:har: :har:

Gunnar Heihnsohn's laconic - and true - comment on May's speech, and why Europe must choose between the German way and the British offer, and why the Brits have more to offer than Germany and France together.

IN GERMAN. Sorry. You can try bot-translations, but you know what that means.

LINK - Germany wants to punish, Britain smiles

I can only point back to :

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...postcount=5831

(Scotland) North-east fishing fleet to sail the Thames in Brexit protest:

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp...flotilla-mkii/

(UK as a whole) Theresa May 'betrays fishermen by using them as bargaining chip in EU Brexit negotiations'

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/755...ota-Article-50

Sheep producers voice fears over ‘hard’ Brexit:

http://www.fwi.co.uk/news/sheep-prod...ard-brexit.htm

I guess it depends on which industries the Tories deem to be expendable. It does appear the both the fishing and farming communities in the UK voted for Brexit in good faith and are now faced with some very unpalatable choices.

Farming - relied on cheap EU labour plus EU subsidies.

Fishing - EU biggest export market plus relied on EU subsidies and fishing agreements.

That's the thing about trade deals - how do you make (or break) them without screwing over part of your own economy? Now that the UK has to compete on it's own in the world, are the farming and fishing industries up to it?

Mike.

Ah, I forgot to add that for the Scottish fishing fleet, at least, "Scottish" is a bit of a misnomer - a fair chunk of the crews are Filipino with native skippers and senior hands. Due to the nature of what's happened to the industry many of the young men from the likes of Fraserburgh and Peterhead either leave the area completely after school or are so high on drugs that no-one wants them aboard ship. Fraserburgh has one of the worst drug addiction levels in Scotland.

Mike.

Why am I not surprised? :hmmm:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38696175

Well that problem will be filled by the unemployed, hows that for a prediction. :ping:

What a load of BS, yea direct lobbing may be out but in direct lobbing you can bet your rump that will happen.

That assumes the natives will actually be willing to give it a go. Some will, but more than a few won't I'd wager. It depends on how long it is before those particular roles are automated, anyway.

P.S. It might entertaining to try and lob Osbourne, just don't do your back in doing it though!

Mike.

I would not be surprised if these summer jobs will be done by the unemployed as the rules are even more tighter now when I was claiming a few years ago and that was bad enough. Not sure if this would be green lighted in Scotland.

Don't do as I do but rather as what I say.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38689400

Theresa May says she has "absolute faith" in the UK's nuclear weapons system despite reports that an unarmed missile went off course during a test.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38708823

Apparently the SLBM curved off towards the US.

Wonder if it knows something we don't.... :hmmm:

No doubt the new POTUS will have a solid opinion on the matter :03:

Russian hackers updating Trident-II to the Bumerang configuration, no doubt.

Depends on what is devolved and what isn't and I think such a scheme, if it happened, would remain reserved to Westminster just to make sure the SNP couldn't throw a spanner in the works. I could see Glasgow erupting protest at such a proposal as "an affront to human dignity by encouraging slavery" led a certain Tommy Sheridan and his cohorts, however. Nor do I think Scottish farmers would want unemployed, unwilling, Glaswegians working on their farms.:hmmm:

As for the missile test, Sturgeon's reaction is as expected and I can see the whinging coming out of Glasgow about Trident getting louder.

Mike.

Are there any other options for the British strategic deterent?

I mean from the materials I have read it appears that the delivery systems (Trident-II) and the warheads themselves (critical subassemblies, even in the physics package) appear to be US made.

:hmmm:

:yep:

https://users.ece.cmu.edu/~ar39/ryan...s/treb-dad.jpg

France. Assuming BoJo can be persuaded to keep his gob shut.

The warheads are made in the UK, but as you wrote, certain parts are dependant on the US. That's why I think good relations with Trump are needed - of all US Presidents I could see him blocking any tech transfer between the UK and US. It also gives the US enormous leverage over the UK and, again, I could see Trump using that to the US's advantage.

The UK could do everything by itself but it would be cost prohibitive.

Mike.