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UK triggers the official Brexit process in a letter to EU

bbc.com

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Re: UK triggers the official Brexit process in a letter to EU

#81

Post by lhopki01 »

Svip wrote: post #21
adnam wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We had plenty of conflict while part of the EU: the Falklands, Iraq, the IRA, Bosnia for example. It wasn't nationalism which caused conflicts in Europe, it was a lack of democracy.

But that suggests that the UK itself lacks democracy. If the UK doesn't change because of this, how will staying in or leaving the EU change that?

The UK does lack democracy. It has an unelected upper house and elections for the lower house are profoundly undemocratic. I have never lived anywhere in the UK where my vote counted for General Elections.

Re: UK triggers the official Brexit process in a letter to EU

#82

Post by barking »

This story is going to get very boring very quickly.

Little will be decided until close to the deadline in two years.

In the meantime life will go on as normal as it has for the last year.

What is much more interesting is what will happen shortly in France and whether the phenomena that led to Trump and Brexit are repeated elsewhere in Europe.

Re: UK triggers the official Brexit process in a letter to EU

#84

Post by ownagefool »

Two9A wrote: post #5

Are British HN'ers taking any mitigating steps due to this whole situation? I'm currently in the process of incorporating in the Netherlands, and it turns out setting up a Ltd is a lot more expensive over there than in the UK. I just don't feel that the UK will make good use of my tax receipts any more, so I'm almost obligated to take my work elsewhere.

If you live and work in the UK, you are tax domiciled here, irregardless of where you incoperate.

Re: UK triggers the official Brexit process in a letter to EU

#85

Post by phillc73 »

adnam wrote: post #24
ealexhudson wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't have the option per se: it can ask to abort it, and it can do so with the agreement of the 27. Also, the 27 can agree to a date far off in the future (it doesn't have to be two years). It seems staggeringly unlikely that they would allow us to abort without a major change in relationship, though, and politically things would need to get extremely difficult for the UK for that to become palatable. All the e…

What is the precise source for the statement "it can [abort the process] with the agreement of the 27"? It's not in Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.

A new European parliament resolution, which is yet be ratified.

"the UK will be able to revoke its notification of article 50 but this must be “subject to conditions set by all EU27 so they cannot be used as a procedural device or abused in an attempt to improve the actual terms of the United Kingdom’s membership”.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/mar/29/first-eu-re...

Re: UK triggers the official Brexit process in a letter to EU

#86

Post by matwood »

dustinmoris wrote: post #51

I'm a bit tired of reading doomsday messages by now. I am an European living and working in the UK and even though this affects me I have no reason to believe that things will go downwards now. If there's anything I've learned so far then that every analysis I've read couldn't have been more wrong. It almost seems like the more the UK economy doesn't collapse the more people shout even louder how bad the Brexit is. M…

Doomsday predictions make headlines, and balanced responses do not. People like black and white even though most topics are nuanced.

Re: UK triggers the official Brexit process in a letter to EU

#87

Post by k__ »

72deluxe wrote: post #55
k__ wrote: post #30

Hopefully, like Trump in the US, this will wake them up.

Who? And wake up to what? To do what?

The people of the UK.

I had the feeling they were resting on the inherited wealth of their empire for rather long now. They always wanted special treatments in the EU. They even pay mad bucks on their royals for basically nothing.

Maybe this Brexit will go down bad and they will change their ways and join the EU in 10-20 years as 'real' members.

But I don't have many hopes in that. Probably they will end up like Switzerland or something :/

Re: UK triggers the official Brexit process in a letter to EU

#88

Post by skylan_q »

fredley wrote: post #60
ForRealsies wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The EU is a novelty in human history. The desire for independence, for better or worse, is human nature.

Independence from what? Should England be an Independent state? London? The City of London?

It is a serious question worth asking. To just discard the desire for independence as backwards and stupid is to go too far.

Re: UK triggers the official Brexit process in a letter to EU

#89

Post by fredley »

chillydawg wrote: post #56
fredley wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only there was a snowball's chance in hell of this achieving something. (disclosure: party member)

indeed, but NOT campaigning is guaranteeing party death (disclosure: party member). The lib dems are pretty useless right now, but they may have a big swing next election and they need keeping alive until then. Generally, they're the only sane party. Mostly because it's easy to have ideals when you're not in power.

Yeah this. The fact they got completely played by the Conservatives in the last coalition, and failed to achieve their main goal (they lost the voting reform referendum they bargained everything away for), I am even more gloomy about the LD's prospects than I am Britain as a whole's. Maybe the Labour party will schism, and a new, strong lib-left party will form. One can but hope.

Re: UK triggers the official Brexit process in a letter to EU

#90

Post by krona »

ealexhudson wrote: post #3

I'm a big believer in not having assumptions and testing things with actual experiments. This is one experiment I'd rather not be participating in, though. It's difficult to see very much positive about this move; certainly there will be some benefits, but I expect greatly outweighed by the negatives (which will include higher prices, lower employment and probably lower standards for UK workers - the EU has consisten…

> which will include higher prices

Interesting. I was in a UK supermarket the other day and the asparagus on offer was from Spain and Mexico. The Mexican variety was cheaper, and just as good. Currently, Mexico pays a 14.4% common external tariff on this product, and it's still cheaper than what the EU (with it's massive array of agricultural subsidy) can produce. I imagine this is just the tip of the iceberg.

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