Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU • Hacker News Board

Re: Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU

#481

Post by mike_hearn » Sun, Aug 30, 2026, 11:37 AM UTC

matteoraso wrote: post #395

somenameforme wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When the EU was more a coalition of independent nations, it had vastly more influence and power in the world. The efforts to centralize power seem to be exactly what's causing the divisions. You have highly partisan leaders trying to dictate policy to countries that lean in very different directions. That's not going to lead to good things. Stable empires have always been those that offered the greatest degrees of so…

But the EU was never meant to be a loose forum of nations. From the very beginning, the Single European Act made it clear that the intention was to integrate the member states into a single union, "speaking ever increasingly with one voice".[0] [0] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELE...

Indeed. It was a bad idea from day one.

Re: Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU

#482

Post by general1465 » Sun, Aug 30, 2026, 12:18 PM UTC

surgical_fire wrote: post #480

general1465 wrote: post #473

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment is a great example of getting triggered and then agreeing with everything what I have written.

Except, no. Iceland has to comply with EU because it is in the EEA. The situation of Iceland is completely different than the situation of the UK. The UK has to comply with the EU as much as Nicaragua, New Zealand, Namibia, etc.

I did not said anything what would disagree with your claims.

If you are an exporter and exporting goods to EU you have to comply with EU rules if you like it or not and whether you are a member or not.

Re: Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU

#483

Post by 1718627440 » Sun, Aug 30, 2026, 12:39 PM UTC

troupo wrote: post #471

1718627440 wrote: post #468

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But they are not IN the EU, and the UK doing a Brexit (aka. leaving the EU) does not make them incapable of having the same arrangement as Norway and Switzerland.

They are not in the EU but very deeply integrated with the EU, its laws and regulations, and even finance the EU. That's the point of my comment. They are not strictly "without".

Which is what the UK also could have done.

Re: Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU

#484

Post by snarf21 » Sun, Aug 30, 2026, 1:03 PM UTC

saturn8601 wrote: post #454

snarf21 wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We should never allow digital voting ever. Machines should only be allowed to help count with the ability to hand count the paper. There are so many exploits and leverage for software/hardware in any system (even closed ones) that has to be updated every year. It becomes very very hard to create a million "passable" paper votes out of thin air. It is trivial to do with a digital system.

But then, in a country of 300 plus million people like the U.S., there is a demand for getting election results as soon as possible, because without quick results, it opens the window for bad actors to claim the election was rigged. That's part of the reason why there was a motivation for digital systems. Furthermore, the U.S. In particular does a lot more than just voting for candidates. Often the ballots have refer…

The issue is that the people claiming things are rigged are the same ones creating this opportunity and it has nothing to do with digital voting. I live in PA and the current law is that mail-in votes can't be even started to be counted until after the polls have closed. (This law had good intent so that a potential fraudster couldn't know exactly how many votes they needed.) During Covid, Democrats tried to get this law changed and Republicans categorically refused. The only reason not to is that the mail-in (especially during Covid) leaned heavily Biden so they could pretend there was fraud.

I get that people want results very quickly but I don't think paper is a restriction to that. There can just be a law that says you count votes every hour and add them to the tally. So at poll close, you only have to count a small number of late ballots and submit your totals. Everything would be done by 9:00 pm. The thing with double verification and recounts is that for 99%+ of races, the results aren't really in doubt. I do think that deviation from historical statistical patterns for a precinct should be an auto recount as well as results that are less than 1% (X votes) different. This is also where the FEC needs to step in and saw that there are federal rules for how voting must happen as this is a constitutional right, not simply a "do whatever you want" rule. Honestly, we need a new amendment to protect voting rights and stabilize the system a bit more.

Re: Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU

#485

Post by ghusto » Sun, Aug 30, 2026, 1:04 PM UTC

squidbeak wrote: post #356

ghusto wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends who you talk to. I have a mixed bag of UK friends, and it's about half-half. One thing I think myself is that there was an ugly _hope_ that the UK would suffer as a result. A hope which, as far as I can see, wasn't realised. Living in Europe, I saw a lot on the news about how the UK had shot itself in the foot and things were going badly, but when I visit friends, not so much.

> I have a mixed bag of UK friends, and it's about half-half. Polls show the population regrets Brexit. [1] > One thing I think myself is that there was an ugly _hope_ that the UK would suffer as a result. A hope which, as far as I can see, wasn't realised. Living in Europe, I saw a lot on the news about how the UK had shot itself in the foot and things were going badly, but when I visit friends, not so much. The UK…

> Polls show the population regrets Brexit

57% is what I said and would have expected to see. Aside from that, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that a poll on "do you regret brexit" is looking for a particular answer.

