Comments by "Philip B" (@philipb2134) on "Channel 4 News" channel.

Weatherspoon have a clear incentive to attract depressed patrons into their pubs to drink away their sorrows following Brexit. Misery is good for the company's bottom line.
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@bogdan475 There is no shortage of British politicians who are as articulate, although not necessarily in a foreign language. She is a technocrat, not a politician: that gives her the ability to be frank, clear, and thorough. This is a luxury not afforded to elected politicians, be they from Westminster or from elsewhere..
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@Tim /Dotexe55. If your argument is that expertise is useless, go see a stone mason next time you have a toothache.
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@ardalan The EU will not go to war with Russia, for a number of reasons, not least because the EU is not a military alliance, nor a geopolitical entity which operates militarily. As things stand currently, the UK is already committed to participating in common defense against Russia because of NATO. That covers all EU members which share a land border with Russia, with the exception of Finland.
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@andyrobinson2653 [re: Nietzsche] "Sometimes, sometimes bad is bad." - Huey Lewis
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@LeJimster German-built cars will become more expensive in Britain due to new tariffs; but also, British-built cars will become more expensive in EU. Germans will pick up some sales the Brits will lose on the Continent. You lot tend to forget that. By crashing out without a deal, UK exports will face a competitive disadvantage in outside markets with which EU has preferential agreements (which UK will lose at the end of March) That means that there will be some firms in the EU which stand to benefit significantly from a no-deal Brexit. It's not all bad news for everybody.
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@ardalan hamidi = in reply to your comment of 3 days ago... EU is a supra-national entity with no organic capability nor military structure for going to war with anyone - EU has no more ability to go to war than does the Universal Postal Union. This is a no-case scenario. Most member states are NATO members, which - if attacked - will trigger Article 5 and automatically bring the UK into the fight anyway; OTOH if the Russians attack, say, Austria: the UK will not automatically be compelled by NATO treaty obligations to join in common defense. Meanwhile, the totality of the armed forces of EU members (even including the UK) do not have anything close to the capability of conducting an aggressive war against Russia - so that is a no-case scenario. _ I have no idea what you refer to when you allege that "EU sells staff to countries outside of EU". Slavery is illegal throughout EU, as is human trafficking. _ "...planes from none EU countries fly to EU every day (even from hostile countries like Russia ". Indeed they do - planes from countries with which there are existing agreements. By leaving EU, there will no longer be an instrument governing flights between EU member states and the UK. That's not to say that one can not be devised and ratified - but all commercial air traffic between UK and EU will be in legal limbo. That's not scaremongering - it's just the way it is. _ Without a formal agreement to the contrary, post-Brexit UK import tariffs, by the way, are not set by EU, nor are they set by UK - they are set by WTO. There is a standard schedule into which any WTO member can request to incorporate modifications... but agreement is subject to unanimous agreement by all WTO members (27 of which will be EU members, each with a veto.) If you think negotiating a favorable deal with EU was hard, that will be nothing compared with trying to clear tariff schedules by unanimous consent within WTO.
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Russian command and control systems seem to be critically deficient.
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@alankenworthy9722 I wouldn't mind sipping a kir in a cafe in Paris, but - however you characterize those police - Macron is not the one who calls them out to confront protesters: That would be the role of the Municipality of Paris, ultimately its mayor.
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@James Berry Brecit has not happened yet... or hadn't you noticed?
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@James Berry You might be confusing the American republic for the French one. In the US, the President is the head of State AND the head of government - the buck stops on the President's desk, as Truman noted. In France, however, the President is head of state, but not the head of government - that falls on the shoulders of the Prime Minister... and there have been times when there was a President of one political trend, and a PM of the opposition ("cohabitation"). Prime Ministers are sometimes cannon fodder who take the flak for the President. Where 'the buck stops' can be a negotiable commodity..
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@James Berry Our Prime Minister is Édouard Philippe. Of course Boris will meet Macron, who is head of State and in charge of foreign policy; our president is not in charge of most domestic policy.
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21:33 France has a very capable and well-armed land force, however few in number. OTOH it also has a potent independent nuclear component to its defense posture.
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There is an old African-American Spiritual song sez..." Ain't gonna study war no more". I continue to study war. If you don't know what it is or how it works: your chances of stopping it are crippled My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori. -Wilfried Owen
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@ardalanhamidi5292 /your post of today I have a rather fair grasp of what NATO is, having served with a unit of the General Staff of a NATO member We worked with SHAPE on a routine basis. I do concede that I am indeed unfamiliar with what YOU perceive to be NATO's nature / role / character, etc. You appear to have a rather sinister understanding of where EU is headed, and you have a right to that. I'll leave you to stew in it.
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Gaza will feel great retaliatory pain. God have mercy on the innocent.
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Sometimes it takes a war to reveal the deficiencies in your military capabilities.
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El Pueblo unido: Hamas sera vencido! (The people together: Hamas will be defeated)
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El sueño de la razon produce Brexit.
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