Determined not to waste the coronavirus lockdown, @Simon1979 & I decided to listen to & rank all The Fall's studio albums (plus selected live ones & MES side projects) & nominate a stand out track from each one. images.app.goo.gl/QF65Rm4ddXQRqA…
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43 albums. Original track listing. So sadly no place for classic Fall singles like Kicker Conspiracy, Oh Brother, CREEP, Man Whose Head Expanded or, my personal favourite, How I Wrote Elastic Man. 2/ open.spotify.com/track/1IaxpzSy…
The full Fall playlist is here in chronological order and the 43 album ranking begins (in reverse order) with the next tweet. 3/ open.spotify.com/playlist/0KTZL…#NowPlaying
43. The worst Fall album is 1996's The Light User Syndrome. It is crap. But the best song on it is The Chisellers. 4/ open.spotify.com/track/02Bi7Re3…
22. Tromatic Reflexxions (2007). by Von Sudenfed (MES side project).
Flooded.
NOTE: from now on all albums scored 8/10 & above. open.spotify.com/track/7syCI6LH…
What did @duponline leader @J_Donaldson_MP get in his deal with @RishiSunak?
He says substantial change to Irish Sea border, critics say cosmetic change.
What more did he achieve than was already on offer in the Windsor Framework by boycotting Stormont?
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Downing Street says the new deal contains “significant” changes to WF but doesn’t alter “fundamentals”.
EC expects UK to uphold WF & will scrutinise the new agreement to return to Stormont “carefully”.
Here's my attempt to see thru smoke & mirrors.
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Some things stay the same. NI still follow EU rules & be subject to ECJ in some circs. The red lane for British goods travelling onto EU territory remains. There will be border posts.
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.@nickgutteridge & I can reveal a bit more detail on Government's offer to DUP here. Basically - unionists will be able to force an investigation into the Brexit border with a majority vote in Stormont. 1/ telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/…
That will sound familiar. The Government has already promised such a report if the consent vote on Protocol/Windsor Framework didn't get cross community support... (the consent vote must be held by end of this year) 2/
But that offer has now been fleshed out and sharpened up as part of package aimed at convincing DUP to get back to Stormont. 3.
Exc/ UK offers DUP a patriotic rebrand of the Irish Sea border to to back Rishi Sunak’s N.Ireland Brexit deal & get back to Stormont
Proposed renaming the Windsor Framework’s Green Lane - wait for it - the “UK Internal Market Lane” instead. 1/ telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/…
.@Telegraph can reveal details as BBC reports DUP set to hold “deal or no deal meeting” today, which could end nearly 2 years of Stormont boycott. 2/
Offer includes Offer includes 3.3bn pound financial package for NI, some reduction of Green Lane red tape, new East-West council to deepen UK trade ties & UK law to protect NI place in UK internal market. 3/
Looked into some of retained EU law on the UK books after Brexit yesteday after reports of additional 1,400 lawsbeing unearthed
The following is a snapshot of the 2,400 rules transposed when Brexit took legal effect. Gives a sense of the scale of revising/repealing them..
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Pension rules and maternity pay and regulations on explosive atmospheres in the workplace. Rules for children using adult seatbelts and African Horse Sickness.
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Recycling rules for spent batteries. Noise reduction rules for airports and health and safety rules to protect seamen from electromagnetic fields, as well as rules on medicines and for the recovery of the European eel.
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Interesting evidence by Ulster Unionist leader @BeattieDoug to Lords committee on Northern Ireland Protocol.
He says he have visited v many different firms in NI.
“I have gone to many who are absolutely booming because of the protocol. They're absolutely booming.”
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He cites pharma company Almac in UpperBann, an agricultural company and a pet food store which does 60% of trade with Ireland. All are “booming because of the protocol”
BUT...
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"So there are people who are benefiting because of the protocol but there are others who are absolutely on their knees. They're on their knees, as their main market is between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
Their goods and services come from GB, our largest market"
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.@JamesCleverly is asked what progress has been made in protocol talks at European Scrutiny Committee.
He admits talks are at an “impasse”, which he blames on @MarosSefcovic mandate (while praising Sefco as wanting a deal).
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Pressed on progress, Cleverly says got a good resolution on medicines. Says there a lot of live issues which can only be solved once final issues over integrity of Single Market are ironed out.
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Cleverly:
“One of the challenges is that we are now regarding this more about how we protect the Good Friday Agreement rather than a kind of a technical trade problem. And I think that's that's where the gap is between our position.”
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