BREXIT! BREXIT! BREXIT!

[Alan B]

I think Big Ben should be rung on 'Brexit Day' and I think it should be accompanied by HiFi systems broadcasting stirring music.

Trigger Warning!!!1! :

With the HiFi playing Chopin's Funeral March in time with Big Ben...

[Brian Peacock]

Does Big Ben 'bong' or 'dong'?

[Scot Dutchy]

[Scot Dutchy]

I would say dong.

[pErvinalia]

Hehehehehehehehe... You said dong... Hehehehehehehehe

[rainbow]

Does Big Ben 'bong' or 'dong'?

Schlong. That is why he was called 'big'.

[JimC]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-24/ ... t/11896110

Britain's delayed and disputed Brexit bill has become law, removing the last UK obstacle to the country leaving the European Union in just over a week.

House of Commons Deputy Speaker Nigel Evans announced on Thursday (local time) that the Withdrawal Agreement Bill had received Royal assent from Queen Elizabeth II, the final formality in the measure's legislative journey.

The Queen's assent came hours after the bill completed its passage through Parliament by getting approval from the House of Lords.

The European Union's Parliament also must approve the Brexit divorce deal before January 31 if Britain is to leave on time. Politicians in Brussels are due to vote on it next week.

It means the UK is finally leaving the EU more than three-and-a-half years after voters opted for Brexit in a June, 2016 referendum, and after many rounds of political wrangling.

Still got a weird transition year, being sort of an EU member...

Bit like divorcing your wife, but still having to live under the same roof for a year...

[Brian Peacock]

The Commons overturned all the amendments added to the Bill in The Lords, some of them quite reasonable. The government's reason for striking the amendments on a vote without a debate was, "Well, we're not going to do any of those things anyway so there's no need for a law to say we shouldn't." I'm paraphrasing of course.

[rainbow]

The greatest thing about Brexit is that it will be the AntiClimax of the decade.

Things can only become better and relevant from this point.

[pErvinalia]

Is it over yet?

[Brian Peacock]

We've only just begun...

[rainbow]

Is it over yet?

[Scot Dutchy]

They are not leaving though. THey have a five year transition phase in which of course they will do nothing.

Also nobody talks about the golden elephant in the room; tax havens.

[rainbow]

Well I for one will be sitting in front of my telly with a nice mug of Horlicks and some popcorn, waiting for the events to unfold tonight.

[Scot Dutchy]

Get ready for the big squeeze.

Trump will insist NHS pays more for drugs in trade deal, says ambassador

Exclusive: President will put US firms first in UK trade talks, says Kim Darroch

Donald Trump will put the interests of corporate America first and demand that the NHS pays higher prices for US drugs in a free-trade deal with the UK, the outgoing British ambassador to Washington has told the Guardian.

Kim Darroch, in his first interview since his resignation from his post in July, from where he spearheaded attempts to grow trade with the US, insisted that Trump would reward his backers in drug firms and farming communities by opening up British markets, while questioning where the UK’s gains would be found.

The former British envoy, who left Washington after a leak of his confidential cables to London, said it was doubtful whether the UK had the resources for parallel negotiations with the US and the EU, a strategy championed by Downing Street as a way to give British negotiators leverage in Brussels.

Darroch, who said that warnings on the US’s trade demands had been made to No 10 during his tenure in Washington DC, also said it was “impossible” for a deal to get through Congress by the end of 2020 and that it appeared to be “a narrow and rocky path to get to where they [the UK government] want to be”.

“Maybe Boris’s relationship with Donald Trump is so fantastic that Trump will give him all this as a gift,” Darroch said. “But are they going to while we’re saying we are not going to have chlorinated chicken, not going to have your hormone-treated beef, not going to have all your genetically modified crops and we are not going to pay twice as much as we do now for American pharmaceuticals.”