrants where? Back in the park?)
However, I don't see this in a completely negative light, because it should be an alert for the EU: either they step up now (with actions, not just words), or Italy is even more likely to become the oddball populist-racist haven of western Europe in the future. I am even afraid that, should the chain be yanked too much with a future right-wing government, they may be tempted to extremes like leaving the Euro, or the whole of EU. It would be disastrous for Italy, but I'm not confindent about the intelligence of most Italians at this point. Even the scenario of a coalition government of center-right and center-left in case 5S decide to stay in their Ivory Tower is not good, because it'd be potentially very ineffectual and still obligated to respond to the right-wing part.
(Avatar by Coffee)
@Terminus: the FT artcile is paywalled, I can't read it. Care to quote the relevant bits?
The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground
Strange, it was never paywalled for me. They're getting clever. Here's a Guardian link.
There's nothing ironic about it. Cameron's government wasn't exactly shy about where they were headed. Osborne outright stated he wanted the UK to embrace the Chinese 'work ethic', and it was Cameron who single-handedly blocked the EU from imposing the tariff on Chinese steel that would have protected EU steel industries.
Brexit voters have been clearly informed of this for years; it was stated in clear and simple terms during the referendum campaign that the only people killing the British steel industry was Cameron's government — that Brexit would mean the EU can go ahead and finally protect the EU steel industries but that Westminster will continue choosing Chinese steel over British steel. They choose to be deaf to it because they hate the establishment so much they're willing to commit suicide just to give the EU two fingers.
That's what over forty years of brainwashing does to people.
edited 29th Jun '17 1:21:03 PM by Wyldchyld
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.
Btw Germany wants to forbid Erdogan to meet which his followers during the G20.
And that clearly makes them Hitler all over again, right?
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Well, duh.
(Avatar by Coffee)
Because preventing an autocrat from inciting people is totally genocide, right?
The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground
Germans should accept what a military is for, or get used to disappointment
Article discussing the Bundeswehr's institutional problems and the problems with the 'post-heroic' military, written by a former member of the service.
edited 29th Jun '17 10:22:37 PM by math792d
Still not embarrassing enough to stan billionaires or tech companies.
The E.U. has gotten much more popular. What happened?. Economic recovery and the post-Brexit mess.
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Isn't the actual nobility more in line with the common people than some people in the Commons, though?
Welcome to Estalia, gentlemen.