Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To wish the EU would stop being so arsey with us!

377 replies

GreatAuntPrudish · 04/05/2017 08:26

Juncker is an utter prick - leaking details of the dinner at No.10.
Then there's Barnier, Hollande and other EU officials warning us how ugly it's going to get.

Poland and France wanting to extract every last billion out of us!

They're playing into May's hands - giving her the opportunity to look like the Boudicca of the 21st century when she is actually an utterly useless PM.

I wish they'd show some consideration for the 48%

I'm a Remainer - still want to stay in EU - but it's starting to piss me off so there's little chance the leavers who were starting to wobble will want to stay now.

The Daily Mail are relishing it Angry

OP posts:
scaryteacher · 04/05/2017 15:53

valentine2 I know that, but it's the 'you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave' that keeps echoing in my head.

I don't think we would have done it if another country had decided to go...we would have been interested in how it went for when we wanted to go leave.

I don't the shit has hit the fan at all. They are posturing, we posture back. Telling that it was the EC side that called the PM delusional, and leaked, and that Downing Street was diplomatic and said the talks were constructive.

SylviaPoe · 04/05/2017 15:54

Does this mean we can withdraw from NATO then, as the other European countries don't need us?

makeourfuture · 04/05/2017 15:56

When you leave home for university, or to move to a new city, don't you draw up at least a basic plan? Something? Anything?

"Oh, I have a plan! A great plan! It's a secret plan though...it will be wonderful!"

Krimbler · 04/05/2017 15:58

'Downing Street was diplomatic and said the talks were constructive.'

Such a shame then that yesterday Downing Street diplomacy went down the toilet when May decided to claim that the EU was trying to interfere with the General Election. All she was missing was her tinfoil hat.

Valentine2 · 04/05/2017 15:59

i know that, but it's the 'you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave' that keeps echoing in my head.

There is no parallel there. We are leaving and it will happen.

scaryteacher · 04/05/2017 16:00

Squishy For me, being negative about the EU for years, coalesced into doing more research on it, and noticing that those who challenged it got rolled over. I didn't like the refusal to accept the no votes in Ireland and France, Junckers comments at the time (when he was heading up the Euro group), and Greece was really the icing on the cake, as was Cyprus.

I think the V4 will be watching with interest, as I think eventually Orban may look to take Hungary out; I am not convinced the Poles are any too happy, and the results of the Czech election in October will be interesting if the anti EUers get elected.

NancyWake · 04/05/2017 16:01

I don't blame the EU27 in the slightest. It's nearly a year after the result, they turn up for the start of negotiations probably (reasonably) hoping that the UK will have done at least a bit of its working-out, only to find that we still haven't moved much beyond vague notions of 'taking back control' and 'having cake and eating it'.

Presented with sensible questions and challenges, the UK responds with outright tub-thumping.

The EU27 aren't stupid; it is blatantly obvious that Theresa May doesn't give a flying fuck for Brexit negotiations right now. All her posturing is aimed squarely at the twats who read the Daily Heil and get off on reading about 'sticking it to Europe'.

This is an extremely offensive, cynical way to treat a bloc who have so far been moderate and accommodating about the gigantic mistake the UK have made, and have done their own homework and turned up for talks in good faith that the UK is also taking this shitstorm seriously.

This.

chilipepper20 · 04/05/2017 16:02

What is a vote for Wilders and Le Pen? Pretty obvious I'd have thought, it's a vote for fascism.

because everyone loves fascism! And the polls suggesting the high unfavourable view of the EU in both countries is just coincidence?

Incidentally, the last referendum in the Netherlands on an EU matter (the EU-Ukraine association) went against the EU.

As much as the Mail and the Telegraph would love to believe it is.

I don't read those. Good try though.

But do negative feelings about the EU necessarily translate to wanting to leave? Is it not possible to think the EU has problems, whilst also thinking that leaving the EU would cause far more problems for a country?

Of course it's not the same. It's not at all easy to tell what would happen if there was an in/out referendum in either country. I am not claiming otherwise. What I responded to was the comment that the EU is not unpopular in europe. There is evidence, I'd say ample evidence, that it is unpopular in many countries.

Krimbler · 04/05/2017 16:06

because everyone loves fascism!

I'm sorry are you saying that people who vote for the fascist candidates don't actually support their fascist policies they just want to leave the EU?

SapphireStrange · 04/05/2017 16:07

because everyone loves fascism! And the polls suggesting the high unfavourable view of the EU in both countries is just coincidence?

No, it's not a coincidence.

The fascist parties bang on about immigration/foreigners taking all the jobs etc and promise that they'll get their country out of the big bad EU, which forces immigrants on them; chuck out the foreigners and take back 'French jobs for French people' blah blah.

