MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Guterres praises UK contribution to UN, “Brexit or no Brexit”
Britain will remain a “very important pillar” of the United Nations after Brexit, the organization's secretary general has said. Antonio Guterres’s comments appear to contradict the fears of some opponents of Brexit that the UK’s withdrawal from the EU might throw into question its position as one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, alongside the US, Russia, China and France. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesWow! These 'opponents' of Brexit seem to not understand that the UK was a permanent member of the UN Security Council before the EU existed.
May 08th, 2018 - 05:05 pm - Link - Report abuse +3In fact getting out of the EU is the only way to be sure the UK kept it's seat (and veto) because the glorious new EU superstate wanted to take those votes from the UK and France.
If I were French I'd be worried right now because the EU wants your seat at the table because (for reasons only known to the unelected EU officials) they 'need' those rights even though, unlike the USA, UK, Russia, China and France, they never 'earned' them. The 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council were the main allies in WW2 and fought side by side to ensure world freedom.
How many more straws are these 'remoaners' going to continue to 'grasp' at. The UK voted to leave the EU...get over it...that's how democracy works...something that is in very short supply in the EU.
A cheering story with a depressing comment. Why are you Brexiters still so determined to pick a fight with anyone who disagrees with you?
May 08th, 2018 - 06:28 pm - Link - Report abuse -3@LEPRecon. I have a little bit of a problem with part of your comment. I know how the UK and USA earned their seats. I'm still having trouble with the other three. I know that China was invaded by Japan and part of it became Manchukuo, but what did China actually DO. Then there's Russia. Would probably have been defeated by Germany but for all the war materials and food supplied by the UK and USA. Hundreds of thousands of tons of it. Very little information about the supplies via the Persian Gulf. Lots of information of information about Allied ships struggling through the Arctic. No mention of Russian maritime support. There was even one convoy that was virtually wiped out and the Russians didn't believe that the majority of ships had been sunk! You don't “win” a war by piling up your corpses and only “attacking” when the enemy is virtually beaten anyway. As for the French, I believe a few of them hung on to British and American coat tails. They even “liberated” Paris because they were allowed to. Not because they'd done a lot of fighting. I can't see anything other than “politics” that has China, France or Russia on the Security Council. Certainly nothing to justify them having a veto. And most of the world's “problems” wouldn't be if they didn't.
May 09th, 2018 - 03:27 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@DT. Haven't noticed us picking much in the way of fights. We leave that to greedy, selfish Remoaners. We are the ones that believe in our country and our nation. With good reason. Thus, we are right and you are wrong. Not least because we have a thousand years of success whilst you have forty-five years of scrambling after crumbs. When will you understand that the EU “gives” you nothing because it has nothing. All your “rights” are given to you by other nations. All could be done by agreement without a bunch of elitists creaming their “cut” off the top. But perhaps you aren't old enough to remember before the european empire.
“Haven't noticed us picking much in the way of fights,” says Conq, and then proceeds to accuse remain voters of being greedy and selfish, and not believing in our country. Thanks for the perfect illustration of what I was talking about, and how certain Brexiteers are alienating and dividing this country.
May 09th, 2018 - 05:02 pm - Link - Report abuse -2DT
May 09th, 2018 - 10:00 pm - Link - Report abuse +2“Why are you Brexiters still so determined to pick a fight with anyone who disagrees with you?”
Please answer these questions below.
Why do you remainers want to undermine democracy and hand over our country to unelected officials?
Why do you remainers want to hand our security over to unelected officials that started a war in the Ukraine? Those unelected officials that during the Brexit campaign stated that the leave side were lying when they said the EU was going to have it's own military...but after the vote the truth came out about their plans to absorb the militaries of member countries (under the control of UNELECTED and UNACCOUNTABLE EU officials) and to take the place of the UK and France on the UN Security Council.
Why do you remainers hate people who voted to leave and have constantly tried to undermine the will of the majority?
Why do you remainers refuse to accept reality?
Why do you remainers constantly b!tch and moan because you lost?
Why are you remainers determined to divide the country? Why do you remainers try to alienate and shout down those who voted to leave?
Why are you remainers such bad losers?
And I think you'll find that it is the remainers who are constantly picking the fights and then complaining when those of us who voted to leave defend ourselves.
Face it, the UK is leaving the EU. It's going to happen. The House of Lords has already signed it's well over due death warrant and they'll be out on their ears and a new House of elected officials will be introduced.
The UK will do fine without the EU. The EU is in a panic because they can't survive without the UK.
And the UK will remain a permanent member of the UN Security Council and will trade with the other 180 odd countries that actually exist OUTSIDE of the EU.
Yes DT! There is a whole world out there. You should try looking outside the EU and you'll see just how corrupt and dysfunctional the EU actually is.
