What’s driving this thing?
It seems like a less than desirable result, to leave the EU.
Reactionary Little Englander bollocks mostly.
If Britain exits the EU, can I swap my British passport for an EU one?
Also, not sure that having Gove, Fromage, Grayling and Boris Johnson campaigning for Out is going to be a vote winner. Here’s hoping this tears the Conservative party apart.
Oh, it’s a conservative thing. They must smell money, that’s why there’s even a vote on this idea.
Whats that line? The UK is down to mining people at this point?
More of that, I suppose.
The British can leave the EU, but the Scottish can’t leave the British?
I’d love to get some insight into this by people in Europe or Britain. It sounds like doom and gloom, but would like some context from the average joe.
Thanks for giving space to this on bb, important
But let’s not overstate England’s importance.
It’s far more likely that Brexit will have very serious internal consequences for the UK than for the EU. Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland (the bit that, idiosyncratically, is not part of staunch EU member Ireland) are not likely to take Brexit lying down, and there will be hell to pay for Brexit. It will be interesting to watch home-grown English Colonialism unravel.
On the other hand the UK has been a side show in the EU for a long time, anyone who has access to the non-English European (i.e. anyone who can read languages other than English) press, can attest, that at best, the European Press is bored by the song and dance the UK is making about its special status.
The EU will just get on dealing with small issues like a Refugee Crises and a major war at spitting distance, while England can, at last, out itself for what it really is: the biggest coin operated money laundry in the Western World euphemistically named an industry.
As a German citizen living in London (along with another 1 Million EU citizens) the insanity of the UK debate is of personal concern, but given a Brexit, I know where my allegiances will be.
For the moment I am enjoying the cannibalistic spectacle of the Tory Party eating itself alive and am rather hopeful that Boris Johnson has just made the biggest mistake of his life and will spectacularly fall on his face–landing in his own indescribable venomous spew, and that, his slightly more levelheaded London mates will drop him like a hot potato.
In case I am wrong, could you, on the other side of the Atlantic, make sure (any means possible), that Trump disappears into oblivion and we can take refuge in the US from this British insanity.
It will hopefully fuck the Tories right over, as plenty of their safe-seat rural constituents love them some EU agricultural subsidies as Cameron knows all too well. And Boris wants to be PM, which is alarming, as he’s weirdly popular to some people. Sadly, it’s helping ukip out, as they were pretty much bankrupt after the election, and now they’re back in the news.
To be fair, look at all the crap that emanates from the Brussels.
The stream of regulations is growing wide
The end of this trend, it is nowhere in sight
For everything you need a permit or three
And submit a request, and cough up a fee
The paperwork torrent, it would make you puke
We’re tempted to blast there a tactical nuke
Unlike the mountains of paper to climb
The fallout radiation decays with time.
Honestly, I think @Alistair_Stray nailed it.
I follow a few people like Dan Hannan and Kate Hoey on Twitter, they don’t like any power being in Brussels and think that the British economy will be better off independently trading with the Commonwealth.
The biggest issue that the Little Englander’s have with all that is that they aren’t the ones behind it all.
Correction: The biggest issue that the Little Englanders have is that they like to keep pretending that they are Big Englander, and no one has had the heart to tell them, that it ain’t necessarily so.
Edit: note to spellchecker it’s really no one, get used to it.
Except of course the Scottish & that won’t be pretty.
The suggestion is that a mangled, decrepit post-Brexit EU would remove all the assumed long-term benefits of independence for Scotland, and tie the Irish Republic to the UK in ways that aren’t particularly appetizing to the Irish.
Well, all British people are currently citizens of the European Union. I am not about to give that up willingly so I am looking at what options would be open to me to keep it should Britain leave.
In comparison with various other EU crises: Euro Crises, Refugee Crises … Ukraine Crises, which are going on in Europe, Brexit is a blink in history.
Pounds Sterling heading South? ISTR that when a whole bunch of 'em headed South a few years to buy Spanish property they died like the Donner party. Because during the property bubble, London was to Spain as New York was to Florida.
I don’t see any particular concerns with the UK leaving the EU for Ireland. It will be awkward but Britain will not leave the EEC free trade zone. They’ll just get rid of all that onerous social stuff. The neoliberal bureaucracy will remain in place. The border between Ireland and Northern Ireland will not be remilitarised. The dismantled army stations will not be put back in place. Ending free movement, which is actually independent of the EU, is politically impossible among all communities and parties on the island of Ireland.
The Irish Times article is, to put it mildly, scaremongering.
The UK leaving the EU does put some centrifugal force on the UK, but I don’t think it’s that significant. For example a few extra powers may need to be devolved to Stormont to allow the NI Assembly to make separate arrangements for trade and travel with regard to Ireland. This would not be significant for, say Wales or Scotland, as they wouldn’t share an island with a country in the EU.
