Really very sad with France!

[Friendsoftheearth]

I am quietly furious with France. We have been going to France between three and four times a year, every year for pretty much all of my adult life. We have spent most summer holidays, skiing and all the rest, choosing France as our destination over all over countries.

Every week I buy French cheeses, wine and truffle oils, and we are very big fans of France and French cuisine.

Even taking into account that Macron should hope and push for the best deal for their fishing industry, I still find it incredulous and insulting that they should be demanding ten years of fish, and are offering us a paltry percentage. Ten years.
They are in a total stand off regarding an even playing field, I understand the reasons for this, but honestly they are pushing all of us to a no deal outcome, that will see French fisherman with no catch whatsoever, and high tariffs slapped on all imports from France. Tourism will be destroyed as people will no longer wish to go there. It could poison relations for decades.

I am aware of the history between the UK and France, but rather naively thought we had moved on from that a very long time ago, I am in despair at the eleventh hour demands, and feel this is in very bad faith. It has really highlighted to me how little respect France have for us as a country.

I feel like I never want to go again, despite having a tentative booking for a holiday in the spring of next year.

Shhh OP, don't mention the (spiteful) EU always was a political project to stop war from the 1951 Paris Coal and Steel treaty and arguably before.

Why can't you people grasp the whole point of the EU...we want the best deal for ALL of the EU. And you had that, and you threw it away

Sorry 'we'?

Millions of British people do not agree it is the 'best' deal for the UK and voted more than once to confirm their feelings on the matter, and they certainly could not sign up to a more integrated political EU union. The issue is deeper than just a deal I think you will find.

The government doesn't actually give a shit about fishing except as a tool to manipulate simple people's emotions.

This. With bells on.

Sorry 'we'?

Yes, we. You don't imagine everyone on here is in the UK, do you? Bless your heart.

Is the bus that the spiteful EU won't throw Ireland under the same bus that's been storing the £350m a week, OP?

The UK is not some small little nation leaving the EU that can be bullied. Economically it was and is a very substantial part. The UK leaving is like losing a leg for the EU (not the brain or heart, but still a leg). Yes it is rubbish, but the EU need to get a prosthetic limb in place. Something needs to be achieved so we all hobble along as best as we can somehow into the future. I was very firmly anti Brexit, but I have long since accepted the reality that we are "leaving". I do think if the French continue this way the Daily Mail et al might manage to get some of the "British public" to boycott some French wine and cheese, temporarily. If wines from other nations (e.g. South America) become relatively cheaper, people will just buy more of those instead anyway. We have some good cheeses here too. More staycations etc. - we should invest in Vitamin D production to make up for the lack of sun. Unlike lots of people moaning about the government on Mumsnet as a non Tori voter, I have actually been quite happy with furlough etc/vaccinating the very old first. I would say I am ready to champion what is British (despite my original anti Brexit stance). The current government is a lot more "liberal" than I feared.

The importance of the UK fishing industry has been blown out of all proportion in the negotiations because Farage and Co latched on to them as an easy story to sell to simple minded people, Johnny Foreigner Stealing Our Fish.

@BlueBrian

Going to be some seriously upset Brexiters around soon, after Bozo caves into the EU later this week.

I've been wondering if that might be on the cards, but given that all the pro-EU MPs have been chucked out, I wonder if he might be fearful of the backlash from the likes of Baker, Bone et al.

Otoh, he appears to find being PM too much like hard work, and he might like a rebellion as it could give him the excuse to jack it in and get on the highly lucrative after-dinner speaking and memoir-writing bandwagon.

@Friendsoftheearth

I have always wondered if the anti British brigade on here are posting from overseas, or if they actually live here with that level of bitterness and revulsion for their own country?

I find it truly fascinating that you can live, and perhaps be born in a country that you find so repellent, that as an adult why on earth would you choose to stay here?

It makes no sense whatsoever. Either stay and champion your own interests and support the country, or leave and be happier. Festering is not good for the soul.

You're really a piece of work. Yes, it is unfortunately possible to loathe your country if the ones running it are corrupt liars and idiots. For many people to up and leave is not an option. They have their families here, friends, their lives. The ones like me who are disgusted by their country and leave are rare. But the fact that I have had to uproot my life/family and start over mid-30s here just to be in the almost same situation 10 years later enrages me. All because of some fucking fish that nobody actually cares about. You go on about your cheese and wine but you don't complain about lost funding for research, or freedom of movement and study anywhere in Europe for future generations.
Brexit is based on lies and more lies. And the gullible idiots swallowed it hook, line and sinker.

@Friendsoftheearth

Why can't you people grasp the whole point of the EU...we want the best deal for ALL of the EU. And you had that, and you threw it away

Sorry 'we'?

