I'll give you that ok. I'll take brexiting UK over the USA any time of the day.
So many wasted opportunities!
I mean... to us it changes nothing. You'll still be subject to the regulation, whether you brexit or not. I'd say "you gave up your sit at the table" because that is essentially what you did but even so, since EU regulation are typically lower than national regulation it will not change a thing to you, so Europe should not destroy your industry as a result of Brexit.
I'm pleased by the outcome if it doesn't disrupt France, my intention is not to order the French in what to do (also fairly certain we can't in the EU anyways lol). Our seat on the table
has usually been a lonely one, so I think it is also better for the EU if there isn't the UK always blossoming in waves of euroscepticism from within. If we end up remaining in the single market and customs union, then it seems the decades ahead will be fraught with Brexit II: The sequel. If on the other hand we successfully leave at the first shot, I do not see the issue of UK exports to Europe conforming to European regulations, any more than I ought to take issue with UK exports to the USA conforming to American regulations. The death of the British lobbying firms in Brussels will be of mutual benefit to European and British regulations.
The goal of those regulations were to protect us from emerging country's dumping, against which EU has the means to defend itself. But if you insist on having your regalian choice to lower your standard to the point china can invade your market... I mean sure. For what reason tho.
It's haven't observed it working. Europe's industries are still being slaughtered - or, are incorporating the products of emerging countries into their increasingly advanced supply chains, evolving - like Chinese bikes assembled in Germany. Globalisation is a difficult beast to slay, I haven't seen the EU have any success in that endeavour yet.
First of all, UK is not in Shengen.
I was referring to France
At the time, UK made a lot of fuss and was extremely rude to other european countries to have their europe à la carte.
This would be the source of the confusion - the UK does not want Europe, the UK wants Europe's money. It should be fairly apparent simply by observing that all of Cameron's protests to the EU are about EU attempts to regulate British financial services, and very little else.
Diplomatic position of France under De Gaulle was to say "those guys will not cooperate, we should just dump them" but he was not listened. So EU made concessions and you had your borders. Hell, we even accepted to have british border control on OUR sovereign soil so you can control your immigration.
How is the EU the one making concessions? The EU has never once returned sovereignty; it demands instead that you either surrender in piecemeal, or in totality, but never offers concessions. If I order you to give me 5 mars bars, and I lower my demands to 3 mars bars, it would be outrageous to say I offered any concession at all ;p
Do you understand how incredibly snob it sounds, after all the concession you received, to just turn around and say "oh well fuck you guys, in the end I decided I'm a princess" and leave us to clean up the mess?
Perhaps the EU needs to understand when no means no. Princess says no
Second, the Calais problem is directly caused by UK politics. We can home migrants in France. Problem : those migrants come from the UK empire, and don't speak a word of french. They want to come to UK and are stopped by british border patrol. You add some frantic gun tooting easily startled calaisians and here you go. The problem was effectively solved when we decided to home them around the country, but it is yet another british princess move we had to clean up. And it's starting to be a bit heavy on the shoulders Im not gonna lie.
If you don't want Commonwealth migrants in France, why don't you use your border controls? Did the British princess take away those? No, the EU did. Seems silly to blame the UK when France is the one who not only left the door open, but set the doors on fire.
This is not EU policy, but I wish it was. If it was up to me, I'd just make Europe with germany, build a two state army and have the rest of the 27 come and ask for their loaf of bread, rather than insisting on pleasing everyone. Europe insists on being the nice guy and that's why it's not respected.
There is a Voltaire joke to be made about how the EU is not European, nice or respected
We call this a Jacquerie. It's not the first time I've been in a revolt like that. Don't worry, I'm safe.
I still remember the London riots were particularly fascinating. You had people stealing water, bricks and rice, flexing it on social media so the police could arrest them lmao. Still caution never hurts, but carelessness kills. Even if the rioters do nothing getting caught up in police actions can be a pain, I still remember one instance in London with a protest that turned violent, loads of innocent bystanders who gawked at the conflict with their smartphones instead of going home got stuck in the police kettle afterwards
After that line, I will allow myself to disreguard british mounting on their high horses on the next european smirking remark on brexit.
You guys will laugh war off because you havn't had a invasion on your soil since modern warfare was a thing. We're told what war is in school, maybe that's why we value cooperation.
My grandparents lived under Japanese occupations or flew in the Battle of Britain, so I will have to disagree. Cooperation and centralization are also two distinct concepts, just as there is a clear distinction between European nations cooperating and a singular European state. No one in the UK laughs war off; God knows, hundreds of thousands were lost to free France. I know you mean no antagonism, just making it clear the UK holds no dim view of French sacrifice
Cathar, my granny's uncles died at the Somme. One couldn't be positively identified because he was blown to pieces. I warrant you've never heard of the 36th Ulster Division (filled with people from Northern Ireland) but they bled and died to protect your land in the First World War - protect it against an expansionist Germany dissimilar from the current one mainly in method.
So my dad lost his great uncles in that conflict. I suppose he's wondering how that bought no sense of sympathy from you.
We do not laugh off war. We stand in remembrance and solemnly remember the dead.
Hear hear.
Those who fought for a Europe free to do as it willed. That includes the right to make what others think are stupid decisions.
You made the first mistake of British-European relations.
DON'T MENTION THE WAR