EUBanana

Er. We voted to leave the four freedoms of the EU.

It will indeed be quite difficult to sell that lie given the entire world of contra-examples out there.

They would also be between considerably more sane entities.

I will forgive no one who does not respect the sovereign voice of the British people once it has spoken whether it is a majority of one per cent or 20 per cent. When the British people have spoken you do what they command. Either you believe in democracy or you don’t. - Paddy Ashdown Policies destroy people's livelihoods all the time. I hope you don't plan on voting Corbyn if you're saying that with a straight face! The difference is that this is a temporary disruption. When Ted Heath dropped New Zealand in the 70s we were their main export partner, and they got cliff edged worse than we are about to get. They are fine. Perspective.

(... that said if it dissolving the UK happens I wouldn't be bothered about it. )

Arlene Foster's red line is that Northern Ireland stays in the UK. She isn't concerned about a border with the Republic. When specifically asked about a hard border they waffled but didn't rule it out. So. Just Remainer fearmongering, usual stuff.

Seems like May's only vision is damage limitation, ie to do as little as required to satisfy voters. Frictionless borders? Er. I don't care. If I wanted a frictionless border with the EU, I would've voted Remain.

Good chap.

I think he's quite competent, it's unfortunate he looks like Doctor Evil.

He says not, and he's a backbencher so he's not even in the running realistically.

That's not an end to the housing crisis. That is a symptom of the housing crisis, a demonstration that it is ongoing and indeed getting worse every year.

Proof that T.May is selling us out is the fact that EFTA is flat out better than the dire deal that she's negotiating. EFTA would mean, no divorce bill, our fish is our fish, the ECJ has no jurisdiction, we are in the single market and would have to obey their rules - but not as interpreted by the ECJ, we are free to make trade deals with other nations, FOM under EFTA is free movement of labour not people (try and move to Norway without a job)... You know, all the stuff that Barnier is saying is completely impossible. No uncertainty either because it's off the shelf, EFTA made clear it's an option, pretty much just have to press the button. It may not be a desirable end state. Maybe it will be. But it'll certainly do as a transition, yet David Davis and co have categorically ruled it out as a bad deal. i'm dubious, given what I hear their alternative is going to be. They want us in.

We have progressive taxation, 'from each according to ability.' Welfare is allocated purely on need. There's no contribution required. You rock up to the dole office, you declare you have no income and less than 16k, you get money. 'to each according to his needs'. I wasn't aware this was controversial, do you disagree?

The UK system is openly Marxist, when you think about it. Welfare has as its principle 'from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.' Fundamentally it's the opposite of contributions based systems, which are the ones the Nordics have. Depends how you define left wing but the UK is unarguably more Soviet than other 'left-wing' European nations. Different sort of left here.

Sweden at least is quite decentralised in many ways, consider the Swedish health service for example. "Customer" choice is built in. Compare to the more Stalinist, centralised approach the UK bureaucracy always takes.