UK General Election 2019 - Debate Thread (user search)
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  UK General Election 2019 - Debate Thread (search mode)
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Author Topic: UK General Election 2019 - Debate Thread  (Read 2337 times)
Unconditional Surrender Truman
Harry S Truman
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« on: July 10, 2019, 01:12:08 AM »

Mary Lou McDonald
Sinn Féin at the Leaders' Debate

What is your position on Brexit? If you support Brexit, how will you enact the actual policy of Britain leaving the European Union? If you oppose Brexit, what is your plan to reverse Articel 50 being invoked by then-Prime Minister Andrea Leadsom?
There's no denying that Europe needs to change. After a decade of austerity and privatization, imposed by a government in Brussels that is as far from transparency as we are from the moon, the people are hurting, and it's no wonder so many of them voted to Leave. What we've seen in the last three years, is that the chaos of a Tory-led Brexit would compound the evils of our present relationship with Europe, and solve none of the ills that caused the referendum in the first place. Brexit is not the answer. Sinn Féin stands with the majority of the voters in Northern Ireland, who voted to Stay in 2016 and who continue to oppose the disastrous deal negotiated by Andrea Leadsom and David Cameron.

Standing here, listening to the leaders of the major parties tonight, it is clearer than ever that none of them has a serious plan to resolve this crisis and repair our relationship with Europe. While politicians pose and pander, we face the prospect of a hard border across Ireland for the first time since 1998. Never mind the workers whose jobs depend on free movement across the border! Never mind the farmers who rely on European subsidies to keep chin above water! Never mind the violence that is sure to return if Westminster walks away from the Good Friday agreement! These are petty distractions to David Cameron and his lackeys in the DUP, who sold out their neighbors for a seat in Downing Street!

Any deal with the EU must include designated special status for the North to preserve free movement across the border and maintain our access to European markets and European subsidies. If David Cameron and Jo Swinson cannot come to an agreement to protect the interests of the North, the only alternative is unification.

More than 300,000 people are homeless in this country and scores more are living in temporary housing. If elected Prime Minister, what will you do to address this crisis?
We must end the Tory cuts to public services that have pulled out the rug from under the feet of the neediest in our communities. Seven years of the Tory-DUP coalition have bled every penny from the poor to finance Andrea Leadsom and Arlene Foster's massive tax giveaway for the wealthy. We refuse to accept the politics of austerity that suffers those with the least in our society to eke out an existence on the margins while those with the most suffer nothing at all. Sinn Féin speaks for the most vulnerable in our communities when we demand that our vital public services be funded in full, so that all people at every level of society have the support they need to maintain a decent standard of living.

Reform of the House of Lords has become a hot-button political issue in this campaign. How would you like to see the Lords reformed, if at all.
Much as we can marvel to hear a politician like Mr. Cameron, whose government has maintained the brutal austerity measures of the last seven years, speak so eloquently in defense of a smoking lounge for 1,000-odd powdered wigs who take lunch and play backgammon on the public dole, reforming the House of Lords is a superficial solution to a real crisis of confidence in our democratic system. While we stand here this evening, debating another pet project of the privileged political class, the Stormont Executive has been out of session for more than two years, thanks to the self-interested obstructionism of the DUP-Tory government. It's time for Westminster to stop playing coy and put the interests of the Northern people before their own by restoring home rule and the Good Friday Agreement.

Britain has suffered several major terror attacks over the last few years, including the Manchester Arena bombing and the Westminster Bridge attack; Jo Cox was shot to death in 2016, and, just last week, Arder Carson was brutally stabbed to death in his constituency. How will a Government led by you ensure Britons remain safe in their own neighborhoods?
The single greatest threat to the peace in the North is the reimposition of a hard border across Ireland. Any deal with the European Union must include special status for Northern Ireland, to allow the continued free movement of people, goods, and services across the border. The failure of the Tory-DUP government to include this condition in their negotiations shows this government's blatant disregard for the condition of the North, so long as they can continue to reap the benefits of political power. Sinn Féin is the only party committed to full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and preventing a hard border across Ireland.

Ms. McDonald, your manifesto mentions preseving the special relationship between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Is that possible if the UK, with Northern Ireland, leaves the European Union while the Republic of Ireland remains in the European Union?
Without recognition of Northern Ireland's special status in in any deal with the European Union, the only alternative to a hard border across Ireland is unification. Designated special status would allow North to remain part of the Customs Union and the Single Market and, crucially, allow the continued free movement of people, goods, and services between Northern and Southern Ireland. Brussels has repeatedly demonstrated flexibility on this issue: it is now up to the Tory-DUP government in Westminster to end their prideful obstructionism and reach a fair agreement in the best interests of the Northern people.
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Unconditional Surrender Truman
Harry S Truman
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Posts: 14,142


« Reply #1 on: August 11, 2019, 10:15:53 PM »
« Edited: August 11, 2019, 11:43:08 PM by Unconditional Surrender Truman »

Mary Lou McDonald
Sinn Féin at the Second Leaders' Debate

Do you believe that Britain can, or should, become carbon neutral in its energy production?
Absolutely. This is not merely a matter of providing for our own future: every day we fail to take meaningful action to reduce carbon emissions, is a day taken from our children and grandchildren. What the Tory and Unionist government forgets is that we are not alone in this battle: climate change is a global issue, and it demands a global solution. Northerners would do better to look to Dublin, who have just published a bold and ambitious initiative to slash carbon emissions over the next ten years, for leadership on this issue, rather than Westminster, where David Cameron and his Unionist enablers are working to take Northern Ireland out of the EU's own carbon initiative to achieve a carbon-neutral Europe by 2050. The simple fact of the matter is that for all his bluster, David Cameron has no plan to bring us closer to carbon neutrality, and instead is working to further alienate Northern Ireland from serious efforts to cut carbon emissions in the EU and Ireland.

