Densusa

@atrupar The view held internationally but only beginning to make its way in the US. nytimes.com/2026/03/26/opi…

Swalwell: "I want to knock out this argument that we even need ICE doing what they're doing in the first place. If they are so easily moved from our streets, where they are terrorizing people, to passing out bottles of water in the airport, did we really need them terrorizing people in the first place?"

@pjcboro @RichardBentall You conflate physical checks at crossing a border with the freedom to live on either side of it. IRL is also not in Schengen but its citizens, as EU citizens, are not subject to the 90/180 day rule requiring that their entries and exits be recorded. There can be no exceptions.

@RichardBentall The usual FBPE bullshit I love this - queue always exaggerated ✔️ - childish grudge / hate over people with perfectly valid majority view ✔️ - gloss over we were never in Schengen ✔️ Bonus: mention or Irish passport 💯

Just arrived at Pisa Airport. There was a very long and slowly moving queue of Brits (left)waiting to get through EU passport control. I hope most of them were leave voters. I was with my lovely Irish wife, and we passed through the EU channel in a couple of mins (right)

@LizWebsterSBF @peterkyle @ayeshahazarika @financialeyes I have no argument with you there. Unless the English electorate grabs the nettle of FOM of persons, the key to restoring the UK relationship with Europe. The rest is mainly noise.

@densusa @peterkyle @ayeshahazarika @financialeyes It takes years to implement.

👏 Thanks @peterkyle 💥 you’ve just exposed the Brexit conundrum! The SPS “reset” is theatre, a lullaby to placate the majority. ❎ You cannot align with EU food standards 👉while opening the door to US trade demands. Something has to give and it won’t be Donald Trump’s America. So Britain continues to face Brexit reality of: 👉 More competition from lower-standard imports 👉 Continued friction exporting to Europe 👉 A govt gambling on tech instead of food This is how you create a food crisis. 🔥 🚀 You can’t eat AI and you can’t grow food in space.

@LizWebsterSBF @peterkyle @ayeshahazarika @financialeyes I don't think that is the case. Most successful negotiations require a package deal approach. It is not there until the final bow is tied. #google_vignette" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">tovima.com/world/uk-eu-ne…

@densusa @peterkyle @ayeshahazarika @financialeyes It will take years to implement but right now faces collapse in negations already.

@LizWebsterSBF @peterkyle @ayeshahazarika @financialeyes Oversight of the implementation of EU law is the task of the Commission, not the ECJ. The latter is the final arbiter in terms of interpretation of it. It would be untenable to have UK participate in an open market sector on terms in practice not equivalent to those impacting MS.

@Suewilson91 "we must rejoin and reshape [!!!!] a new EU". In that one sentence lies the confirmation that the UK will not rejoin the EU. Of all the things the latter does not want being "reshaped" by a returned UK must be highest on the list.

10 years of navel gazing is quite enough. Can we get on with it please? thenewworld.co.uk/matt-kelly-bre…

Strikes me that Reform and Conservative trade policy is increasingly utterly US dominated leaving the next election about an EU versus US battle which I'm not sure is 100% healthy but that's where Brexit has led.

@MHartleyJones @EFTA4UK A useful link. eur-lex.europa.eu/EN/legal-conte…

Surely @EFTA4UK plus a customs agreement with EU makes the most sense for us in UK.

@MHartleyJones @EFTA4UK The whole - remaining - point of EFTA is that its members trade independently of the EU; impossible were they in a customs union with it. Ditto the UK. The CU and the 'single market' are constantly conflated. The issue of regulatory alignment arises in the context of the latter.

@joshglancy @thetimes This article is spot on. The key word is balance; between benefits and obligations. The approach outlined is the only one that is politically feasible; for both sides!

Labour's realignment with the EU will be slow, painful and expensive. But they are right to do it anyway, because Brexit isn't working My @thetimes column thetimes.com/comment/column…

The absolute state of US politics exposed in one image. America First Congressman Thomas Massie took $0 from AIPAC. His primary opponent just received a staggering $5.7 MILLION from the pro-Israel lobby to unseat him. They are buying our elections!

