Can anyone see any advantages for the general population in the current course our country is taking?
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
Do we need an EU referendum thread? (Brexit thread)
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Posted 7 years ago #
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This country needs some time alone, to work out what we've lost.
Posted 7 years ago # -
We will create new jobs in the information economy. As informers.
Posted 7 years ago # -
This country needs some time alone
I believe that's the general idea.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Can we talk to the wall? Please
Posted 7 years ago # -
“This country needs some time alone
I believe that's the general idea.”
Whose general idea?
As is clear, there is no uniform idea at Westminster - even along party lines.
It’s very clear that Brexit/watered-down-Brexit/cliff-edge-Brexit/no-Brexit, will not turn out the way anyone wants/plans.
As for “time alone”, one of the paradoxes of Brexit is that some of the people who think they want it seem happy with ideas of isolation - wanting nothing to do with foreigners (here or ‘there’) - others fantasise about the brave new (trade) world that will soon be sending milk and honey back to open/fortress Britain.
Posted 7 years ago # -
People who will benefit from Hard Biscuits:
Asset strippers
Personal wealth advisers with offshore connections
Privatisers
Scrap metal dealers
Corporate restructuring specialists
Loan sharks
Private medical insurance providers
Bailiffs/Sheriff Officers
Criminal gangs involved in protection rackets/smuggling/import-export fraud
Private security firmsEr.....that's it.
Everyone else is f***ed.
(I may have missed a few categories of beneficiaries, please feel free to add below).
Posted 7 years ago # -
“
The EU's chief Brexit negotiator has warned Britain that a long-term free trade deal will take "several years" to negotiate and fall short of the comprehensive deal Theresa May has vowed to negotiate.
“
Posted 7 years ago # -
There might be one good thing about a hard Brexit after all
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In the past, long-distance exchanges of goods and people usually took place within empires — the Roman Empire, the British Empire — or else depended on the implicit threat of force: If you don’t fulfill your contract, we’ll bomb your port or beat up your emissary.
In places that don’t have a legal framework for commerce and trade, that’s how things still work. In the early 1990s, I met a young “businessman” in Ukraine who explained to me that he only did deals with cousins. His family members, fanned out across several cities, swapped and bartered with one another because they trusted no one else. He was operating in a lawless space — a world most of us can’t remember.
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Posted 7 years ago # -
The silly billy has been slapped down, even by a member of the Johnson clan.
Posted 7 years ago # -
His family members, fanned out across several cities, swapped and bartered with one another because they trusted no one else.
@crowriver
This type of trade underpins at least £10bn of the UK economy; the trade in illegal drugs and sex slaves.
Posted 7 years ago # -
@IWRATS, sure and also the contraband ciggies, booze and various consumer gadgets that mysteriously is made available for sale in windowless pubs and car parks the length and breadth of Blighty. That's been going on for decades: it's the cash-only black economy created by low wages and unemployment.
1990s post-Soviet bloc economies though created these kinds of clandestine trading networks on a massive scale, often brazenly out in the open too. They had existed at a certain level for some time prior to the collapse of communism, but essentially took over large sectors of these economies afterwards.
Imagine having to go to these guys for basic food shopping, fuel, white goods, etc. That's what the WP article is suggesting may happen under Hard Biscuits because the only international trading agreements in operation will be the illegal ones.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Lord Buckethead @LordBuckethead
I have just sent this letter to your Houses of Parliament, in response to a letter that an MP has sent to universities from your Parliament.https://twitter.com/LordBuckethead/status/922836620071534593/photo/1
Posted 7 years ago # -
Some history on Altiero Spinelli, considered to be the founding father of the EU and seemingly only known to young Poles:
In Polish with English subtitles.
*Views expressed do not necessarily represent my own...
Posted 7 years ago # -
I think it's safe to say this cycling forum is the only one with a link to history of Alterio Spinelli. I watched and read with interest.
Later cyclist.co.uk link seems to think it would be good if the Great British Consumer could get Chinese bicycles for less as there is so little manufacturing left here. (EU tax to prevent dumping - as do US).
Groan... More Brexit opportunities hogwash?Posted 7 years ago # -
The Catalan declaration of independence is going to consume huge amounts of the EU's time and energy whatever happens.
