Doesn't look quite like 50% on the map and our biggest trading partners are not included or are in the pending category for maybe sometime in the future, which is why they are all now queuing up to do deals with us, we only need to do 2 deals to cover 2/3rds of our trade:
Queuing? Who is queuing up? Nobody as nobody knows what we are doing! USA, China, India have all said...back of the line...so who is queuing?
Also how long is it going to take us to agree all these agreements considering most take at least 3-5 years and we don't have enough negotiators to negotiate a contract concurrently with every single country. Again a simplistic argument based on nothing.
one of my biggest gripe about the EU and why I’m not keen on it is how its run by people who very few people know who they are and didn’t place them there or neither can get rid of them once there,
I completely understand that...tell me who in the House of Lords do you know? Also this argument doesn't hold up to scrutiny and here's why:
- You vote in MEP elections - yes you vote your MEP....it's not their fault it has low turn out...you can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink. So you are represented.
- The commission - this is the body often referred to when people say 'unelected eurocrats'. The commission is essentially a cabinet in the UK which is not elected. Yes it often holds elected MPs but not always (Director General etc is usually not elected but governs our entire law in the UK). The UK has one representative and the Head of the Commission gets to choose where that representative goes. Remember the Commission can only START the process of law it cannot vote or decide.
- Also remember the Heads of Council which is a head of each member state where they meet up and discuss everything...so that head of member state is elected as there are currently no dictatorships in the EU (though Hungary and Poland are heading that way you could argue).
a few weeks back before the referendum a UK government cabinet minister (I now forget her name) on one of our political TV show was shown 7 photos of 7 presidents of the EU who earn as much as if not more than the president of the USA,
she was asked to name them, she couldn’t even name one, now I could understand the general public/man woman in the street not knowing who they are, in fact I didn’t even know the EU has 7 presidents
but this cabinet minister was a pro remain EU minister that she was involved working with the EU in Brussels
Not the best I'll admit, I studied the EU at university and I could probably name about 4-6 of them, but the argument is anecdotal. It's like saying this:
Interviewer: Are you against racism?
Person: Of course I am - racism is horrendous and I do not support it!
Interviewer: Well can you tell me the leading civil rights leaders and activitists in this country over the past 40 years?
Person: Say what?!
Interviewer: Well you clearly don't know anything
It doesn't hold up. Also 7 presidents? Presidents of what? Commission? Council? Parliament? Or Council of the EU? Commissions term is 5 years each with a maximum of 2 years. There hasn't been 7 commission presidents. The Council well that presidency rotates every 6 months...so imagine having a new prime minister every 6 months and keeping up with it? Parliaments term length if I remember is like 2.5years and can be renewed once or twice. So there are a lot of Presidents.
In 2005, referendum held in France and the Netherlands rejected the European Constitution.
we here in the UK were meant to have a referendum on it too, but once the French and the Netherlands vetoed it we didn’t get a say and next thing we knew was a name change for the treaty and our government told us the Treaty of Lisbon didn’t need a referendum as noting had changed and got it through by the back door,
they sneaked in the The Treaty of Lisbon, which in all intense bar name change was the same constitution/treaty that was rejected in France and the Netherlands
Where did you get that information from? As that's so widely inaccurate I'm not sure where to start.
People of Europe are starting to despise the EU (not governments) I come from the south of Italy, unemployment amongst friends and relatives is high and many of the people I’ve talked to over the phone since Brexit, would love to have a referendum there in Italy too
The EU has little to do with employment. In deprived places (Wales/Cornwall etc) they gave a ton of funding to actually help regenerate the areas and keep them going, but that funding has gone.
can’t say I’m a keen supporter of Farage, sometimes he makes some sense and the rest of the time he talks a lot of sh*t, one thing I think he is right is the UK won’t be the last to leave the EU, if people are given a referendum that is, which the EU is going to make sure this isn’t given
I think it will be the last to leave...no country will call a referendum before they see what is happening to the UK and I think what will happen to the UK will send a message. Leave and you're out. Why would any country currently vote to leave when they can look at what is happening here and see already the horrendous short term effects let alone the more devastating long term ones?
The EU isn’t all bad, and as
@Nigel says, when all the 12 EU member countries were on the same living standards, movement of people wasn’t an issue, but with our social care system and free health care at point of service to all who come here, the UK is a very attractive place,
Again this is a simplistic argument. Everyone has to be equal in order for it to be fair. So Nigel wants to have a Free Trade AGreement with China...how is that fair? Low living costs, lower standards, cheaper labour, less tax...compared to us here in the UK? What's fair?
What about the 5+million Brits living abroad? Oh wait, they're not from 'poorer' countries so they're fine...never mind all those retirees who go to Spain or anything.
went to make a doctors appointment last winter and was told would a phone back from the doctor be OK as the next appointment I could get was in 13 days time, thats after paying my taxes for over 40 years, as things are I can bring over from Italy and look after my auntie, and then call upon the adult social care to take her off my hands as I can’t cope, and the tax payer will foot the bill of placing her in a care home costing the tax payer around £1,100.00 per WEEK, thats right eleven hundred pounds per week, don’t need many to find Briton needs higher taxes pay for the NHS
You're confusing two issues. If the Conservative government had not slashed spending, cut services, and driven demand, you would not have this issue. This is nothing to do with the EU, this is to do with Neo-liberal competition policies...it's a race to the bottom and we're reaching it quickly, and people like the Daily Facist and the Daily Torygraph are only too pleased to blame immigrants (yourself) when in fact it was the policies of Thatcher and then Cameron who started this race to the bottom....slash spending...slash services...privatise everything. Nothing to do with the EU as any economist or EU law professor will tell you.
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what the Germany says is what goes on in the EU, if something fits in with them then the rest of us in one way or another get it too
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To a tiny degree yes and really in one area - Greece. This is where I really do hate the EU but apart from that Germany only has the same say as everyone else.
the pound is down (looked this morning) to £1 = € 1.16, that is bad, but I remember driving to Italy in 2014 and the rate in the summer of 2014 was £1 = €1.12
It's going to get a lot worse. I'd get your money now.
we (Briton) should of got a referendum in 2005, now our government/country and people are paying the price for the errors on 2005
I understand people's concerns on migration - I really do, but you're essentially saying people are worth different amounts. Poor countries shouldn't be allowed access and the rich should band together. So you want a two tier system...where have I heard that before?
I am by no means saying the EU is perfect, and in fact if people had put other arguments forward for leaving the EU such as the EU's draconian fiscal policies regarding Greece then yes that's a convincing argument...or how the EU promotes private competitive industries at the cost of essential state industries then yes I'd agree...but sadly the cases put forward were simplistic at best and outright lies at worse and mostly just xenophobic and racist. The negatives are already poking their ugly head and there is only worse to come...sadly we're not even in the eye of the storm yet we're at the beginning.
It's also telling how the two leaders have buggered off.
