Interesting, being down South, don't tend to hear much from Burnham other than fluff pieces on the news. Agree on the standards of politicians. It's just dire over here. My local one may as well not exist at this point, for all the good he does.

On 6/23/2026 at 8:41 AM, UK Eagle said:

Today is Brexit Day, and it would be a shame not to post this absolute banger from 2016. RIP Matt Gallagher, the archetypal smug Remoaner.

10 years on, I have zero regrets voting to leave the EU and would do so again in a heartbeat. It's a shame that some people (like Matt Gallagher) still cannot move on from 2016 and are doing their best to make us worse off by rejoining. Bonkers

Your GDP has shrank 8% and the pound has been devalued by 10% since Brexit. You are a nation of morons. Congrats.

17 hours ago, Gannan said:

Your GDP has shrank 8% and the pound has been devalued by 10% since Brexit. You are a nation of morons. Congrats.

It has, Brexit was always going to be short term pain and long term gain. Why? Decoupling from a large economic bloc known to be spiteful and very dependent on us to fund the thing, was going to be hard. The UK was one of the few net contributors to the EU, so my taxes were funding playgrounds in Slovenia, not playgrounds in Guildford. It was made significantly harder when the Politicians and Establishment wasted 3 years deciding on what was acceptable to them vs getting on with leaving ASAP. We ended up negotiating to leave in COVID because of politicians doing their best not to leave the EU. COVID, Ukraine and then Iran, aligned with a high level of debt on "free" stuff has exacerbated the economic performance. The 2 last years have only provided a further fiscal drag on this countries performance because Reeves is utterly incompetent.

The positives? We are no longer significantly attached to a stagnant and over-regulated trading bloc. This Govt who want to realign laws with the EU, ironically, have used tools that Brexit has allowed them to do like nationalising British Steel, that you cannot do within the EU. Further, we have trade deals with countries and trading blocs done swiftly and comparable/better terms with the EU whose negotiations drag on and on. As an example, we've joined CPTPP because we aren't in the EU. Also, we historically imported more from the EU than exported, so being able to trade globally is a big bonus.

As I say, there was always going to be an economic shock for Brexit. But the doom mongering from the time - I was told we'd have power blackouts, long queues at immigration, massive recessions, etc on day 1 if we left. Nothing happened. What we need in this country is for the Politicians to put our elbows out and act like the 6th largest economy in the world, not just blithely align with Europe just because its all they can do. If we decided to drop corp tax to 0.5% under Ireland and made the job taxes competitive, we'd a competitive place for workers. Our Govt have done the opposite, and innovators are leaving. You can't fix stupid, and you can't fix stupid communists.

One of the funnier things about the 2015-2019 Brexit debates, was how lacking in information the Europhiles were about it, so debating was hard.  Other than vibes, being able to summer in the Dordogne and their kids go to Uni in the EU, it was hard to discuss the nuance of the issues with the EU and when people like me voted to leave.  You can't vote the President out, its very hard as an individual to get anything done, they waste Billions and Billions on useless projects, can't sign their own accounts off, the French have their carve outs for farming (CAP), etc.

The EU wouldn't let Greece economically default (its what their historic economy does), same with Italy.  They treat a wide diaspora of countries through the intellectual lens of France and Germany, so expect Italy to act in the same way.  It was a great idea when it was aligning mature northern Europe economies.  What it turned it was a failing blob of laws and economic stagnation, reliant on Russia for gas, etc.  My country was right to leave when we had the chance

1 hour ago, UK Eagle said:

It has, Brexit was always going to be short term pain and long term gain.

Where have I heard that before

35 minutes ago, DEagle7 said:

Where have I heard that before

Exactly

On 6/26/2026 at 3:15 PM, DEagle7 said:

Where have I heard that before

Its true (even if the trope is over used on silly things). Why? Decoupling from a legislatively pervasive institution like the EU wasn't going to be a great immediate sunny upland - we'd need to adjust to freedom. The fact our economic growth has stalled is not from leaving the EU, but from disastrous tax and spend policy, disastrous welfare policy, NutZero obsession, disastrous immigration policy, etc, shows the potential we have, if the Political class will embrace it.

I never understood why the Remoaners got so uppity about the UK being Singapore on Thames. They have growth and prosperity, we don't

4 hours ago, UK Eagle said:

Its true (even if the trope is over used on silly things). Why? Decoupling from a legislatively pervasive institution like the EU wasn't going to be a great immediate sunny upland - we'd need to adjust to freedom. The fact our economic growth has stalled is not from leaving the EU, but from disastrous tax and spend policy, disastrous welfare policy, NutZero obsession, disastrous immigration policy, etc, shows the potential we have, if the Political class will embrace it.

