211–220 of 251 posts
…and Gibraltar will enter the Schengen zone, abolishing all border controls on its border with Spain ( https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55497084 ) Once that comes into effect, the Spanish/Gibraltarian police will be allowed to enter Gibraltar/Spain when in hot pursuit and to continue observation operations ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Area#Police_and_judic... )
I'm amazed at reading British HNers who are presumably mostly rational calling Brexit "evil" and "racist" on this thread. I personally think Brexit is probably an ill-advised move for the UK, but the feelings provoked here by leaving a historically recent trade and cultural union are far, far out of proportion with the deed itself. If anything actually destroys your country, it'll be the exaggerated emotional respons…
Removing free movement of people is the evil bit.
…and Gibraltar will enter the Schengen zone, abolishing all border controls on its border with Spain ( https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55497084 ) Once that comes into effect, the Spanish/Gibraltarian police will be allowed to enter Gibraltar/Spain when in hot pursuit and to continue observation operations ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Area#Police_and_judic... )
Not all border control: non-Gibraltar UK citizens will still have to show passports at the Gibraltar-Spanish border.
How would that even work, a border where some persons have to identify themselves while others can cross freely? That would catch only the truly stupid criminals. (But what do I know? Reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Area makes my head go dizzy with all the exceptions. You can sort-of sneak into the Schengen area via Svalbard or the Faroe islands, for example, so some holes needed to be closed there)
Such a system only work when everybody already has to show ID, as is the case when traveling by boat or plane to and from the parts of Spain in Africa (that’s a security check, not a border check. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Area#Air_travel)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This sort of thing was the kind of statement we heard pretty frequently over the course of the Brexit process, but it’s really horribly nonspecific - “big government excess”, “bureaucratic overhead” etc. The total EU budget is about 2% of the total public spending of the member states. That’s a chunk of change at at international level, but is relatively lightweight as a layer of government. Much of its spending is i…
> What are the specific EU programmes or endeavours that represent “globalist excess” and should be cut? I'm pro-EU, but I'd say the Euro is questionable, at least in hindsight. However the UK opted out of it (and Schengen), which makes this a non-argument for Brexit. One thing the UK could have done but never did, was to require EU citizens to move out if they were jobless for 3 months. Given this, it's mind-bogglin…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The EU vote in Norway almost 30 years ago was very, very different from the British Brexit affair. Luckily for us Norwegians, we didn't suffer from anyone like Mark Francois, for example. Of course you could say that Brexit has nothing to do with British culture.
> The EU vote in Norway almost 30 years ago was very, very different from the British Brexit affair It was driven by the same core concerns about national sovereignty.
EDIT: I meant "peculiarly British", but I haven't the heart to edit that typo.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
As an Englishman, I'm entirely in favor of Scottish independence. It would save us a considerable amount of money.
Very interesting that you would be willing to make yourself into yet an even weaker entity. What a tragic and utterly preventable denouement for a once proud empire.
But Scotland produces only about 6 percent of the UK's total exports. The vast majority of what it produces is "exported" to England, Wales, and Northern Ireland (about £50 billion to the UK compared to £15 billion to the EU and £17 billion to the rest of the world). It also has a fiscal deficit that's largely offset by the English taxpayer. Scotland is much more economically dependent on the UK than the UK is on Scotland.
Outside of the UK, Scotland may be a credible middle-ranking small country comparable to Czechia. It certainly could not afford to maintain its current level of public services. Without Scotland, the rest of the UK would remain one of the largest economies in the world.
(btw, Scotland was never an Imperial possession of British Empire. The Union with Scotland was peaceful, and largely in the interests of the Scots, who had succeeded in destroying their economy through mismanagement, unwise allegiances with the French, and unsuccessful attempts to build their own empire).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This sort of thing was the kind of statement we heard pretty frequently over the course of the Brexit process, but it’s really horribly nonspecific - “big government excess”, “bureaucratic overhead” etc. The total EU budget is about 2% of the total public spending of the member states. That’s a chunk of change at at international level, but is relatively lightweight as a layer of government. Much of its spending is i…
> The total EU budget is about 2% of the total public spending of the member states. That’s a chunk of change at at international level, but is relatively lightweight as a layer of government. this argument is constantly stated and it's still as bogus as ever the vast majority cost of implementing powers delegated to the EU is borne by national budgets once correctly attributed: the "lightweight" label becomes somewh…
You’re right that implementation of regulation is funded domestically. But it would be incorrect to attribute all of the spending to “the EU”, given that much of it takes the place of whatever alternative domestic regulation and implementation would be required in the same area.
I'm amazed at reading British HNers who are presumably mostly rational calling Brexit "evil" and "racist" on this thread. I personally think Brexit is probably an ill-advised move for the UK, but the feelings provoked here by leaving a historically recent trade and cultural union are far, far out of proportion with the deed itself. If anything actually destroys your country, it'll be the exaggerated emotional respons…
Just compare the economic growth per capita of Norway (not in EU) with Sweden (in EU). It's at best an exaggeration that leaving the EU is going to have a significant deleterious impact on the UK.
“Laß dir Alles geschehn: Schönheit und Schrecken. Man muß nur gehen: Kein Gefühl ist das fernste.”
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's complicated. I know some minority ethnic British people who voted for Brexit for entirely xenophobic reasons ... and others who would swear up and down that they were not racist one minute, and then spend the next spouting the most hateful sort of lies. Fear and hatred are powerful emotions, and the flames of discontent have been fanned for years by tabloid propaganda and industrialised hate.
Older South Asians still remember Commonwealth visa free travel and think the EU is racist in favor of white people
On the other hand, most of the people who I know who voted 'Leave' had poorly disguised (and sometimes completely insane) xenophobic rationale for doing so.
Also - and significantly - racially motivated aggression and hostility toward my (mixed race) family suddenly increased to intolerable levels in the weeks and months following the Brexit vote.
The whole affair has been an undeniable victory for the nastiest sort of hatred, and has demolished the pride I felt in my country as a bastion of reasonableness and tolerance.