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AT LEAST 60 children are reported to have been killed, and up to 200 more injured, after stampedes in the Côte d’Ivoire during celebrations to mark the New Year.
The country’s official news agency AIP said the casualties were aged between 8 and 15, according to CNN.
It said the stampede had occurred at about 1am, near a stadium in the Plateau area of Abidjan, and said the children were mostly locals.
AIP’s reports said fire service rescuers had arrived at the scene two hours later, but could not save the victims, AIP said.
Abidjan is the country’s largest city and its former capital, with a population of over 5 million.
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What was it Priti Patel suggested….?
@EDun: Comment of the Month! The reality of Brexit is going to strike hard for many, both in the pocket and the sense of importance of a once great global power. Reality is biting.
@EDun: I’ve my shoe box ready to send her something for Christmas.
It will only dawn on all those that voted leave what they actually voted for when they see the price of apples.
They’ll be crying to get back in when apples, bananas and oranges disappear off the shelf.
If only someone had educated them on what exactly being in Europe meant.
@2thFairy: If you take a look at the Have Your Say on the BBC website today you will not be at all shocked to discover just how many British people simply don’t understand how many of their Trade Agreements are through Europe.
In the case of a Hard Brexit they are looking at an average of ~22% on all Foodstuffs imported under default WTO rules. Worse yet, if they choose to waive import tariffs they must do it on all foodstuffs which will gut their uncompetitive (globally speaking) and EU subsidised food farmers. Honestly, the loss of subsidies alone will be crippling for Veg and Meat farmers who rely on them.
They don’t get it though and they won’t believe it when they are told this is simply how it works. They are in for one helluva land if they persist in this. I’m not sure how badly it will affect Irish Farmers since we move product through ports on their Western Seaboard, which should be less affected than those serving mainland Europe. Doubt it will be pretty all the same.
@2thFairy: do they not have apples and oranges outside of the EU?
@Toby Fish: they totally do but they are imported through EU trade directives lodged in the WTO.
@Toby Fish: As Edmund said, these are currently imported under EU wide agreements. They can import them under default WTO tariff rates which will make them very expensive. The problem here is that under WTO you can’t just waive import duty on desirable items (ie. oranges, bananas etc); you have to waive duty of all food items including those you produce at home (ie lamb, potatoes, etc) which will gut your own farming industry.
Let’s take the example of Lambs because it’s come up a few times in this debate over the last few days/weeks. At present New Zealand has a quota of (I believe) 100,000T of lamb per year that they can export to the EU. This is a protectionist measure to protect EU Lamb Farmers who aren’t as competitive as New Zealand Lamb Farmers, even when their product is shipped fully half way across the world.
To make matters worse English Lamb Farmers also receive cash money from the EU in the form of CAP subsidies. This will stop, making them even less competitive than they are now. How are these people going to survive their product being twice as expensive as the imported product which offers very similar quality?
The short answer is that they are not. The sums don’t come even close to adding up. And this scenario is repeated across almost all of the British Agricultural Industry. They can’t produce enough and what they do produce is only cost effective when protected by EU tariffs and quotas.
This is exactly the sort of scenario that the transition period was envisioned to protect against, giving Britain time to sort out both its trading relationship with the EU *and* the outside world. Under a Hard Brexit there is no time to get this done. In April people start paying more and they only way to reduce the price within the space of a few years will tear the guts out of your domestic farming industry.
@2thFairy: many did try to tell them what it meant to be part of the EU. They chose not to believe as it was easier for them to play the xenophobic card.
It will fine they said, nothing to worry about they said, everyone will be better off they said, it will be easiest trade deal in history they said !!
What will they ever do without their vegetables!!! Ohh yeah, that’s their House of Parliament.
The Brexiteers will now be able to weigh their produce in pounds and ounces, and fill their cars with gallons of petrol. That’s if there’s anything in the shops to weigh and as long as Scottish oil keeps flowing south
And still the brexiteers will deny as they know better than all business leaders.
Cake for everyone it is so!
Foods with loads of fiber in it might be helpful.
The major of British people will be sh#££ing themselves as the dead line for brexit approaches.
@BaaB: As they should.
They are going to be seriously negatively impacted if they leave with no deal in place.
We are going to be seriously negatively impacted too.
@Bob Earner: We are seriously going to get caught up in this mess. France are saying they won’t be able to segregate UK and IRL trucks so our EU trucks will be caught in grid lock. All our focus is on the border, which is fair, but other areas we are also going to be very badly impacted. Plus we will get a real gauge of how much the EU gives a toss about us.
@Dave.: the French have said the exact opposite
@Mike Kelly: Quick Google and you are correct, but the most recent news piece I found was Nov, but I am pretty sure I found one recently that say, they where in fact not ready at present. I will try find it.
KFC couldn’t even keep their supply chain open without Brexit.
A small and foolish part of me wants to laugh at their self imposed hunger from high atop mount potato but half of them never voted for hunger and high prices but will suffer from it. While the other half will either continue to dine on pheasant or eat the grass on the road verges and call it best of British forage.
@Edmund Murphy: And we’re getting shafted too!! Don’t think we’re not going to be caught up in this. ESPECIALLY if there are issues with goods coming into Ireland and then potentially going to the UK via the NI Border. This is a total sh!7sh0w
@Tricia G: and the more you dig the worse it is. Our biggest issue is that so much of our continental trade goes through the UK. We bought a huge container ship to help with the problem but nothing will stop all the pain. Our beef and dairy farmers are incredibly exposed and out smaller food processors.
@Edmund Murphy: ‘mount potato’. Nuff said!
@Cormac Ó Braonáin: I was thinking a mountain of spuds cos off all the food we will have that they won’t.
I’m not getting this sense of doom we can see from the UK twitter, UK forums etc.
They put it all down to project fear – I’m not sure what, if anything, would convince the general people nodeal is a bad idea.
What’s Farage and Boris solution here?
They are like rats leaving a sinking ship.
@Jim Buckley Barrett: Farage will either emigrate over here or to the U.S he won’t hang around the British wasteland post Brexit as he’ll be lynched
@In my opinion: he should be knighted in my opinion
@Toby Fish: someone should get to swing a sword near his head anyway.
If it wasn’t for the possibility of a hard border I would be happy at this stage for it to be a no deal Brexit. Dún an doras on the way out!
Bet ya none a dem Supermarket boyos has Dads that fought on D Day.
@Insider at RTE:
Maybe the Lidl guy did!
That surprising. Trucks from Ireland should be transiting UK under TIR 1975 Convention ie customs sealed and not opened from loading up in Ireland until they arrive at their continental destination. Unless there is some suspicion by UK customs that there is something irregular going on. I’ve even seen a suggestion that Irl TIR trucks would get loading priority onto Ferries since they won’t pitentially delay the departures – that’s just hearsay, though.
@Pat O’Leary: before our open borders, the express bus to Donegal had its boot sealed at the Cavan/Fermanagh border customs post. Passengers boarding in Enniskillen (the only NI stop back then) had to take their luggage inside the bus. The boot remained sealed until customs at Belleek, on the Donegal/Fermanagh border, halted the bus to check the luggage of Enniskillen passengers and unseal the boot. In the days when trains from ROI passed through NI to Donegal, passenger carriages were also sealed by customs. So it won’t be hard to seal and unseal lorry loads of inanimate goods. Our customs have done it before.
But you know they are the fifth largest economy in the world!!!!!! Or so the Brexiteers keep saying. Yes and 45% of that economy is with the rest of the EU.
It will be nice for us Irish to watch a British famine for a change
Why did u vote YES to leave then
have your say