I never understood why the Remoaners got so uppity about the UK being Singapore on Thames. They have growth and prosperity, we don't

There's always an excuse. I swear toddlers take more accountability than modern "conservatives".

"We'd need to adjust to freedom"

19 hours ago, DEagle7 said:

There's always an excuse. I swear toddlers take more accountability than modern "conservatives".

"We'd need to adjust to freedom"

The irony is, Brexit voters contained a large component of working class left wing voters, fed up with immigration, lack of jobs, economic stagnation, etc. Its an underlying reason why our politics has gone utterly wacky - the "Red Wall" turned into a blue wall, but is now in parts a red wall again and turquoise wall. That voting bloc are searching for someone who will do as they ask and are churning through parties in the hope one takes action.

Think of this is simple terms (e.g. Pennsylvania leaving the USA).. Most of our legislation of consequence was made and controlled elsewhere. There was the ECJ, ECHR, EBA, EU rule book, etc that had legal supremacy over UK law in key areas. The ECHR still does. It created a generation of MPs that had the big decisions taken away from them; like kids playing in a sandpit. "The EU laws say we can't do that" was an oft used excuse

Whereas now, Politicians need to do stuff and you can observe in this Govt, we're run by a bunch of 15 second memory midwits who are trying to realign our laws with the EU where they can because its easy vs embracing the freedom we have. Why do you think we are churning through PMs and elections? We have senior Govt ministers whose career experience is politics and they've not worked in the real world.

You're going through a great deal of economic pain for what most regard as a foolish decision. Your entire economic outlook is poor. I guess the advantage for you is that if you make your country poor and miserable enough, no one else will want to live there. I sure wouldn't.

1 hour ago, UK Eagle said:

The irony is, Brexit voters contained a large component of working class left wing voters, fed up with immigration, lack of jobs, economic stagnation, etc. Its an underlying reason why our politics has gone utterly wacky - the "Red Wall" turned into a blue wall, but is now in parts a red wall again and turquoise wall. That voting bloc are searching for someone who will do as they ask and are churning through parties in the hope one takes action.

Think of this is simple terms (e.g. Pennsylvania leaving the USA).. Most of our legislation of consequence was made and controlled elsewhere. There was the ECJ, ECHR, EBA, EU rule book, etc that had legal supremacy over UK law in key areas. The ECHR still does. It created a generation of MPs that had the big decisions taken away from them; like kids playing in a sandpit. "The EU laws say we can't do that" was an oft used excuse

Whereas now, Politicians need to do stuff and you can observe in this Govt, we're run by a bunch of 15 second memory midwits who are trying to realign our laws with the EU where they can because its easy vs embracing the freedom we have. Why do you think we are churning through PMs and elections? We have senior Govt ministers whose career experience is politics and they've not worked in the real world.

Thankfully, your natural resources are vast. After all, the sun never sets on the...oh...oh never mind.

6 hours ago, UK Eagle said:

The irony is, Brexit voters contained a large component of working class left wing voters, fed up with immigration, lack of jobs, economic stagnation, etc. Its an underlying reason why our politics has gone utterly wacky - the "Red Wall" turned into a blue wall, but is now in parts a red wall again and turquoise wall. That voting bloc are searching for someone who will do as they ask and are churning through parties in the hope one takes action.

Think of this is simple terms (e.g. Pennsylvania leaving the USA).. Most of our legislation of consequence was made and controlled elsewhere. There was the ECJ, ECHR, EBA, EU rule book, etc that had legal supremacy over UK law in key areas. The ECHR still does. It created a generation of MPs that had the big decisions taken away from them; like kids playing in a sandpit. "The EU laws say we can't do that" was an oft used excuse

Whereas now, Politicians need to do stuff and you can observe in this Govt, we're run by a bunch of 15 second memory midwits who are trying to realign our laws with the EU where they can because its easy vs embracing the freedom we have. Why do you think we are churning through PMs and elections? We have senior Govt ministers whose career experience is politics and they've not worked in the real world.

For the record, I also think Pennsylvania seceding from the US is a dumb idea.

21 hours ago, Gannan said:

You're going through a great deal of economic pain for what most regard as a foolish decision. Your entire economic outlook is poor. I guess the advantage for you is that if you make your country poor and miserable enough, no one else will want to live there. I sure wouldn't.

