Current Affairs

[Mervyn and Trish]

Dont think we need to join the Euro - we nearly have parity anyway!!
What's going to happen to the NHS? And so much more.
I have so many concerns for ALL our children, grandchildren and their children. There are so many factors in play and as yet no one has been able to reassure me.
Just how much are we controlled by Brussels, or have successive governments just used it as an excuse? Now we have a government which is unleashing many policies and making decision which I feel no one actually voted for/realised would happen. With no one to rein them in.

Okay, just one on the NHS. People have died because under EU rules we have to accept that doctors who've qualified in EU countries are properly qualified to work here. And is some cases they haven't been. In the future we will be able to employ the best people we can recruit from around the world, including Europe, and test them to make sure they're up to the job.

And have governments been hiding behind EU legislation? Well in the future they won't be able to.

[barney]

The real truth of the matter is that no one really knows what the future holds.

No on really knew if we'd stayed in, because of the volatility of the EU in it's current state.

I read a lot about the EU from various European websites and trust me all is not well in the garden.

My feeling is that in the long term, the UK will be better off and a stand alone independent country.

For everyone worrying about the futures of their grandchildren, spare a thought for a whole lost generation of young people in Spain, Greece & Portugal, that have never had, and probably never will have a job due to EU policies.
The lucky ones are the ones who have managed to get to the UK to find work.

The EU is a failed/failing social 'project'.

Just wait until the next batch of poor countries join.

The UK, Germany, France & Italy have been an ATM for these countries for years.

Let them get on with it.

If a weaker pound and a few quid on the shopping is the price to pay, then fine with me.

If millions of jobs do go, as Clegg predicted, then hopefully many of then will be done by EU migrants and they may feel free to go back home and help build their own countries.

[Silver_Shiney]

Well said, Barney - as ever, the voice of reason.

[Mervyn and Trish]

For the benefit of those who blame the Daily Mail for the Brexit result.

17.4 million voted to leave the EU.

The Mail's circulation is 1.5 million.

Assuming an average of two people read each copy of the Mail and believe every word it prints, who convinced the other 14.4 million to vote out?

For the record in my case it was Call Me Dave.

I really wanted to be convinced to vote in. But his pathetic attempt to negotiate a better deal convinced me the EU was never going to change for the better.

[david63]

who convinced the other 14.4 million to vote out?

Jeremy Corbin.

[towny44]

who convinced the other 14.4 million to vote out?

Jeremy Corbin.

David, you're not taking this debate seriously.

[Mervyn and Trish]

His support for the in campaign was a little half hearted. And now the lefties are blaming the right wing for the out result. Ironic.

[Stephen]

Someone's up late

[Mervyn and Trish]

Dinner at Mozart's with friends

[qbman1]

Dinner at Mozart's with friends

Is that another lap-dancing club ?

[Raybosailor]

For the benefit of those who blame the Daily Mail for the Brexit result.

17.4 million voted to leave the EU.

The Mail's circulation is 1.5 million.

Assuming an average of two people read each copy of the Mail and believe every word it prints, who convinced the other 14.4 million to vote out?

For the record in my case it was Call Me Dave.

I really wanted to be convinced to vote in. But his pathetic attempt to negotiate a better deal convinced me the EU was never going to change for the better.

I agree Merv, if DC had gone to the Euro table with a decent deal and told them that without it the majority of the UK would vote out I think they would have come up with something to keep us in. They need us as much as we need them and if there was a bit of slack cut I truly believe that the small percentage of the vote would have gone the other way.

[Stephen]

I thought Mozart was dead

[Silver_Shiney]

If only the politico's had left it as a Common (trading) Market, we wouldn't be in this mess

[Mervyn and Trish]

I agree Merv, if DC had gone to the Euro table with a decent deal and told them that without it the majority of the UK would vote out I think they would have come up with something to keep us in. They need us as much as we need them and if there was a bit of slack cut I truly believe that the small percentage of the vote would have gone the other way.

I agree Ray.

[oldbluefox]

If only the politico's had left it as a Common (trading) Market, we wouldn't be in this mess

I agree with the Shiney One................................. and with Merv.
Whose idea was it to move away from the Common Market anyway?What other benefits have we got as a consequence?

[qbman1]

Well, for a start we've gained a lot of very nice seasonal fruit pickers....

