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Britain is now a second tier country...

P

PeteEU

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resizer


Notice anything? May is all the way to the left, next to the Saudi representative.

Now is that significant? Well, been looking at previous G20 official pictures and it is some what.

The host defines who is where. It is usually based on trade, military and political power in the region that the summit is held and wishes of the host nation (and who pissed them off lately). The US is almost always front and centre of course. Now countries like the UK and Germany and France have been relegated to the 2nd row before, but it is almost always just behind the hosts and US. It is the first time I have seen a so called major nation being relegated to the side, out of the way.. although Cameron was close in 2011 in France when he was on the second row 3rd furthest to the right. But if I remember right in 2011 there was a big bust up about the banks in the EU, so that might have been the reason.

It is all speculation of course, but it is a very interesting picture considering what has happened.
 
First they make you stand next to the Saudi guy and next thing you know you're not invited to Merkel's birthday party.
 
I like you Pete, I really do, but you may be grasping at straws here. Don't get me wrong, there could be some validity to your speculation, but that kind of whimsical thinking is employed so extensively and absurdly by wing nuts that an association solidified in my mind.
 
Gaztopian said:
I like you Pete, I really do, but you may be grasping at straws here. Don't get me wrong, there could be some validity to your speculation, but that kind of whimsical thinking is employed so extensively and absurdly by wing nuts that an association solidified in my mind.
Click to expand...

Actually been thinking a lot about it and I think I know why she is out there...

Hinkley Point.. a multi billion dollar nuclear plant deal with the EDF (French) and Chinese backers. The Chinese are not happy that May has delayed the start and might even dump the who project because of "security concerns"....

That might be the likely reason she is out there.
 
PeteEU said:
resizer


Notice anything? May is all the way to the left, next to the Saudi representative.

Now is that significant? Well, been looking at previous G20 official pictures and it is some what.

The host defines who is where. It is usually based on trade, military and political power in the region that the summit is held and wishes of the host nation (and who pissed them off lately). The US is almost always front and centre of course. Now countries like the UK and Germany and France have been relegated to the 2nd row before, but it is almost always just behind the hosts and US. It is the first time I have seen a so called major nation being relegated to the side, out of the way.. although Cameron was close in 2011 in France when he was on the second row 3rd furthest to the right. But if I remember right in 2011 there was a big bust up about the banks in the EU, so that might have been the reason.

It is all speculation of course, but it is a very interesting picture considering what has happened.
Click to expand...

I think you might be over interpreting the picture, but there can certainly be something in such trivia, that tells an interesting story. Take the Presidents of the EU that were in the first line albeit to the far right and balanced by two Black Leaders on the far right in Antalya last year, who have been relegated to the second row this time around G20 Leaders' Communiqué agreed in Antalya , if my eyes can make the picture out correctly. So by your reading, the EU has fallen in standing and has about the same standing as the UK.

It is all speculation of course, but it is a very interesting picture considering what has happened. ;)
 
Apocalypse said:
First they make you stand next to the Saudi guy and next thing you know you're not invited to Merkel's birthday party.
Click to expand...

It is a nasty world out there!
 
Britain should sit in the back of the bus.
 
Well, one place you won't see the UK...at least not right now...is next to Obama. They'll have to wait and see who is elected to find out where they'll be standing at the next G20.
 
joG said:
I think you might be over interpreting the picture, but there can certainly be something in such trivia, that tells an interesting story. Take the Presidents of the EU that were in the first line albeit to the far right and balanced by two Black Leaders on the far right in Antalya last year, who have been relegated to the second row this time around G20 Leaders' Communiqué agreed in Antalya , if my eyes can make the picture out correctly. So by your reading, the EU has fallen in standing and has about the same standing as the UK.

It is all speculation of course, but it is a very interesting picture considering what has happened. ;)
Click to expand...

Naw, "president of the EU" means absolutely nothing. It is about as an important job as the office manager at your regional horse manure shop. Not even sure why he is there to be honest, as the EU is represented by several countries.
 
PeteEU said:
Naw, "president of the EU" means absolutely nothing. It is about as an important job as the office manager at your regional horse manure shop. Not even sure why he is there to be honest, as the EU is represented by several countries.
Click to expand...
He is there, because he is the symbol of Ever Closer Union to which the EU Constitution -which may not be called such- "RESOLVED to continue the process of creating an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe...."
They are the guarantors of all the deepening and evermore closeness of so many good things like EU defense policy and trade and free movement of people on the continent. Those Presidents (where BTW is the third one? I didn't see him on the picture) are you men at the conference. I find it cute that the new tack is to chat up subsidiarity and national independence. But had the EU done that these years, the turmoil would not be what it is and Brexit would never have happened.
.
 
joG said:
He is there, because he is the symbol of Ever Closer Union to which the EU Constitution -which may not be called such- "RESOLVED to continue the process of creating an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe...."
They are the guarantors of all the deepening and evermore closeness of so many good things like EU defense policy and trade and free movement of people on the continent. Those Presidents (where BTW is the third one? I didn't see him on the picture) are you men at the conference. I find it cute that the new tack is to chat up subsidiarity and national independence. But had the EU done that these years, the turmoil would not be what it is and Brexit would never have happened.
Click to expand...


You do know that there are 2 EU representatives there right? They are there, because the EU is the biggest and most powerful economic block/organisation on the planet.
 
PeteEU said:
You do know that there are 2 EU representatives there right? They are there, because the EU is the biggest and most powerful economic block/organisation on the planet.
Click to expand...

The EU are a bunch of weaklings. They cower against the Russians, bail out the Greeks and do whatever the US tells them to.
 
PeteEU said:
You do know that there are 2 EU representatives there right? They are there, because the EU is the biggest and most powerful economic block/organisation on the planet.
Click to expand...

I was only wondering where the third man was. I understand how great the EU is.
 
PeteEU said:
They are there, because the EU is the biggest and most powerful economic block/organisation on the planet.
Click to expand...
Of course not.

Sure, if you sum their individual economies, they total more than China and the USA But you cannot call an economic power a loose cohort of countries that cannot even agree on a common trade, industrial or diplomatic policies, and have a destructive monetary policy that jeopardize the whole world because the healthiest European countries do not want to endorse the others' debts. Besides the EU's total will fall back behind the USA after the UK leaves, and behind China before ten years, and India after that.

And the landscape is even worse on other points: no military power (France, Britain and Greece each have deteriorating armies without synergies, Germany and a few others barely pretend to have national defense forces, others are just crossing their fingers hoping nothing bad happen), we expose a disunited, conflicting and undecipherable diplomatic mess, we are rivals easy to mount against each other (when the EU tried to save the German solar industry against Chinese protectionism, they just had to target French products), less and less global enterprises and very few startups in comparison to China or USA (UK is the only exception), etc.

We are not a tiger, we are a cub, and a sick one after that.
 
PeteEU said:
Actually been thinking a lot about it and I think I know why she is out there...

Hinkley Point.. a multi billion dollar nuclear plant deal with the EDF (French) and Chinese backers. The Chinese are not happy that May has delayed the start and might even dump the who project because of "security concerns"....

That might be the likely reason she is out there.
Click to expand...

Course it is, China is desperate for the kudos of designing and building the third stage of the nuclear power stations for the UK as this is a huge marketing tool for her to sell more stations to other countries.
 
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