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US PRESIDENT BARACK Obama’s trip to the UK was only for two days, but he’s certainly packed a lot into it.
On the political side, his biggest contribution was his withering put-down to referendum Leave campaigners, saying that the UK would go to “the back of the queue” for a post-Brexit trade deal.
Today he’s also met with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, a strident critic of US foreign policy, congratulating him in person on his election as leader.
But given that this European trek is in many ways Obama’s farewell tour, he’s also managed to get in some quality photo ops with the royals.
Yesterday, himself and his wife Michelle met with Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip while last night he got the most exclusive of audiences, with the third-in-line to the throne, young Prince George.
This morning, Obama spoke at a town hall-style meeting at Royal Horticultural Hall in London where he mentioned his time with the royals.
“Nothing was going to stop me from wishing happy birthday to her majesty and meeting George, who was adorable,” he said.
During the course of the meeting Obama was asked by a young woman from Northern Ireland about the continued role of the United States in the peace process.
He said Northern Ireland’s story was inspiring people to resolve conflicts elsewhere in the world.
“So in Colombia and Latin America right now they’re trying to undergo a peace process and they’ve actually brought people from Northern Ireland to come and describe how you overcome years of enmity and hatred and intolerance,” he said.
During the meeting, a young political graduate Maria Munir came out to Obama as being of non-binary gender, encouraging the president to work towards transgender rights.
https://www.facebook.com/Channel4News/videos/10153701749316939/
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If I hear anyone else say “life style choice” in relation to social welfare, I swear to God I wont be responsible!!!
The other thing that I m tired of hearing is “we need to reduce social welfare to motivate people to go back to work” Our TDs receive over €2500 pay per week, plus expenses, free transport etc and they are spending their time on how to cut child welfare by €10 and the dole by €8. Those who profit most from Irelands wealth are mostly tax exiles and pay nothing at all …is something wrong here?? Should we not be “motivating” those who earn €1 million plus to be paying their fair share?
I “live” on Social Welfare. Yes you could say it is a “lifestyle choice”. I have cardiac artery disease, diabetes and arthritis, and am on Disability Allowance. I get the same amount to exist on as someone trying to find a job. It is not a lot. In fact it is not enough. Do our T.D.s know or care? I think not. Would they do anything if they did know?
NO! Because they are not concerned about how ordinary people get by.
Oh Sugar !!
this country has thee most disconected politicians in relation to real life and how we cope and live with the decisions they make.
living on social welfare is a great lifestyle choice, i do it all the time :-P
It is an absolute disgrace what happened to Fr Kevin Reynolds and I am happy for him that his name was cleared. Why the hell won’t Dev jnr respect this mans wishes and those of Fr. Reynolds legal team?
Before cutting social welfare for single mothers, can we please first have a National plan to provide community childcare to every family? Community Childcare workers do a great job but when they have to be closed during school holidays, what’s the point?
Believe it or not, not every child in this country has a granny who can take over during school holidays.
Am I the only person who thinks the defamation by autocomplete thing is stupid? It would be like punishing a news reporter for reporting the news. It happened and people were looking up the recievership online to find out information about it so google took a popular term being used and suggested it as a search item. Google simpley did what it’s supposed to do, help people find information online in a quick manner by streamlining what is relevent to what people wanted at that time.
If the term “receivership” is now considered pejorative then google in Ireland had better beware, as the number of businesses in that situation is more likely to grow than shrink.
have your say