Neverending Story 3: The Ongoing Brexit Thread

Businesses should have been planning all along, I am sure many have.

 

The problem was that he won the Brexit/LePen prize because he didn't get himself into trouble during the campaign. He go the idea that he could basically do what he wanted.

He forgot that it was the elites that backed him, as was evident how he has been handling the street protests.

 

...and the award for 'best anti #brexit sign' goes to this girl!@mrjamesob pic.twitter.com/SxeQAlQiSM

— Steve White (@StevenWhite52) January 18, 2019

 

If you have an idea of what might happen you CAN plan but, as things stand, we're STILL not sure what would happen.

Essentially the agreements we have for everything from ferries, airplanes and all manner of products and services are all contained in the EU treaties which have been developed over many years. If those end we HAVE no agreements in any of those areas.

Now it's obviously possible that, initially, things would go on exactly as they are now. In fact, that's the most likely outcome, at least for a while while we sort out what's going to happen. But it's also possible they won't

The thing is, we just don't know.

How does one plan for THAT?!

 

There is only so much planing you can do when the airplane is going down

 

I think more to the point, commercial airlines won't even take OFF if they think they won't be able to land and get back out again.

As I say, it's the not knowing that might be the most damaging.

I suspect things will simply carry on because it's in nobody's interest to actively try and cause problems but that's just a guess. In the long run e have to have some sort of deal.

The fact is even a 'no deal' actually implies A deal.

 

Brexit Minister has some interesting thought in this...

 

Given how the Spice Girls turned out after her departure, 15 Million solo records isn't that bad.

 

I have to say, when this thread started, I never envisaged the spice girls cropping up.

A failure of imagination on my part, I dare say.

 

I know you dont think Macron is a good president but while the UK is falling apart he is pretty good at striking up a new Entente

Good morning from Aachen where Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron are due to sign a treaty of Franco German cooperation pic.twitter.com/bWQMWQ7Tl2

— jenny hill (@jennyhillBBC) January 22, 2019

 

Cheese-eating Surrender/Attack Monkeys can't be good for Great Britain. Highly unpredictable.

 

Personally I don't have a problem with the guy. I was just commenting on the fact that he's lost a degree of popularity since coming to power.

The only problem with him apart from that is he's effectively Blair v2.0 which isn't a long term answer to the problems of the EU or even France.

I mean, we ended UP with brexit largely BECAUSE of the Blairite neo-liberalism that left many ordinary people behind.

I'm extremely afraid of where France is headed if he fails as I suspect it might be some sort of le Pen/Salvini/Orban style disaster.

But, regardless of that, I'm not entirely clear what the point of this latest exercise is other than PR.

 

Are people still burning shit and rioting around Paris? or did all that comedown already?

 

A faltering President and lame-duck Chancellor trying to revive the legacy of Charlemagne.

You do really get suckered don't you?

 

It happens when Remainders didn't come up with any plausible talk other than bad clichés.

 

They're preparing to invade the UK

 

Again!!!

 

Politics live on symbols. I see two big countries in your frontyard celebrating unity in the year of Euro elections. This is helping him internally as he was elected on a pro EU ticket pushing for further European integration.

If May was president of France she would have tried to blackmail Merkel for concessions just for selling them internally short term to the crowd. If Macron was your PM he wouldnt be popular but at least you wouldnt be in the mess you are right now.

 

It's been like that since de Gaulle and Addennauer. Both got their internal issues yes, but at least they are taking a stand in those, our crazy times when the UK and my country have already fallen to the populists

 

Well, the Brexit chaos scared the hell out of the continental voters and the Next/Frexit/Etc exit populist mongers fast backtracked on banging that drum. It's so bad for their image to be even connected to it that just last week reporters trying to get comments of Wilders and his posh copycat Baudet about the Brexit developments and their Nexit ideas found the doors shut.

 

Remember the French people rejected the constitution, it was politicians going against the will of the people that passed the Lisbon treaty.

This is something that maybe UK leaders will have to do, they may have to disregard the democratic process and tell their voters to 'shut up stupid', just like the French and Netherlands politicians did.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_French_European_Constitution_referendum

 

Well, it's for internal consumption, I think everyone realises that.

I was just pointing out that we effectively DID have our own version of Macron in the form of Blair, just not as good looking and with a worse haircut.

 

It is a factor in many modern European referendums that the people answer a completely different question to the one asked.

The same thing happened with the Italian one as well...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Italian_constitutional_referendum

Only they weren't as daft as to ask a substantial question. Theirs were more in the style of 'Do you like cheese'. If people say 'NO', it doesn't matter that much.

But the truth is that we've always been semi-detached from the EU. As I pointed out before, in 1975 we'd only been in the bloody thing 18 months and we had a vote as to whether we wanted to come out again.

If THAT didn't tell people everything they needed to know I don't know what does.

That's my overriding feeling about this whole mess... one of intense annoyance as to the stupidity of asking the bloody question in the first place

 

de Gaulle and Adenauer didn't want Britain in as they never saw them as a part of Europe, and both neither had a love for Britain either.

Marcon is in office thanks to populist politics since nobody trusted the candidates of the establishment.

Macron is trying to do the same in Europe only to find out that the find of people he needs to make it happen won't follow him. His populist stances don't work in the European sphere in which offices are allocated based on factional battles (More so as the Parliament is going to be even more fragmented)

In the end, the bosses in Brussels don't buy into what little dance E&A have going. They'll be the ones calling the shots as the power resides with them.