Europe – mackaycartoons

Friday November 16, 2018

November 23, 2018 by Graeme MacKay

November 16, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday November 16, 2018

The Brutal Reality Of Brexit

June 25, 2016

Theresa May’s chickens are coming home to roost. The deal she agreed with Brussels is unravelling fast, and her premiership along with it. So far, seven of her ministers have resigned. Letters calling for her replacement are pouring in to the powerful chairman of the Conservative Party’s 1922 Committee: once he receives 48 letters, there could be a vote of confidence in her leadership, and perhaps a leadership challenge. Other Tories are calling for a second referendum. Meanwhile, the Labour party is slavering at the possibility of an early General Election. The political crisis that has been simmering since 2016 has erupted with a vengeance.

The political fallout from Mrs. May’s latest attempt to square the Brexit circle is understandable. Her Brexit deal is horrible. It would lock the UK into a “frozen Brexit”, neither in the EU nor completely out of it. The U.K. would be forced to accept EU decisions over which it would have no say, and continuing to contribute to the EU budget despite no longer being a member. It would also be unable to enact its own trade deals with the rest of the world until the freeze ended. And it would be unable to end the freeze unilaterally.

June 22, 2016

The idea is that this “frozen Brexit” would initially be only for a transitional period ending in December 2020, when it would be superseded by a free trade agreement. But the proposal allows this date to be extended, if necessary for decades, if no free trade agreement is negotiated. And if the transition ends without a free trade agreement, then the entire U.K. would remain in a customs union with the EU indefinitely, but Northern Ireland would have a closer relationship with the EU than the rest of the U.K.

For Brexiters and Remainers alike, this is the worst of all possible solutions. But horrible though it is, this deal satisfies the conditions set by Mrs. May in her Lancaster House speech. It also satisfies the EU’s conditions. No other proposal achieves this. It is, therefore, the best deal available. The U.K. Government has struck a deal that allows Britain to have its cake and eat it – but the cake tastes so disgusting that no-one wants to eat it. (Source: Forbes)

Friday May 11, 2018

May 10, 2018 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday May 11, 2018

The world is nervously watching as the gloves come off between Iran and Israel

Israel says that it’s done with strikes on Iran — for now. France fears an escalation. Iran has its finger on the trigger. But, really, it’s Russian President Vladimir Putin who sits in the hot seat.

July 15, 2015

Where once the US would have been the brake on spikes in Syrian violence, there is a real possibility President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal is greasing the wheels towards a wider regional war.

In recent months, the world’s top diplomat, UN Secretary-General António Guterres, has warned that Israeli and Iranian tit-for-tat strikes in Syria could quickly boil over to a regional conflagration.

Overnight, rockets fired by Iranian forces from inside Syria toward Israel triggered a forewarned robust response from Israel’s military — targeting Iranian military assets in Syria.

Since early February, when Israel says it shot down an Iranian drone laden with explosives that was launched from Syria, the Israeli Defense Forces have increased retaliatory strikes in Syria at Iranian targets.

Some of those strikes are reported to have killed several Iranian fighters. Yet until this point there had been no Iranian retaliation.

The sudden surge in the exchange of rockets Wednesday night — on the heels of Trump’s exit from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — hints that Iran has suspended its strategic restraint.

If so, the likelihood that the Iranian-Israeli confrontation will escalate increases. (Source: CNN)

SaveSave

Thursday March 30, 2017

March 29, 2017 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday March 30, 2017

Scotland to press on with referendum

Nicola Sturgeon has pledged to press on with a fresh independence referendum after dismissing Theresa May’s promise of substantial new powers for Scotland Brexit.

June 25, 2016

The first minister said May’s decision to trigger article 50 on Wednesday, beginning the UK’s divorce from the EU, was one of the most destructive acts by a British leader in modern history, threatening hundreds of thousands of jobs across the UK.

Writing for the Guardian, Sturgeon said the decision was dispiriting, economically foolhardy and constitutionally reckless, threatening stability in Northern Ireland. It also undermined European efforts to combat climate change and collective security, she said.

“Brexit – especially the hard Brexit shaped by May’s inability to shake off the agenda of the Ukip-tinged right wing of her own party – threatens to be an act of self-harm on a scale barely understood,” she said.

She accused May of paying only superficial attention to the Scottish government’s demands for a special deal on the single market, opening up further conflicts with the UK government over the benefits Scotland could gain from Brexit.

“The result is that we must now ensure that people in Scotland are given a choice between the hard Brexit deal now being negotiated, and independence,” she said.

Just as the prime minister told MPs at Westminster she had formally triggered article 50, Sturgeon had received a letter from David Davis, the UK Brexit secretary, insisting his government was engaging seriously with Sturgeon’s proposals.

Neither government would release Davis’s letter but it is understood that he told Sturgeon he was disappointed that she had launched her claim for an independence referendum before she saw the full extent of the new powers on offer once EU laws and regulations were repatriated. (Source: The Guardian)

Wednesday February 22, 2017

February 21, 2017 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday February 22, 2017

Trudeau says Canada one of NATO’s ‘strongest actors’ without committing more money

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke about Canada’s diverse contributions to the NATO partnership without committing to up its defence spending when he addressed a news conference in Berlin.

Trudeau and Angela Merkel addressed reporters Friday following their morning meeting and an impromptu dinner Thursday at the German chancellor’s invitation.

Trump has called the 28-country alliance obsolete and U.S. Defence Secretary James Mattis told his fellow defence ministers in Brussels this week that while the United States still holds NATO in high regard, it expects its allies to start spending more on defence or the Trump administration will “moderate its commitment.”

Germany has signalled it will heed the warning and make attempts to boost defence spending, which Merkel brought up when asked about it on Friday.

But in Ottawa, there’s little indication that any increase in NATO-specific defence spending is on the horizon.

‘Germany and Canada have always been among the strongest actors in NATO.’- Justin Trudeau

Canada currently spends 0.99 per cent of gross domestic product on defence. That’s below the NATO target of two per cent of GDP, which only a handful of alliance countries have met.

On Friday, Trudeau said that two per cent target is one all NATO countries agreed to, but there are many ways of looking at a country’s contributions to the alliance.

“When you look at the countries that regularly step up — delivering troops, participating in missions, being there to do the heavy lifting in the alliance — Germany and Canada have always been amongst the strongest actors in NATO,” he said.

He made the case that Canada is leading the battle group in Latvia, and working to procure more aircraft and ships for its military as two examples.(Source: CBC News)

Wednesday October 26, 2016

October 25, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday October 26, 2016

The collapse of the EU/Canada landmark deal shows how the EU sets itself up for failure

The European Union is on the brink of witnessing a landmark free-trade deal crumble before its very eyes.

But the structure of the EU effectively allows the likelihood of these kinds of deals to collapse at the very last minute, said a trade expert to Business Insider.

October 20, 2016

CETA, a proposed free-trade arrangement between the 28-nation bloc and Canada, looks set to collapse after the Belgian region of Wallonia refused to support the deal on Monday.

The deal has taken over seven years to negotiate, with talks between the EU and Canada beginning in 2009.

Failure to push it through would be a serious blow to the Union, as it would cast serious doubt on its ability to strike any future trade deal, including with post-Brexit Britain.

Donald Tusk, the European Council president, hinted that failure to complete CETA would make striking a similar deal with Britain once it withdraws from the bloc almost impossible.

“If you are not able to convince people that trade agreements are in their interests … we will have no chance to build public support for free trade, and I am afraid that means that CETA could be our last free-trade agreement,” he said. (Source: Business Insider UK)