@Im11 @BowesChay Likewise! My inner pedant got the better of me.

@densusa @BowesChay It’s spelling mistakes that are exacerbating our housing crisis, my humblest apologies 😉

Luck of the Irish?

@Im11 @BowesChay Even exacerbating it!

@BowesChay Chay , all countries within the 3 circles will now be allowed to move to Ireland and claim asylum, exasperating our housing crisis even more🤣

@itsjohncrotty The hidden history of Ireland. Why the Great Famine happened! And how the cause was addressed! Land reform! First by the British government and, post independence, by the Irish government. farmersjournal.ie/life/features/…

Ireland had the food to feed Britain and Ireland combined The British Administration refused to feed the Irish with the food produced in their land, unwilling to see the economy suffer Laissez-faire policies that would see people in jail today Despite Daniel O’Connells warning and plea that ‘1/4 will perish’, they did not stop exports as had been done in previous famines It had nothing to do with scarcity of food… it was scarcity of morals and decency

@theiaincameron The formula used in the Good Friday Agreement "these islands" covers all sensibilities.

Here is a clear and jargon-free (coughs) description of the differences between, Britain, Great Britain, the U.K., Ireland, and the British Isles. 🇬🇧 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇮🇪 Scotland, England, and Wales make up Britain (or Great Britain). This is the larger of the two islands. The United Kingdom (UK) is Britain and a country of the island of Ireland (Northern Ireland) together. Ireland is, as we have said, the other island. But Ireland itself is made up of two countries: The Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. This odd situation is compounded by a good many Northern Ireland residents who insist on calling themselves British. (We’ll leave the politics of that out of this post…) Both the islands of Ireland and Britain combined are called the British Isles in a geographic sense. But this framing is contested by many Irish residents, who dislike the term British, for exactly the same reason that some Northern Irish folk love it. Following so far? Scotland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland all have individual national soccer teams. In rugby, however, Ireland play as one team. Confused? It gets worse. At the Olympics, athletes from Northern Ireland can represent Team Ireland or Team Great Britain (there is no U.K. Olympic team). Oh, and let us not forget the Isle of Man. Despite being slap-bang in the middle of Northern Ireland and Great Britain, it doesn’t form part of the U.K., but it is in the British Isles. Happy to have cleared all that up.

In a speech this week at @britishchambers in Brussels, @stellacreasy set out how a Swiss-style deal could benefit both the UK and the EU - and how it could be done. Full transcript: labourmovementforeurope.uk/creasy_britcha…

✅ Max Hastings is bang on. The Iran war is reckless, irrational, and not in Britain’s interest. The UK should stay out, even if the US is involved. Supporting it risks dragging Britain into a long, unwinnable conflict. Air strikes won’t solve Iran. You can’t bomb your way to stability. Escalation leads to deeper involvement. That directly challenges the current narrative of “limited”, “targeted”, “defensive”.

@LarsFJ1 @AlexTaylorNews Lisa O'Carroll; the best informed journalist in Bxl. [Sefkovic] "reminding the British in the room that an over-arching Swiss-style deal, as offered to the former prime minister Boris Johnson, was still very much on the table". theguardian.com/politics/2026/…

@densusa @AlexTaylorNews The EEA is a newer deal too, but agreed as a replacement for older evolving deals. New members must follow all of the EU Acquis. Exceptions only if they are needed by the EU itself (existing members). PS! Security and military defence are exceptions

Pressure growing on Starmer to drop EU "red lines", we read 👇And so it should ! The constant faffing around with "we'd like to be back using this and that machine at the gym (and maybe the pool on Sundays ?) but without becoming 𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒂𝒍 𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒔 again" is convincing no one, least of all the gym itself ! He should just give up once and for all on the "deplorables" - the 30% who'll believe (again !) any old tosh Farage tells them and would vote for the man even if he sang the Russian anthem whilst torturing poodles live on TV !

@LarsFJ1 @AlexTaylorNews Not so! Numerous important areas are not included. A key difficulty, both for Switzerland and UK is the issue of supremacy of EU law; and, of course, free movement of persons. eur-lex.europa.eu/EN/legal-conte…