debtlessmanc

Exactly, the populists identify often what are genuine problems and then suggest the wrong solution. Main stream (centrist) politicians in the modern era ignore the problem, deny its a problem or even tell you that you are imagining it, this extends sometimes to the point of gaslighting the whole population. In the run up to the vote many many surveys were trotted out to say that migration did not suppress wages. On the street though anyone who has spoken to a tradesman at anypoint in the last 10 years will have heard a different story, told with total conviction. Indeed even my remain voting elder brother told me from his personal experience how his boss had got rid all british workers and replaced them with cheaper EE's. It is not my place to judge this, i am in a job that clearly benefits from the EU, however one can see how some sections of society ended up voting as they did. okay Boris is a lying shyster but at least he does not pretend to be anything better unlike the others....

well the uk may seek to restrict travel because of the virus and economy Greece etc may seek to encourage travel despite the virus for their economy, not sure who the villain is here?

cynical old me wonders if the govt is really eyeing the £76bn a year uk people spend abroad on holidays (3 times what visitors to the uk bring in).

not for international travel 14 days isolation etc

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Coal_and_Steel_Community from the article - "The ECSC was first proposed by French foreign minister Robert Schuman on 9 May 1950 as a way to prevent further war between France and Germany. He declared his aim was to "make war not only unthinkable but materially impossible"

Its is structure as it is to rescue, yet again, the euro zone. If the UK had been still in it would have beed strongly opposed to this for that reason (not being in the eurozone). As it is opposed by Denmark, Sweden. Austria and the NLs. Sweden has its own currency and is struggling to maintain its welfare state. Why it should bail out countries who retire at 60 on full pensions and cannot resist spending euro’s is a very good question. It goes to show that there were many smaller EU states ther did not bother to have an opinion on these things as they knew the uk would block them. Now they are being told to cough up or else. As to germany, merkel was very lucky (if it was luck) that the far right AFD went into meltdown at the same time or she might have had a real problem on her hands.

The countries with the biggest net inflow of tourist money will come out worse from this (the deaths will be about equivalent per capita eventually, the virus is not nationalist). Hence spain, france italy and greece’s indecent haste in ending lockdown to bring in infected tourists.

so the EU needs states to defend themselves? we pay them to throw us under a bus?

Well the article say it is the EU's fault? i suppose you could say anything negative about the EU is the individual states fault but anything positive is to the glory of the EU? sounds like a the kind of thing a religious zealot would say mind.

well the EU threw jet engines under a bus at the expense of cars in its deal with south korea https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-aerospace-industry-south-korea-exports-trade-deal/ who makes Jet engines and who make cars in the EU care to remind me?

There are genuine reasons why the uk is the most euro skeptic major eu country. The EU was founded to stop germany and france slitting each others throats as they have for 300 years. The uk had suffered from this problem for this whole period and now it has to pay for “the pleasure”

the only "decent" minimum wage is one that allows a resident of the country to live what we view as "a normal life" within that country. Denmark is quite restrictive of immigration as i understand it, eg it confiscates all wealth from asylum seekers eg jewelry etc. This kind of stuff is just EU states finding ways to "encourage" asylum seekers to go elsewhere. The NHS aint going anywhere, the country would explode if any govt proposed that.

centre around london? we already do Good friday agreement- ireland can have the north, why does the uk want a bunch of religious zealot bigots, on both sides. freedom of movement, we have a child deficit like most of the EU, eg italy and germany had catastrophic fertility rates, we need migration, so might as well select educated/wealthy migrants as anything Farming is a tough one, we can buy food more cheaply than grow it in the uk at the moment, the solution i think is mechanisation. the dutch already harvest cabbages and sprouts my machine, the uk uses cheap EU labour at the moment, contributes to our appallingly low productivity. state spending and minimum wage legislation? you are joking, minimum wage is currently undercut by using freedom of movement! if you have to pay enough for jobs for people to actually live on in the uk the minimum wage will rise NHS cuts why? the NHS is one of the cheapest and most efficient healthcare systems in the developed world why change it? YES

I answered, services, education, english speaking, reputation. Not sure how much detail you want, we have 500,000 overseas students in the uk, that is £12bn per year fees and the same living. There is a growing demand out there from developing countries eg India, we could take 10 times that if we wanted, realistically Oxbridge/Imperial could charge ivy league rates -£50k-100k/yr. Then there are schools my step daughters is now head of music at a world famous uk school, many of the kids arrive by personal jet in september. She also earns more than me as a professor at Uni.

under the article 50 deal we are not financially liable for anything that happens in the EU during the transition period. but yes they will try anything to keep the UK in.

I saw that, i used to work in the Netherlands for extended periods, lovely country and people. The only complaint i ever heard from regular Dutch people (obviously not members of the far right) about migrants was that many made no effort to learn Dutch. The point is of course that it quite easy to function there by speaking English, almost everyone does. When i decided in my 20's to work in Europe i wanted to learn a foreign language so i went to France knowing that i would have to learn french. English being the international language is part of the reason. not only do migrants often speak some english, but the UK is much much more laid back about preserving our culture, our language has won the competition. I collaborate with some norwegian people, one of their students (syrian - refugee status granted in Norway) wanted to visit us in the UK, with his wife and 4 kids. I admit it was a bit suspicious as he close to the end of his studied and he did not really need to visit. The Home office refused his visa application as a over stay risk. In subsequent emails he complained to me that he and his wife had to take norwegian lessons....

They call it "secondary migration" there is quite a lot of grumbling from eg somalians that Brexit might mean they have to stay in the Netherlands, horror of horror. https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/brexit-eu-citizens-immigration-somalia-migrants-home-office-javid-a8889841.html

we offered to take them from the camps directly, if the whole EU had done this then the whole thing would probably never have occurred https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34148913

it is from 6 months ago, hardly ancient news, and it was the beginning of the process of clearing the camps which is continuing you did not, it is the standard refrain of those who believe that that is what "this" is all about, if you have never used that expression in connection with Brexit than i apologise

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/07/french-police-begin-clearing-makeshift-migrant-camp-paris probably something to do with this, tbh the UK govt does not want shanty towns in the UK- do you?

How to explain 35% of ethnic minorities voting leave then?

it was a reference to 'english exceptionalism" the EU states already do this to each other, i do not think us being in or out has had any impact https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-36236606/police-use-tear-gas-at-austria-italy-border-protest

This has been occuring to me for a while, electric cars are not only simpler but they should need far less maintenance, it is wull known in the Tesla community that a Finnish owner has done over .5M miles in his tesla and the battery still charges 80% and it has needed very little maintenance. As you say we may see the EU trying to cling to the old ways despite the climate issues.

I don't know about public sector pensions, but academic pensions have limits on index linking- a maximum rate of increase so if we go full weimar they will be worth nothing.

singapore? only native english speaking country in region best universities in region, best schools in region service industries, finance, IT, media, film making major export industries Northern ireland? difficult to say longer term, if the EU proves to be the amazing success everyone claims and brexit doesn't, reunification is on the cards if not, if NI gains in some way from being UK then it will have special status trade wise within the uk, EU border in the Irish Sea