That's a lot of questions, I'll do my best.
May 10th, 2018 - 08:40 am - Link - Report abuse -2“Why do you remainers want to undermine democracy and hand over our country to unelected officials?”
We don't.
“the EU was going to have it's own military”
The UK was vetoing the EU having it's own military, and I considered that a good thing. However, if in the future we had been unable to prevent it, I would prefer an EU military that we are members of and have some say over, to an armed and united Europe right next door.
“Why do you remainers hate people who voted to leave and have constantly tried to undermine the will of the majority?” (Etc, etc)
I don't hate people who voted to leave, I do hate people who call me greedy, selfish and unpatriotic. Wouldn't you?
I do fear for the future of our country when the press call our top judges traitors for doing their jobs. I don't think it is undermining the will of the majority to ask why our government is insisting on a hard Brexit and refusing to compromise. Why is policy being set by a small minority of hard core Brexiters in the Tory party, when the referendum never asked if we wanted a hard Brexit, and the slim margin of the win suggests the majority do NOT support that?
“The House of Lords has already signed it's well over due death warrant”
Maybe something good will come from this mess then. There's no point having an upper house if they are afraid to disagree with the government, I hope they are replaced by something more democratic and more independent.
“will trade with the other 180 odd countries that actually exist OUTSIDE of the EU.”
The company I work for has clients both inside and outside the EU. If we diverge from EU legislation after Brexit, it will be a disadvantage for us. If we continue to follow EU legislation then we have gained nothing and lost our vote on what that legislation is. Either way it does not help us get clients outside the EU, which we already have no problem doing. So what's the benefit supposed to be?
@DT. You haven't got close to answering even half of the questions. Unwilling or unable?
May 12th, 2018 - 04:50 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Let's just take your first answer. Parliament “decided” that it would hand the decision on whether the UK should remain a member of the EU to the electorate. The vote was 17.4 million to Leave and 16.1 million to remain. However, democratically, the size of the margin is irrelevant. Also, those that choose not to vote, even when given extra time, make themselves irrelevant. The government, confident of a vote to remain, guaranteed that Parliament would respect the result of the vote. Why are there MPs, peers and individuals trying to reverse the decision or, failing that, make any “agreement” with the EU in the EU's interests? The UK had a democratic vote. Anyone that doesn't accept the result of that vote is undermining democracy. And, if they get their way, will deliver the UK back into the clutches of the European Commission on “terms” that are less acceptable than those that persuaded 17.4 million people to vote to Leave.
And I draw your attention to the totality of your last paragraph. THAT is greed and selfishness. No matter how 17.4 million people, all with their own reasons, felt and decided to vote. Your only interest is the business of your employer and no doubt your own income. Just as one example, why don't you think of British fishermen, how the EEC stole UK fishing grounds and virtually destroyed the fishing industry and all the livelihoods that depended on it? And you should note that much of the EU-sourced “legislation” that goes through Parliament does so “on the nod”. The UK Parliament isn't even entitled to object. Week after week, the likes of Barnier and Juncker make pronouncements. Usually aimed at more centralised control and power. And people like you can't see that they are aiming for an empire. An empire that they will control. Bound together with chains that people like you have locked around us.
@Conq
May 12th, 2018 - 08:22 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Unable, due to the 2000 character limit.
As to your questions, parliament did NOT guarantee to respect the result of the referendum, however they have quite reasonably decided to do so anyway.
MPs and peers have a duty to act in the best interests of the country, and MPs also have a duty to represent their constituents. This means getting the best Brexit deal possible and making an agreement with the EU in the *UK's* interests. They are perfectly entitled to disagree with the government on how best to achieve this. As for private individuals, they can do what they want; we don't live in a police state.
RE my last paragraph, my own employer is certainly NOT my only interest, but it is a good illustration of how we ALREADY trade with the 180 countries outside the EU. Why don't you accuse the fishermen of being selfish by putting their own business ahead of the rest of the country? Personally I think the EU is extremely unfair to them, but I'd say there's an 80% chance May will sell them out during the negotiations anyway and nothing will improve.
As for your 'empire' idea, if they are aiming for eventual unification they'll be using the United States of America as a model, and I don't see many Americans complaining they'd be better off as a bunch of separate states.
And now I have space to answer a couple more questions:
@LEPRecon
Ctnd...
“The UK will do fine without the EU. The EU is in a panic because they can't survive without the UK.”
The UK will survive without the EU but be poorer and less powerful. The EU will survive without the UK but be poorer and less confident. The vast majority of people will be losers in this decision.
“You should try looking outside the EU and you'll see just how corrupt and dysfunctional the EU actually is.”
Have you looked at the rest of the world recently? The EU is one of the least corrupt and best functioning parts of it. (Sadly this says more about how bad the rest of the world is than how great the EU is.)
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