Brexit mega thread part 15a - looking forwards

[Talkinpeace]

Just rebooting the most recent thread

At the moment the UKs issues are rather over shadowed by events elsewhere
but maybe that is a good thing.

The German election on Sunday is worth watching
Right wing European politicians pulling out of CPAC speeches because they realise its not a good look
Farage floundering to stay relevant

and the possibility of the return of free movement for our kids if not us

Relations between mainland Europe and the UK remain a worthy topic for discussion

I take it Bulgaria welcomes immigrants?

@pointythings

In real life, we don't matter to them except as something to mock

So, why do:

Germany
France
Italy
Spain

Want the UK to rejoin?

@GlobeTrotter2000

You forgot

Mutually beneficial trade, obviously. Duh.

Other countries recognise the UK's value, something Brexiteers do not.

@DuncinToffee

Bulgaria joined Schengen recently, but its border controls are hopeless. Particularly land borders with Greece and Turkey. I entered both recently and all I had to do was show them my old red EU passport and they didn’t even look!

For persons that were checked, €20 euro was sufficient to pass through the border. No stamps in passport of course. That way the bent border staff can’t be traced.

Bulgaria is a transit country for immigrants. They enter from Turkey and move westward with the goal of reaching Western Europe.

@DuncinToffee

Other countries recognise the UK's value, something Brexiteers do not

But, according to remain supporters, Brexit is meant to have destroyed the UK. So, why would Germany, France, Spain and Italy want to inherit a country that is worthless.

@pointythings

Over 80% of UK GDP and employment is services. Since Brexit, the service what’s grown over 50% as it not subject to the compliance and regulations the TCA imposed on goods.

As the EU exports more goods to the UK than the UK exports to the EU, it’s the EU that suffers the most from the TCA.

You still use your old red EU passport then, you are letting your side down.

Well, it's been shown repeatedly that Brexit led to far more immigrants, which seems to be Brexiteers only consideration.

And then those wonderful Brexit cheerleaders managed to make it so that even more came over. One would almost think that Brexiteers weren't all that cunning after all...

https://bylinetimes.com/2025/07/04/patel-braverman-and-jenrick-immigration-scheme-led-to-unexpected-and-unregulated-influx-of-1-2-million-foreign-workers/

Having read Heather Cox Richardson this morning talking about the Mexican border
when it was effectively open, Mexicans came and went as the work ebbed and flowed.
Once it was sealed they all stayed North so as not to risk being unable to return.

When they got ill they stayed
When they got old they stayed
When they divorced they stayed
rather than going home and resting legally.

So the host country and the source country have ended up worse off.

The parallels with the channel are clear to those without blinkers.

@Talkinpeace

So, your solution is to have no borders anywhere in the world?

@DuncinToffee

The red passport has the Bulgarian residence visa which is valid indefinitely even though the passport has passed its expiration date. Hence it has to be carried.

@MaybeNotBob

For as long as the UK remains in the ECHR, immigration will be difficult to control. Both Farage and Sunak have made that statement.

As for your suggestion that immigration would have been easier to control had UK remained in the EU, you have forgotten that UK ranks fifth behind; Germany, France, Spain and Italy regards immigrants.

We know Globe, you retain all the EU benefits that you took away from others

@DuncinToffee

You, along with many others, forget that the option to revoke article 50 was presented in the 2019 general election, but not taken. Only those who voted remain in 2016, but did not vote for the Liberal Democrat’s in 2019, can explain their decision.

My Bulgarian resident permit was first issued in late 2003 as I was working there. That’s

3 years before Bulgaria joined the EU in January 2007
6 years before Article 50 was passed in 2009
14 years before UK voted to leave the EU in 2017.

You seem to be forgetting that you keep repeating the same old nonsense Globe.

It does. And it's still just as meaningless...

Another step closer

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/treaty-between-the-united-kingdom-of-great-britain-and-northern-ireland-and-the-federal-republic-of-germany-on-friendship-and-bilateral-cooperation

@DuncinToffee
@MaybeNotBob

Had the Liberal Democrat’s won the 2019 general election the UK would not have left the EU. This is an indisputable fact.

It's just going too slowly. We all know we're going to get there eventually.

If only the LibDems had won the 2019 election..............

People seem to forget that Russia was an ally in defeating Germany in WWII. So, if Russia has plans to eradicate Germany, the UK should stay well away.

You seem to be forgetting that Russia has invaded Ukraine

I need my laughing emoji!

Had the Liberal Democrat’s won the 2019 general election article 50 would have been revoked. This was confirmed by Layla Moran on the 5 September 2019 episode of BBC question time. In December 2018, the EU advised they would accept a unilateral revoke of Article 50. So, there is no denying that the opportunity to cancel Brexit was available in 2019.

However, the rapid expansion of the EU eastwards had already occurred 13 years earlier starting in 2006/2007. In the period 2006 to 2019 the EU, against Trumps warning, allowed themselves to become dependent on Russian energy.

I represented the German gas company, Linde, at the time of the EU expanded into Eastern Europe. Their logic was that if Eastern Europe was consumed by the EU, it would greatly reduce the possibility of such countries returning to Russia, but at the same time they saw Russia as a massive market for their services.

Turn the clock forward to 2015, I represented Russia’s largest oil company, Lukoil, in Iraq. The oil price crashed to $32 per barrel. Lukoil played it well. They took payment in the form of oil as opposed to US$. The outcome was that they accumulated vast volumes of oil. That, plus EUs dependence on Russian energy placed them in a powerful position.

So, when they invaded Ukraine in 2022, they were immune from sanctions by the EU and the US as they could sell oil to China and India whose population make up almost 40% of the world’s population.

So, why did Russia invade the Ukraine? Objection to being ring fenced? Start a war which increases oil price (helpful if you own lots of oil)? To take Ukraines minerals? Whatever the reason, it would have happened had the Liberal Democrat’s won the 2019 general election.

Had COVID not commenced in 2020, I think Russia would have invaded sooner.

Are you still repeating the same nonsense? Over and over and over again?

FFS, get a life!

Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014