Millions of British people do not agree it is the 'best' deal for the UK and voted more than once to confirm their feelings on the matter, and they certainly could not sign up to a more integrated political EU union. The issue is deeper than just a deal I think you will find.

The UK wasn’t signed up to a political union. Cameron got an opt out on that in 2016.

But you knew that, right?

@PixellatedPixie

I laugh when people say that the U.K. is a tiny fish - it is the 5th biggest economy in the world! It’s the second biggest economy in Europe!

I immigrated to the U.K. 12 years ago and always find it funny how British people love to belittle their country!

I completely agree. It’s crazy the way people make it sound like we’re a 3rd world country.

As you say, the 5th largest economy in the world.

I think we need to get a bit more aggressive with what we need/want instead of trying to please everyone else.

In a matter of hours, possibly days we will find out what will happen, the endgame is now in sight.

These threads will be no longer, and every country will adjust to the outcome in their own way. Some will fair better than others. France have made a colossal PR mistake in my view, that will come to be seen as another moment in history when they made a bad decision, and a wrong move.

I might even miss these threads about brexit, who knows.

@Sarahlou63

Funny how the fish in the UK waters are "British" fish, but humans in the UK waters are "foreign" migrants...

@Sarahlou63, there's a foolproof way of discovering whether the fish are right-thinking British fish, or pesky foreigners -- you pick them out of the nets, squeeze them slightly, and see whether they sing 'Rule Britannia' or the Marseillaise.

As far as fishing is concerned,which I agree is small fry, ten years isn't really very long. A potential fisher has to set up their business, borrow for equipment, find a market etc etc. How many in the deprived coastal areas can just do that in the short to medium term. At the same time the French fishing fleet are dependent on their catches for their business it would be wildly unreasonable to snatch that away in the same time frame.
This has been used as a symbolic issue ' Britannia rules the waves' etc. The negotiations should be about trade in the round but this issue is in danger of scuppering agreements in other areas , or at least prolonging them to our detriment, when it really shouldn't need to. I am utterly depressed by the whole thing. This year has been awful and unfortunately there is more self harm to come.

Oh i missed the ‘don’t like aspects of your county you should leave’

That happened a lot as well

@KleinBlue
Thank you, needed a smile :)
I imagined it Monty Python style

If you think people won’t be discussing Brexit and it’s consequences for years, decades to come, you’re even more cheese baguettes short of a picnic than you already appear OP.

Ham baps all round.

France have made a colossal PR mistake in my view, that will come to be seen as another moment in history when they made a bad decision, and a wrong move.

Oh, OP, you are a wag. Who will be meditating on this colossal PR mistake? The type of boozed-up political commentator who props up the 19th hole talking about 'my good lady wife' and 'Johnny Foreigner'?

@Friendsoftheearth

Because all three countries know it makes economic sense to have an economic union

It is not an economic union anymore, it is now a political union and that was the whole point of the referendum bellini

That is why we are where we are today.

Had the EU STAYED an economic union the UK would not have left.

That is nonsense, like all of your posts. If Rupert Murdoch wanted us to leave the EU, we would have left, whatever the type of union we were in. I thought the whole point of the referendum was to stick two fingers up to the elite. Oh no, that can't be right can it, since the elite are running this whole shitshow.

I have relatives in France and given the opportunity they would vote to leave the EU. Macron even admitted that.

Never liked France anyway, filthy country and an absolute idiot of a leader

Spoken like a true Brexiteer.

The UK is not some small little nation leaving the EU that can be bullied. Economically it was and is a very substantial part. The UK leaving is like losing a leg for the EU (not the brain or heart, but still a leg)

More Brexit bullshit. You ARE a fairly small nation. You aren't anywhere near as important than you think you are. You're right that you are clealry not a brain or a heart (obviously), but you're not a leg either. You're more like a testicle, to be honest. Not actually necessary at all.

No, I don't think so pirate people are totally bored of brexit now. The trade detail might whirl on in the background for a few years like a buzzing mosquito, without gaining much interest. People could barely given a damn now. Most have processed the change and moved on.

The last punchline will be delivered in a day or two, maybe a few backlogs in Kent in January and the rest will be history.

Silly France, OP. Silly of them to knock off their Royal Family, too. I bet they haven't got a tourist industry without a Royal Family, too. They'll have even less than zero of a tourist industry without the UK too.

Perhaps you could start a thread for each (spiteful) EU Member State shooting themselves in the foot, OP? Have you ever bought a German car and will never again? Silly Frau Merkel not listening to the German car manufacturers.

re: 5th biggest economy.

Actually 6th at the moment. 5th is India with 10 trillion in GBP. UK: 3 trillion. So way behind.

You also should be looking at EU as a whole and they -by far- exceed the UK economy.

When looking at economical measurements it is very important to view them in context (eg. spending breakdown, or income source or revenue generation by industry,.... there are way to many) than just a simple rank. It's not a primary school league table.