Hello from France.
This is my 1st post here, I beg your pardon for my not-so-fluent English.
I’ve been reading this discussion with much interest.
I still can’t understand how the Leave campaign successfully lured British people into that mess. Brexit may not be a disaster, but it will be an economic problem for both UK and EU, and even more so if there is no deal.
But now it’s more than time for Britain to leave.
Thank you kato for these very interesting links. I think 1 sentence on the UK government’s page sums it all up :
"The UK has secured a special status in a reformed EU."
That is what the British governments have been doing for 40 years : always demanding a special deal for Britain, from Thatcher’s "I want my money back" to Cameron’s blackmail before the Brexit vote. Hence the government’s web page that proudly sounds like : "no need to leave, we’re already out !" (not sure it is the better idea to make people vote Remain, though)
But, while never fully accepting the common rules, these governments very effectively used their position inside the EU, in order to make it a common market with as few political power as possible. They supported each step towards liberalized markets and free trade agreements with other countries, and each step that would make decisions in the EU more difficult to make (such as the adhesion of Turkey, for example).
So now the EU is not so far from Hannan’s dream "a common market without a common government". As the Alstom-Siemens story has recently shown, the EU Commission makes more efforts to preserve free competition on the inner market than to protect European industries from the state-supported giants from China or the USA. Hannan’s dream happens to be also Trump’s, Xi Jinpin’s and Putin’s dream.
Now for 3 years, the British government has been demanding a special status outside the EU. While the US aggressiveness and the overwhelming power of China would need their attention so much, the European representatives have spent most of their time and energy trying to make a deal with a country that doesn’t know if he wants one. That is one more hit the British governments have done to the EU construction, hopefully the last one.
In the region where I leave, there is an old expression when welcoming a visitor at home : "chabatz d’entrar" – literally : finish entering.
It’s time for Britain to finish leaving…
This is my 1st post here, I beg your pardon for my not-so-fluent English.
I’ve been reading this discussion with much interest.
I still can’t understand how the Leave campaign successfully lured British people into that mess. Brexit may not be a disaster, but it will be an economic problem for both UK and EU, and even more so if there is no deal.
But now it’s more than time for Britain to leave.
Originally posted by kato
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Thank you kato for these very interesting links. I think 1 sentence on the UK government’s page sums it all up :
"The UK has secured a special status in a reformed EU."
That is what the British governments have been doing for 40 years : always demanding a special deal for Britain, from Thatcher’s "I want my money back" to Cameron’s blackmail before the Brexit vote. Hence the government’s web page that proudly sounds like : "no need to leave, we’re already out !" (not sure it is the better idea to make people vote Remain, though)
But, while never fully accepting the common rules, these governments very effectively used their position inside the EU, in order to make it a common market with as few political power as possible. They supported each step towards liberalized markets and free trade agreements with other countries, and each step that would make decisions in the EU more difficult to make (such as the adhesion of Turkey, for example).
So now the EU is not so far from Hannan’s dream "a common market without a common government". As the Alstom-Siemens story has recently shown, the EU Commission makes more efforts to preserve free competition on the inner market than to protect European industries from the state-supported giants from China or the USA. Hannan’s dream happens to be also Trump’s, Xi Jinpin’s and Putin’s dream.
Now for 3 years, the British government has been demanding a special status outside the EU. While the US aggressiveness and the overwhelming power of China would need their attention so much, the European representatives have spent most of their time and energy trying to make a deal with a country that doesn’t know if he wants one. That is one more hit the British governments have done to the EU construction, hopefully the last one.
In the region where I leave, there is an old expression when welcoming a visitor at home : "chabatz d’entrar" – literally : finish entering.
It’s time for Britain to finish leaving…
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