Brexit MegaThread - part 14

[Peregrina]

Thread 13. We had a debate about whether there should be a new one but if no one answers this the whole series after 8 years plus will come to their end.

Brexit happened, although one time Leavers do not seem to appreciate this.
It's worth noting I think that Brexit was a Tory initiative and the Tory party has just received its worse electoral thrashing since 1832. Could it be entirely unrelated?

What next? A gradual rapprochement with the EU? A Norway style agreement?

.

Speaking of blithering idiots, Frosty the no Man was on GBNews spouting shite. Apparently the British Public are just too thick to realise the benefits of Brexit - which is why the Tories lost the election.

Gordon Bennett! With him negotiating, no wonder it's all absolute shite...

Barnier warned Macron about a Frexit?

Emmanuel Macron has triggered France's Brexit moment, warns Michel Barnier (telegraph.co.uk)

Events in Germany are worth noting too

AfD becomes first far-right party to win German state election since 1945 | CNN

Suns out.

@HannibalHeyes

At a recent school reunion for former pupils aged 60, comments about Johnson being a buffoon were confirmed by my former science teacher (now 75) who moved to teach at Eton in 1982. Boris was one of his pupils and was the same then as he is now.

If, as alleged, the UK is going down the pan, then so must those EU members whose economies have not yet passed that of the UK even though the UK was meant to be history by quarter 3 of 2018.

That both Norway and Switzerland, who have both stated they will never join the EU, are streets ahead of both France and Germany in terms of; individual wealth, welfare and unemployment is proof that it's not necessary to be in the EU to be successful.

The EU expanded too rapidly Eastwards by accepting countries who were nowhere near as well developed. The only thing they could offer was cheaper labour.

After almost 50 years of discussion with the EU from 1972 to 2021 and the hindsight it gave, Switzerland summed up the dangers of being an EU member as:

The Swiss government has highlighted three issues:

protection of wages, rules governing state aid, and the right of EU citizens working in Switzerland to claim Swiss welfare benefits as part of freedom of movement.

Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said Switzerland could not accept EU demands for equal rights for EU workers as it would have meant an unwanted "paradigm shift" in Switzerland's migration policy. The government also feared it could lead to higher social security costs.

The right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) welcomed the breakdown of talks as "a victory for Swiss self-determination", while trade unions were also pleased as they had been concerned about the impact on wage protection and public services.

Frexit, Nexit

Bin it

Today is Monday

I'm Irish*

The asterisk is for the English and Scots Border ancestors. Also for the fact that my grandparents were all British subjects, born before Irish independence, when Ireland sent MPs to Westminster. Some of my aunts and uncles were born in the Northwest Frontier, where my grandparents lived for twenty years, doing their patriotic duty. There are a lot of Normans on both sides too. Plus many emigrants to the New World and Australia over the course of 200 years - emigration has never been just a case of people flocking to Britain.

Frexit, Nexit...

www.bbc.com/news/articles/cevj3y7n33vo

Is anyone surprised that Transparency International UK found a great many red flags for corruption in a review of 5000 government covid contracts?

Colour me shocked. Shocked, I tell you, shocked...

It was the contracts awarded to companies less than 100 days old that got me.

It is physically impossible to do MLR and KYC checks on a company that young
in accordance with the Public Sector procurement regulations

But hey, Bufty was at Eton with them back when there were no entrance exams

In todays Daily Wail

How long ago did we warn that only bringing in skilled migrants
would leave native workers as the lower paid

But, but, but, Brexshit was going to make British manual workers into millionaires!

Sr Dhragis report will hearten the Brexit thixiteers as it says the Eurozone needs to invest a lot more to preserve the current lifestyle, in the face of massive world changes. While it is worrying looking at it from within Europe the Brexiteers will think it won't affect them HOWEVER they will be very disappointed if they read the 'small print' because the reasons for the measures are the over dominance of China and other 'far away places' whose economies have changed and they do not want as much from the 'West' so the demands for UK products will also be falling and the gravitational pull of the EU will leave the UK even more isolated.The problem with the Brexiteer navel gazing is that they have lost sight of the rest of the globe so have not made the necessary adjustments to cope with the war in Ukraine, Gaza and the disruption in so many other countries.

Feels like we are bookending 1763 With the extra pathos that not a single Brexiteer will ever get that reference. People destroy what they .don't understand. Which is a shame if they love it.

Still life wasn't so bad in the early 1700s was it ?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgwkwxr4eqo

The reference being one to the 1763 Treaty of Paris, perhaps?

Sovereignity

https://x.com/Transport_EU/status/1833120958246162701

Nine European Coordinators designated to help complete the trans-European transport network

Interesting map! Find myself wondering whether with this annoucement the EU have effectively confirmed Ukraine's status as a member state?

Well, they are sensible enough to realise the immense benefits...

Well me and my kids are only British unfortunately. We have become a two tier nation though, I really see it now my kids are just leaving school. Those with EU passports, and all the extra opportunities that brings, and those with only UK passports and all the opportunities they have had taken from them. I’ve seen ‘EU passport’ has started appearing on CVs in the UK now as it makes people more employable if a job might involve travel.
I went to Denmark recently, did you know all EU citizens can get free university education there and that much of the classes are taught in English?
Do you have kids yourself Louse?
I expect you wouldn’t want your kids to have life chances like that though.

All great if you can use those opportunities. Many people couldn't dream of doing so.

So, you may ask, does this justifty taking them away from the people who could use them?

Yes, yes it does. If you're committed to equality.

So what about the people who still have them now? lucky them I guess. I get your point about 2 tier society, I think we'll always be that tbh. I don't like it much tbh but short of stripping people of citizenships there's not much that can actulally be done.

No I don't have children myself.

Just because some people couldn't dream of taking up the possibilities offered by the EU doesn't mean we should level down. The UK has always had the option to be more equitable as a country, and it always chose not to. Caving in to Tall Popoy syndrome is taking the cheap and easy way out.

It's so often the right who bleat about elites - and then perpetuates the structures that support the elites they purport to hate. They go on about working hard and aspirations, but only within the framework of their raw capitalist model. The cognitive dissonance is Olympic grade.