- Joined
- 10 Jan 08
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Originally posted by phil3000Yeah, maybe Scotland can turn into one of the most expensive places in Europe as well.
Before the Scottish referendum most Scots that wanted to leave the union cited Norway as an example of a relatively small populated country that is doing well economically .
Norway is not a member of the EU .
When you get independence from the union ,and I hope you do, Scotland will have to try a strike its own deal with the EU ( if the EU is still around ...[text shortened]... nd there will be no free prescriptions and university free -bees from Westminster .
Good luck .
The UK will probably end up with a similar relationship to the EU as Norway, if they think they're going to keep their trade agreements without having freedom of movement they're very much mistaken. It's the people who voted to leave because they thought 'those Europeans were taking our jobs' that annoy me most. The UK have an aging population, it needs people to come in from other countries and work to fuel the economy and pay taxes.
One thing that could change if they allow freedom to travel and not freedom to work is that the same people come to the UK but end up working illegally in farms or factories, the jobs that local people don't want to do and get paid cash in hand without paying any taxes.
Originally posted by FMFOh well, not even the 175,000 will get to choose, it seems. Nobody gets to choose, aside from the backroom choosers and their manoeuvres that have coughed up an unopposed May.
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, who will extricate the country - or at least begin to do so - from the European Union, will now be selected by a simple majority of the - what is it now? - the 175,000 paid up members of the Conservative Party around the towns and shires of Britain, so I think there might be more than one undemocratic mechanism in play at the moment. 🙂
-Removed-In reply to your post; I hold a UK passport (which is currently also an EU passport, but perhaps not for much longer, I fear). I also have a home and business interests in England, and pay income tax there, which I think gives me the right to feel however I feel on this subject, and express my feelings as I see fit. I never intended my post to be a debating tactic, it was, as I think I made clear, a personal perspective, and it was not intended to change anybody's mind. And by the way I have no 'determination' not to return home, I think I said that I have no intention of so doing in the foreseeable future, which are two quite different things, so please don't attempt to misquote me. I cannot do what I do here, there, so I will stay here as long as I am doing what I do, after which I may well return home at quite short notice, and I would like to return to a united Kingdom, sitting within a united Europe, but neither of these are any longer a given. So be as harsh as you like, but be careful what you call true; it is only your truth, and none of us should claim a monopoly on truth.
As for your second paragraph, I wonder what made you think that my post had anything to do with you or your argument. I understand the issues well enough; the unelected Euro - MPs are a well - trodden path in this regard, and I accept the problem. The question which the British voting public were asked to address was whether it was better to remain and prosper in this imperfect institution, (does a perfect institution exist?) or whether to leave, with the resultant and now all too apparent problems which the leaving brings with it. And as for racism, who said anything about racism? Certainly I didn't, but perhaps by then you were not replying directly to my post any more? Who but you knows, but just for the record I don't actually think you are racist, and those who do I think miss the point of your argument. Indeed you seem to hold our fellow Europeans in some affection, which makes it harder for the likes of me to understand why the likes of you are so eager for us to turn our backs on them in so blatant an act of selfish self - interest as to leave the union. All of the countries in the EU face the same dilemma, and dilemmas are better faced together, don't you think? And as for the 'smokescreen' argument, well I had to laugh at that one. So anybody who as a result of our likely and imminent departure from the European Union loses their job, or sees their savings evaporate, or their house devalue, or their benefit or pension decrease needn't be concerned; it's not really happening, it's just a smokescreen....
So anyway it's been good to talk, and as a final word from me, in my line of work I meet and dine with more mainland Europeans and so on in a year than most British people meet in a lifetime, and I can hereby pronounce that nobody that I have met wants Britain to leave, and so I feel sad at our leaving. And by the way, there really is no need to call me sir; our opinions may differ, and in this matter there is no absolute right or wrong, and people are pragmatic and resourceful, and life will go on, but I don't regard myself as being any better than you, and I hope the feeling is mutual.