Clock ticking and the interests of the UK of GB&NI nowhere near the top of the agenda. It never looked good but it looks a lot worse now.
Posted 7 years ago # -
If Brexit hadn't happened it would have been a bigger shock but EU is already immunised to surprise and showing signs of circling wagons to allow little variance from 'Catalonia might be a country / region but will never be a self-governing state' line.
I expect May and Davidson to play the 'European common interest' line. This will show them as true friends of Spain and the EU and also attempt to marginalise the Scottish Government's support for the concept of Catalan self-governance. If Madrid is as heavy handed as expected they can highlight this as the consequences of ignoring the rule of law of a great and proud nation etc. Plus we need Madrid to be nice on the Gibralter Question where 95% of residents voted to stay attached to EU.
So being 'tough on separatism' and any other 'ism' could help May get points for her next Brexit encounters.
UK also has form on dark arts of media control (BBC already running rolling headline of Scottish Government support for the Catalans - contrasting with the 'EUK' unified line of dissapproval with much talk of the silent Spanish Unionist majority being too scared to speak and having to rely on the 99% state control of the media)UK Gov traditionally sided with the forces of Franco.
Worth reading this book.
http://www.luath.co.uk/homage-to-caledonia-scotland-and-the-spanish-civil-war.htmlPosted 7 years ago # -
Posted 7 years ago #
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"While much poorer in the 1980s, Britain mattered internationally."
Hm, possibly something to do with the Cold War West/East, Capitalism/Communism divide?
"Even worse, people feel the country will fall into the hands of Jeremy Corbyn and that will do more damage than Brexit itself.”
Double hm.....NYT sourced experts seem to be cast from a right-leaning neoliberal mould.
"Britain’s political culture and economic stability have been eroding for some time, hidden by the longstanding willingness of others to give it the benefit of the doubt"
This sounds like a much more realistic appraisal. If you ask me we've been on borrowed time since the financial services bubble burst.
'But those validated by the old identity then felt like strangers in their own land, Mr. Leonard said. “Their revenge was Brexit.” '
Also rings true.
Posted 7 years ago # -
"Britain’s political culture and economic stability have been eroding for some time, hidden by the longstanding willingness of others to give it the benefit of the doubt"
Britain has punched above its weight due in large measure to its soft power - our cultural exports have been very strong, our universities are very well regarded. Brexit is heavily undermining both of these.
Posted 7 years ago # -
our universities are very well regarded. Brexit is heavily undermining
Anybody know if Edinburgh's international student numbers are down this year?
Posted 7 years ago # -
https://www.ed.ac.uk/student-recruitment/admissions-advice/admissions-statistics
I suspect EU will still attract similar numbers, as will other 'prestige' institutions.
Could change if there is a lecturer flight/unwillingness to move to isolated U.K.
Might depend on a postBrex Scottish immigration policy/flexibility (if Westminster allows one).
Might also depend whether Westminster is running anything!
Posted 7 years ago # -
I thought EU students are more heavily subsidised than students from other uk countries the Eu students don’t have to pay tuition fees upfront unlike students from England and Wales. its non eu that bring in money.
Posted 7 years ago # -
The University of Edinburgh is bucking the wider trends, apparently, with numbers for both staff and students from the EU increasing.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Also funding from EU to UofE has increased this year.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Ireland (the island and the republic) has to deal with the realities implied by the deranged hooting coming from London. The Irish Times has spotted that Norwegians and Norway are in a particular pickle also.
Posted 7 years ago # -
The EU is openly asking the UK if it intends to become an offshoot of the USA.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Actual nausea.
Posted 7 years ago # -
More from Mr Barnier;
Beyond paying their bills and guaranteeing EU citizens' rights the British have got to find a solution to the Irish border problem they have created before the EU will talk about anything else. That's always been the case but he's more or less jabbing them in the chest and repeatedly shouting it now.
No writer that I have found has proposed a solution that preserves both the unitary state of the UK of GB&NI and the Belfast Agreement. It would seem, barring a stroke of genius, that the UK must be partitioned or face a resurgence in violence in one of its north-west corners. Quite possibly both of course.
Posted 7 years ago #
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