• BWFC - Wednesday, January 4, 2017 8:05 AM

    Beatrix Kiddo (1/4/2017)


    Geoff.Sturdy (12/29/2016)


    we in the UK voted to remove our country from the EU - pretty much for the same reasons that the founding fathers rebelled against Imperial rule from London - the ability to determine our own place in the world .Also , like the US election , we were tired of the "great and the good" telling us what was good for us when our own experiences told us otherwise. This was a collective revolt of the forgotton people on both sides of the Atlantic.

    You absolutely do not speak for all of us in this regard.

    + 1I'm as patriotic as the next person but I happen to believe the best interests of the UK are served by remaining in the EU. We have our own place in the world, a place which is actually bolstered by being part of the globe's biggest trading bloc. My own experiences have told me that being part of the EU is a good thing. I've travelled and worked all over the continent because of the EU. I've studied with, worked with and made friends with people from many countries who were welcomed here as part of EU schemes. I've had the opportunity to take part in those schemes myself. I benefit from employment and environmental protections that have been 'imposed' by the EU. It certainly has its drawbacks but, as a country, I would much rather be in a position to change a flawed system from within than trying to make the best of a very bad job on the outside. Don't get me wrong, if the decision had been whether to join or not in the first place I'm pretty sure my answer would be no. However, there is a world of difference between a messy acrimonious divorce and deciding not to get married at all.

    I sort of agree with Beatrix and BWFC.   And definitely not with Mr sturdy.   I'm somewhat dismayed that my fellow Brits voted the way they did for primarily racist reasons - for some reason they believed the people who told them Brexit would reduce immigration of Muslims, Arabs, Indians etcetera as well as of common market nationalities.  I don't think most of them were actually stupid enough to believe in either the money saving the leave campaign promised them or the catastrophic economic effects story the remain campaign gave them.  But they clearly were fooled into believing that leaving the EU meant leaving the council of Europe so that we could take up a position of human rights that even Russia hasn't adopted, and that a majority apparently thought that would be a good thing is pretty awful too, the good news is that they probably won't get what they were promised on that issue.
    It's a (small) consolation that my fellow-Scots voted strongly against Brexit, as did the Northern Irish.  The attitude of the current goernment to those nations is going to make for a big crisis sooner or later - particularly in Northern Ireland where the current peace agreement depends on things which the UK government apparently intends to do away with as part of its Brexit process.  Scotland probably wants out of the Union now because the politicins lied at the last referendum, pesuading the Scots to vote to retain the Union because it was their only chance of remaining in the EU, making it clear that they, the remainder of the UK, would excercise itheir right to veto a new EU member if a separated Scotland tried to join.  well, at some point in 2019 they will have giev up that right, let's see what happens then.

    End of the Union before the end of 2019 seems possible - maybe leaving "The United Kingdom of England and Wales".

    Tom