Based on all polls and projections, no single party will come close to commanding an absolute majority in Westminister. What is your position on coalition building in the Commons? Do you believe coalitions are an advantage or a disadvantage to the proportional, party-list system?
I believe in principle the voters made the right decision to adopt a proportional system in 2011; but a coalition is only as strong or dysfunctional as the men and women in it. Whatever David Cameron and Anna Soubry may say, Northern Ireland is hardly better off for the last coalition, which sold its soul to the devil and cut a deal with right-wing obstructionists in the DUP to blow up the Stormont talks and rule the North from Westminster. Their day of reckoning has come: without the old constituencies to divide them, the North has a chance in this election to say "no" to austerity, "no" to a hard border, and "no" to Cameron and Soubry's reactionary crusade. Together, we can send Westminster a message even they cannot ignore, and Sinn Féin is the only party who will carry the fight to the Tories every hour of every day for the next five years.

If Britain cannot negotiate a withdrawal agreement with the EU by October 31, how would your government proceed? Would you attempt another extension, would you go forward without a deal, or would you end the Brexit process entirely?
Let us be clear: the only reason an extension was necessary in the first place, is Westminster's childish demand that they be allowed to have their cake and eat it too. If in two months time, they are still unwilling to come to terms, then it will be incumbent on them to repeal Article 50 and return to Europe. A "No-Deal Brexit" is absolutely unacceptable, and would result in a hard border across Ireland for the first time since the Troubles. If the government in florid incompetence should fail to prevent this outcome, Sinn Féin will demand an immediate referendum on Irish unification to allow the North to preserve the free movement of people and goods across the border on which her peace and prosperity depend.

There are reports that the American Major League Baseball Association is in talks with local business owners about operating a MLB franchise in the United Kingdom. Having seen the success of the MLB's London series earlier this summer, what is your position on an MLB club calling the British Isles their home?
I would be happy to welcome the MLB to Ireland; perhaps it would give Arlene Foster something to do in retirement.

Do you support or oppose such projects as the new runway at Heathrow, HS2, and Crossrail?
Sinn Féin of course supports efforts to build up our infrastructure, provided it is done for the benefit and not at the expense of the working class. While home rule is suspended, however, Northern Ireland has been left behind, as local communities are denied a say in building projects with profound relevance to their daily lives. This is why it is so important to send a message to Westminster by delivering a strong vote for Sinn Féin, to force the DUP back to the negotiating table and reopen the Stormont Executive.

Ms. McDonald, do you attribute your success in the polls to a groundswell in the nationalist movement or to the general vacuum left by the collapse of the DUP? What are your thoughts on ChangeUK contesting seats in Northern Ireland?
In a word, yes. There's no denying that the abject failure of the DUP to advocate for their constituents exposed the Union for what it is—a sham held up by silencing the voices of ordinary, working class people—and led even former Unionist voters to take up the nationalist cause. This moment is important, not merely as the death of a political party, but as a great nationalist awakening, as men and women across Ireland realize their futures lay together as a united republic.

Anna Soubry's sad attempt to cast herself as a liberal hero come to save the people from Brexit when she spent the last seven years proudly serving in the Tory coalition that gave us austerity and betrayed the Good Friday Agreement is frankly comical, and voters should see her party for exactly what it is: dressed-up Thatcherism that will immediately abandon the leftist causes they have cynically trafficked on the campaign trail the moment an offer comes to join David Cameron for another five years in Downing Street. My advice is to do with "ChUK" exactly what it says on the tin, and cast your ballot for the only real alternative to Tory and Unionist the status quo.

Rebuttal
Quote from: Anna Soubry
As to what will happen after the election, I can say right now that although we recognize the enormity of the challenge caused by the incompetence of the Brexiteers we in Change UK are prepared and willing to lead in the national interest. If we win on this election or we are in a position to form a modern, decisive and forward-thinking government with other parties that will secure a Second Referendum and so many other necessary reforms we will attempt to do so. If we are in a position to support a government that will secure that Referendum, we will also do our best to negotiate and give Britain a better government.
You say this —but for seven years you were a willing co-conspirator in the Tory governments that slashed funding for vital public services to fund a massive tax-giveaway for the wealthy. With all due respect, your credibility on this issue is naught. The "Coalition of Chaos" was a coalition you supported —until it no longer served your career to do so. The people of Northern Ireland have no reason to trust someone who was willing to pull the rug from under their feet when it came to education, welfare, and the NHS, but balked at the thought of paying an extra duty on their imported cigars.
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