[Golden Princess]

Think it is a case of you wont know until you have lost it. "You dont know what you've got 'til it's gone" Who sung that?
And all I keep seeing is that we are the laughing stock of the world. So any kudos in anything "Made in Britain" is devalued. (Was it Joni Mitchell?)

I just want someone to tell me what we are going to gain. Because at the moment everything is just bad news (I am not talking particularly about the economy although apparently the £ has fallen further today) And we havent even left yet.

Please, please tell me something good.............

[oldbluefox]

Well, for a start we've gained a lot of very nice seasonal fruit pickers....

You had your binoculars out again?
But they've always come over for fruit/vegetable picking in the same way our sheep shearers go over to Australia/New Zealand to help with sheep shearing. This is what I don't understand from the Remainers. We have always employed foreign labour and we have always gone abroad to work. Why does this arrangement, which worked so well before the EU started messing about with it and works so well with other nations, need to change unless it's just a case of Brussels being bloody awkward and making rules which actually hinder free movement of labour!!!!

[Jack Staff]

Think it is a case of you wont know until you have lost it. "You dont know what you've got 'til it's gone" Who sung that?
And all I keep seeing is that we are the laughing stock of the world. So any kudos in anything "Made in Britain" is devalued. (Was it Joni Mitchell?)

I just want someone to tell me what we are going to gain. Because at the moment everything is just bad news (I am not talking particularly about the economy although apparently the £ has fallen further today) And we havent even left yet.

Please, please tell me something good.............

Anybody?

(Yes, Joni Mitchell, Big Yellow Taxi)

[towny44]

If only the politico's had left it as a Common (trading) Market, we wouldn't be in this mess

I agree with the Shiney One................................. and with Merv.
Whose idea was it to move away from the Common Market anyway?What other benefits have we got as a consequence?

According to the reports I have read about the inception of the common market it was always intended that it would be a political union.
Clearly Ted Heath and even Harold Wilson never made much reference to this, and in fact they only ever emphasied the benefits of duty free trade. Although to be fair I am not certain that we would have realised just how restrictive the EU would become, and how far estranged from the developing ideals of the EU, the majority of the UK population would become.

[Silver_Shiney]

Golden Princess, the benefits should be self apparent and have been debated at length. For one thing we'll be free of the EU straitjacket and be able to sign advantageous face deals with countries queuing up to do so

I'm curious to know how you get this idea that we are now an international laughing stock

[Golden Princess]

But I havent heard of any country queuing up to do deals with us. Who are they? How big a market are they? Do we want what they have to offer? Will they want what we have to offer? Do we really want to trade with some?

No the benefits are not apparent to me - that is why I keep asking all of you for some sort of reassurance. The debates I have seen have all been more generalisations and nothing with any facts.

Why is the EU a straitjacket? I thought we could generally implement directives as our government saw fit and many things such as regulations for safely and compliance reasons may well be an inconvenience to some but are so beneficial to others. Workers rights are so important and may not be available in future. New EU ideas for mobile free roaming, free rail travel for teenagers, being paid to travel for work to name a few, do not actually appeal to me or are relevant to me, not that it matters as they will not apply to us.

We obviously do not read the same publications! But I think most people would now have to agree that Boris and UKIP are no longer taken seriously.

[Golden Princess]

Jack Staff - thanks for confirmation on Joni Mitchell

[Silver_Shiney]

Princess - last I heard was that Australia, Canada and the US were anxious to sign a trade deal.

[towny44]

Princess - last I heard was that Australia, Canada and the US were anxious to sign a trade deal.

......plus India and China.
But just because we are not in the EU single market does not necessarily mean there will automatically be a hard Brexit with WTO tariffs applying. That would certainly not be in our interest but equally, since we are the EU's main export market, it is not in theirs either. Also because we are their main export market it is certainly not in the EU's interest for Sterling to be as weak as it is currently, which would limit their exporters ability to increase prices and therefore slow down their growth because UK customers would not be able to afford their products.
So, despite all the strong posturing and rhetoric from the EU politicians, it is very likely that EU industry and agriculture leaders will be lobbying hard for some sort of free trade or minimal tariff deal, which would minimise the impact of Brexit on the current UK trade with the EU, and help Sterling to recover some of its lost ground.