UK resists giving EU diplomats full status, sparking row

Al Jezeera/Reuters ^ | 1/21/2021 | Toby Melville

[bert]

21 Jan 2021 The United Kingdom is resisting a demand from the European Union that it grant full diplomatic status to the bloc’s ambassador in London, causing a row between the recently divorced parties that spilled out into the open on Thursday.

The UK, an EU member for 47 years, voted to quit in 2016 and completed its tortuous journey out of the bloc on December 31, when Brexit fully took effect.

The BBC reported that the Foreign Office was refusing to grant the same diplomatic status and privileges to EU ambassador Joao Vale de Almeida and his team as it gives to envoys of countries, on the basis that the EU is not a nation-state.

[bert]

Now I find this to be exceedingly rich. High comedy at it's very best

The EU is told in no uncertain terms to F%$# off

He, He , He

I have turned to Al Jezeera for real news. They print reports from major sources. ( Also Saudi Gazette and Sky news are being reviewed)

[Brandybux]

I have turned to Al Jezeera for real news.

They will certainly print news that so-called "mainstream press" will not print. The latter, upon the election of Trump, dropped any pretense of reporting "news." Instead, "all the news that's fit to print" turned out to be "only the reporting we deem will advance our agenda." In other words, it modeled itself on Pravda.

This is why my routine touchstones for news/commentary include Free Republic and Zero Hedge, as well as outlets usually deemed off-the-reservation such as Al-jazeera.

[kearnyirish2]

The UK’s policies are bizarre; I was wondering why there was all this “visit Rwanda” advertising at their soccer games, and it turns out they let Rwanda join the Commonwealth - despite no historical ties to the UK at all.

Why shun the EU just to adopt another hopeless cause?

[BobL]

“I have turned to Al Jezeera for real news.”

Yep, from what I can see, they only ignore or lie about stuff that directly affects their country (Cutter), and other than they’re seem to do great reporting.

[BobL]

No different than how Taiwan is treated by most countries in the world (as China doesn’t permit Taiwan from being recognized by countries that also recognize China).

Not so much fun, is it, EU?

By they way, Taiwan never got any ‘help’ from the WHO, because they’re not recognized. So they had to go it alone and figure out how to deal with this virus. Terrible situation for them: Already 872 infected and 7 dead (over 12 months). Now they’re finalizing trials of their self-developed vaccine (since WHO won’t give them any) and will probably have their country fully vaccinated in a couple of months.

Lucky for us that CDC worked with and listened to the WHO!

[PAR35]

I recommend Ruptly for video. Particularly good for live coverage.

[SunkenCiv]

[snip] The UK, an EU member for 47 years, voted to quit in 2016... [/snip]

...the UK should also eliminate the pensions of the public officials elected or not who delayed Brexit for four ******g years.

[bert]

Thanks for Ruptly advice

I’ve added it to my morning mix to finally select perhaps two

Fox business is the only American source for now

[Cronos]

two points

1. Rwanda is NOT a hopeless case -- it has been growing steadily since the late 90s

2. "they let Rwanda join the commonwealth" -- the Commonwealth is with all parties having equal status. The main decision-making forum of the organisation is the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), where Commonwealth heads of government, including (amongst others) prime ministers and presidents, assemble for several days to discuss matters of mutual interest.

Rwanda joined the commonwealth for political and economic reasons

Rwanda trades heavily with its eastern neighbours - Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya - all of whom are English speaking and members of the Commonwealth.

[Cronos]

There is no reason for the UK to have an embassy for the EU as it is no longer a member

[bert]

The message that was delivered is that the EU is a fiction

[Cronos]

that wasn’t the message but was that “the EU is not a nation-state.”

[bert]

“the EU is not a nation-state.” ie....... the EU is merely fiction

Slap!

[Cronos]

again, that’s not what they said or meant. The EU is not fiction, it’s a loose confederation.

It isn’t a nation-state, but then the UK isn’t a nation-state either, it is a state of 4 nations, a tighter federation.

[Winniesboy]

This is a perfect example of the infantile shallowness of the way Johnson and his chums think you should run a country. A petty, facile insult which achieves absolutely nothing except to sour pointlessly a relationship just at the time when it's in the mutual interests of both parties to rebuild it.

Recognising an embassy has nothing at all to do with whether you think the entity represented is a good or a bad thing. The widely-reported and inevitable procedural snags over customs formalities etc which are hitting UK-EU trade since the Brexit transition ended on January 1st can be resolved fairly quickly, provided there are working channels of communication. And there are still a myriad of unresolved issues beyond trade which were simply parked for later negotiation at the time the trade deal was signed.

Things like this will only prolong the difficulties, utterly needlessly.

[kearnyirish2]

The steady growth is basically starting from 0; it is still a very poor country, primarily agricultural, and only carried by foreign aid.

What other country joined the commonwealth because of the language of its neighbors? No other country that didn’t have historical ties to Britain is in it.

[cdcdawg]

Al Jezeera is better than CNN by a longshot.

[Cronos]

What other country joined the commonwealth because of the language of its neighbors? No other country that didn’t have historical ties to Britain is in it.

Wrong. Mozambique joined in 1995. It was a former Portuguese colony

[Cronos]

The thing is — this plays to his base as “we socked them in the eye”, while forgetting to mention that this also caused the UK to sock itself in the eye

[kearnyirish2]

Interesting; what was the logic in that?