The idiots who read the equivalent of the Daily Fail love this, vote for them and say they hate the EU when asked in polls.

scaryteacher · 04/05/2017 16:08

Sylvia We are in NATO because it suits us, and it is nothing to do with the EU. It is a completely separate organisation that predates the EU. The EU has just celebrated 60 years - NATO is 70 in 2019.

Make no mistake, the Europeans need us in NATO, as we are the only EU member state with membership of the Five Eyes intelligence grouping. We are in NATO, as we are in the EU, one of the few net contributors....Germany should be hanging its head in shame here, and Europe is and has been overly reliant on US funding for its defence for decades.

NATO is what has kept the peace in Europe, via US membership of the Alliance...who really wants to take on the US military machine?

Valentine2 I know we are leaving and that it will happen...I voted for it.

QuiQuaiQuod · 04/05/2017 16:12

*I hate the EU too. Nasty bitter little shits, pissed off that they're losing our £350 million a week! This is why they're being awkward and nasty, because they're angry and pissed off and bitter. They are like a rejected ex LOL!

The sooner we are out, the better. If LePen gets to be in charge of France, they'll be out next; then that will be the end of the EU.*

This ^^.

Just cos nanny state UK isn't pandering to them anymore they throw their toys out of the pram.

and they want their EU citizens to have a right to stay in the UK. Hmmm...are they saying the same for Brits living in Europe? Hmm.

Jellytussle · 04/05/2017 16:13

To be fair scaryteacher there are sound historical reasons why post-WW2 Germany has been discouraged from becoming a military power again...

squishysquirmy · 04/05/2017 16:18

Jelly, I'm sure you're lovely but remarks like that make you sound a bit of a twat.

GoatsFeet · 04/05/2017 16:20

OP YABU.

Perhaps if people had stopped to think before the 51.9% voted to leave ...

The Government view (not in my name) is that we want all the benefits of the EU without being a member. Do you really think Mrs May's stupid empty posturing is going to impress anyone?

GoatsFeet · 04/05/2017 16:22

Whereas the reality is that most of the EU is staring at Brexit Britain in utter bafflement. They have no idea why a country would want to commit an act of such self-harm.

Indeed. All my friends and family from the rest of Europe (we are STILL European!) look at us with care and concern, and a great deal of sympathy. They cannot understand why the UK is being so recklessly self-destructive.

QuiQuaiQuod · 04/05/2017 16:26

Perhaps if people had stopped to think before the 51.9% voted to leave ...

^^yawn. here we go again. Im a remainer and find that remark extremey offensive towards Brexiteers.

Ive accepted the result.

Perhaps all other REMOANERS should stop and think how offensive and prejudiced they are.

Stop giving us few that accept the result a bad name.

(and BTW, if it was held agin, Id vote leave, don't want petty EU arses running my life!)

all

Krimbler · 04/05/2017 16:27

Im a remainer and find that remark extremey offensive towards Brexiteers.

You're perfectly within your right to feel offended on other people's behalf. Have fun!

Perhaps all other REMOANERS should stop and think how offensive and prejudiced they are.

Irony...

QuiQuaiQuod · 04/05/2017 16:30

yes. STOP calling Brexiteers thick/rascist./didnt know what they were doing/xenophobic.

No irony there, the truth.

RufusTheRenegadeReindeer · 04/05/2017 16:31

Yes krimbler

scaryteacher · 04/05/2017 16:32

jelly Germany does not meet the 2% GDP spend required of a NATO nation and will not for about another 5- 10 years. Given the current account surplus it runs, Germany could meet this commitment, but chooses not to. Perhaps the money is being squirreled away for when the Target II shit hits the fan. It is cheaper for Germany to ride/freeload on the coattails of the US.

Belgium is equally culpable here, given all the money it gains from having NATO and the EU in Brussels

SylviaPoe · 04/05/2017 16:33

Scaryteacher, why does it suit us to be in NATO. What would happen if we left?

Puzzledandpissedoff · 04/05/2017 16:34

The EU is more important than EU citizens. Witness the devastation on Greece, to save the euro

I completely agree with your first sentence but am not so sure about your second ... the Greeks brought the vast majority of their problems on themselves

SylviaPoe · 04/05/2017 16:34

And what is TargetII?

StrangeLookingParasite · 04/05/2017 16:34

and they want their EU citizens to have a right to stay in the UK. Hmmm...are they saying the same for Brits living in Europe?

The UK has a lot more to lose by kicking out all the européennes and then having to take back the hundreds of thousands of UK citizens in Europe, quite a few of which are retirees. Do you not think they could be a bit more helpful about the européennes in the UK first.

Honestly, the whole approach is all 'I want, I want' but with nothing to offer.