The irony is, our economic woes are largely not related to Brexit but incompetence, giveaways and over regulation:

• We have not invested in Energy security, and planning for it is very complex and expensive. For example, we are spending £50m on a "fish disco" for the Hinkley Point C power station. Why? Don't know

• We raised taxes on employers and employees

• We raised the minimum wage to levels that makes it uneconomical for businesses

• We raised taxes on companies

• We reduced the VAT threshold on small business

• We froze tax thresholds so more more people pay a higher band of tax

• We have borrowed massive amounts of money to pay for "free" school breakfast, "free" childcare, Motability benefits, etc.

• The NHS

• Net Zero Govt subsidies over the recent history is £27bn

• Energy bills contain Net Zero taxes

• We are borrowing money to pay interest on the money we borrowed for the above

I can go on. Our woes are basically self inflicted and largely nowt to do with Brexit - a fart in a hurricane. Our current trajectory is the IMF begging bowl because on one wants to even vaguely try to run a balanced budget

22 hours ago, VanHammersly said:

Thankfully, your natural resources are vast. After all, the sun never sets on the...oh...oh never mind.

We have gas and oil in the North Sea. We have oil on the south coast There are shale gas reserves in numerous places. We have coal reserves in Wales, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire. Etc. The bounty is a plenty here. The sad irony is we buy gas from Norway who take it from the same field in the North Sea that we could.

Net Zero" bollocks and NIMBYism are blocking that. The Net Zero Govt Nutter wants to concrete over oil and gas well so we can never use them. Its a mental illness through our entire Govt sphere

If you want to know why Net Zero is such a thing in our political system, this photo this sums it up.

The dude next to the troll is our Govt Net Zero nutter, the "pansexual" next to him is another Net Zero wonk and the weird looking guy on the end is a "right wing" politician who was a Senior Govt minister at the time.  And a Net Zero idiot.

40 mins in and Joe Rogan is getting the full Yookay experience and struggling to get the madness I have to live with daily. I'd recommend watching, if only as a warning for America to not be this idiotic

Sadly, he will have done that because the world revolves our Dear Leader and because Trump despises him, we've paid for it. Cheers Queff Starmer

And what a few days in the Yookday. Noted left wing "economist"* Gary Stevenson, released his long awaited TV documentary to very little rapture. This drive by is from an actual left wing economist and quite the hide behind the couch watch.

*Lots of very online left wingers think he's amazing. In reality, he's being called the Greta Thunberg of Economics and I think she's more intelligent than he is, such is the low bar on offer.

But never hear, the real stuff is here

Morocco lost in the WC and naturally, Moroccans in the UK decided to riot. Yep, me neither

Sir Queef Starmer is conspicuous in his absence calling for overnight courts, all arrested being placed on immediate remand.

A local councillor is very unhappy with the policing and while he's right, he may as well be shouting in space with a megaphone

But the coup de grace is our friends from another religion being their usual happy and inclusive selves. In NI, they have the yearly pallet bonfire and some scamp decided to adorn it with something new. It didn't got down well with the happy people.

Rather than take it down, the locals decided to light the bonfire a day early and leave the effigy in place.

After Rupert Lowe's interview on Rogan, a happy and inclusive MP threw a tantrum about that and the other things and put a complaint into the parliamentary authorities (a pointless exercise). The response is pure I don't care art

Like anything, once the mystique of who the Count really is, the realty of him being a comedy writer for the BBC kind of ruins it a little.

But never fear,the Monster Raving Loony Party are the legit oddities

Some sobering news trom the Yookay over the last week. An Elderly ex MP and current Reform Party spokeswoman, Ann Widdecombe, was bludgeoned to death in her home last week just after giving a Zoom interview on TV. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czrxdnmlk5no

The timeline over last and this week is peak Inspector Clouseau

• The Police announced a white man had been arrested and the murder was not terror related.

• Ah, its not him, but please don't speculate on if its terror related.

• Ok, we've arrested a man from Rotherham (other end of the country( on suspicion of murder - its a 540 mile round journey he reportedly did in hours, but its not terror related . He reportedly has "mental health issues", was a longer and barely left the house. Its not terror related

• Oh dear, it looks to be terror related, our bad here. We've found commie literature in his house and our crap Prevent program didn't know about him

Meanwhile, BlueSky and the some in the media, in the absence of information decided to celebrate her death because she was a Christian and held strong views. X was close to being vile, and somehow, our Govt didn't cry about that. Funny that