Alan Sinclair's page

Freehold

Are you referring to my reading of Brexit, or the deal the French will get if LePen wins?

If it is the latter, I'm not sure suckered is the right phrase.

At the time the EU rebuffed David Cameron, the powers that be could not see the UK voting for Brexit. Now that it has, and their contributions to the EU budget look like they will dry up, the EU cannot afford to lose another net contributor to their budget. They will have to be far more flexible when dealing with the possibility of 'Frexit', something I am sure Ms LePen is banking on.

Actually, now I have written that, suckered is exactly the phrase I would use!

Merde!!!

Brexit vote ended in a victory for the nativist, anti-Islam, right wing position

Really? I mean, really???

Scores on the left voted for Brexit, simliar numbers on the right voted to remain. Most MPs, irrespective of their party, were in the remain camp. Our current PM was pro remain, and the leader of the opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, did not come out and offer much support for the EU. Brexit cannot be described as a victory for the right or left in British politics.

We have Islamaphobes in the UK, but I do not think this mentality is linked to EU membership. Most of my extended muslim family voted for Brexit. Why? The belief, possibly mistaken, that leaving the EU will make easier for their extended families in Pakistan to get visas to stay in the UK. Many muslim communities do not see the predominantly Christian EU as supporters of their faith.

A island nation made up three countries and millions of immigrants from across the globe does not become any MORE nativist because they decide to leave the EU. We have always been on the outside looking in.

As a remain voting Brit/Italian, married to a muslim, who has been a Labour supporter since the days of Michael Foot, you cannot imagine how unhappy I am with the fustercluck that is about to hit my country. Brexit is not the victory you have described, if it can be described as a victory at all.

I have nothing really useful to add about Marine LePen that can be said on a friendly board such as this.

I don't think that in the event she does win she will drag France out of the EU. Faced with a "Frexit", the EU will then renegotiate terms of membership with France to make sure they stay in. Which will piss me off even more than I am already, seeing as that is what David Cameron tried to do in the first place.

A note to all those taking this film far too seriously. Ever considered it wasn't made with just you in mind?

I took my 8 year old to see this yesterday evening. She loved it, and managed not to blub too much at the end when characters she had known since she was 6 were killed. For her this was a firm 11 out of 10, which makes this a perfect Christmas movie.

How did she feel it compared to the book? (Read aloud to her by dad). She was really glad they added Tauriel otherwise "it would have been all about boys and that is just unfair".

The scenes with Alfred were really important, as were the comedy moments involving giant goats, Billy Connolley riding a war pig and mass beheadings of orcs suspended from antlers. Without these moments of levity, it would have made the film too dark for someone so young to enjoy IMHO.

So thank you Peter Jackson for adding all the extras to the Hobbit trilogy and giving my daughter and I three years of great Christmas movies. After all it was this or Night at the Museum 3.

I can only hope that the Star Wars reboot can be for my four year old son what the Hobbit has become for my daughter. (Although I can do without him developing a the lego habit my daughter has picked up as the Star Wars stuff is seriuosly expensive).

And just for the record, he thinks the new light sabre is the BEST THING EVER!!!

It all depends on whiskey.

As we all know, the cr@p stuff remains in the bottle for years, whereas the good stuff rarely lasts the night!

I turn lightning bolts into lightning balls when thrown in water. I think that is the old grognard in me misremembering 1st edition though.

I'd let a cantrip summon a Tribble.

Do you realise what "going commando" means over on this side of the pond?