> The UK took a big hit to GDP as a result of Brexit

During that time period, we had Covid, global supply chain disruptions, Russias invasion of Ukrain, central banks raising interest rates, energy and food prices going up globally. Brexit was just one of many factors effecting the UK GDP. To say "GDP went down because of Brexit" is disingenuous.

> ordinary people have faced steeper household bills ever since

This one's the biggest clue that Brexit isn't as bad as people are making out. The EU country I'm living in, and those I've visited on holidays in the last years are also complaining of exactly the same thing. It's across EU (the world?), but people look at the UK and say "See, Brexit was bad".

Re: Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU

#486

Post by ghusto » Sun, Aug 30, 2026, 1:07 PM UTC

owebmaster wrote: post #337

ghusto wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends who you talk to. I have a mixed bag of UK friends, and it's about half-half. One thing I think myself is that there was an ugly _hope_ that the UK would suffer as a result. A hope which, as far as I can see, wasn't realised. Living in Europe, I saw a lot on the news about how the UK had shot itself in the foot and things were going badly, but when I visit friends, not so much.

What got better in the UK after Brexit?

I made no claims that anything got better. Just that people are exaggerating its effects to support their politics.

Re: Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU

#487

Post by dgellow » Sun, Aug 30, 2026, 1:14 PM UTC

bArray wrote: post #443

dgellow wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The vote wasn’t binding and had a low turnout. Not really a good example to point to for democratic voting

Does that mean when a government is elected by a low turnout, that it is also not democratic? The current UK government was elected on a 59.7% electorate turnout [1], whereas Brexit was decided based on a 72.2% electorate turnout [2]. [1] https://closer.ac.uk/contextual-data/turnout-uk-general-elec... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_Kingdom_European_U...

Democratic isn’t binary, it’s a spectrum. And I said it’s not a good example of a democratic vote, not that it is undemocratic. It’s closer to the undemocratic end of the spectrum. Though that turnout number is actually way higher than I remember, 70% is actually very high!

Re: Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU

#488

Post by surgical_fire » Sun, Aug 30, 2026, 1:38 PM UTC

general1465 wrote: post #482

surgical_fire wrote: post #480

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except, no. Iceland has to comply with EU because it is in the EEA. The situation of Iceland is completely different than the situation of the UK. The UK has to comply with the EU as much as Nicaragua, New Zealand, Namibia, etc.

I did not said anything what would disagree with your claims. If you are an exporter and exporting goods to EU you have to comply with EU rules if you like it or not and whether you are a member or not.

That's not why Iceland has to comply with the EU.

Iceland has to comply with the EU because it chose to belong to the EEA.

Re: Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU

#489

Post by runarberg » Sun, Aug 30, 2026, 1:39 PM UTC

inglor_cz wrote: post #288

runarberg wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I find it really amusing just how different our perspectives on the EU are. You accuse the EU of being neo-liberal, I accuse it of being a micromanaging bureaucratic behemoth heaping endless new regulations on everything including wrapping paper (this is our current outrage of the day), endlessly distrustful towards people who what just to take care of themselves and be left alone. It is hard to believe that we are b…

I think this speaks volumes about how far right the Overton window has shifted in Europe, if my run-of-the-mill leftist critique of the EU sounds so novel.

I actually blame Brexit for this. Before Brexit being anti-EU for anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist reason was kind of a litmus test for a left wing political candidate.

Note this is also true of Iceland. The debate was mostly about nationalism and economy, and the left wing case against the EU was hardly ever mentioned.

I also think asking your average European voter is bad faith (and is done by the media all the time). When asked about specific policies, the answers skew left. But when asked about ideology the answers will skew right. And the European media (including national broadcasters) totally abuse this, asking (or rather hiring private polling firms to ask) ”do you like capitalism?“ where the answer will probably be “yes” instead of “Do you want workers or shareholder to have more share of the wealth?”

Re: Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU

#490

Post by skinfaxi » Sun, Aug 30, 2026, 2:15 PM UTC

Doohickey-d wrote: post #102

Beretta_Vexee wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the factors leading them to reconsider EU membership is monetary policy. The Icelandic króna is a very small currency that fluctuates considerably. Switching to the euro would protect them from exchange rate risks with their main trading partner. One solution for Iceland would be to join the eurozone without becoming a member of the EU, as Kosovo and Montenegro have done. However, this would only be desirable…

As I understand it, Kosovo and Montenegro adopted the Euro unilaterally, without agreement from the EU. I don't think that'd be (politically) possible for Iceland (?). So the EU would need to agree to this, which also doesn't seem politically possible (?)

Why would they need permission to use a currency?