What did it do?
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As an Englishman who has lived permanently in France since 2003, and who visited here frequently during the 1990s, I am at a loss as to know how Brexit has not been good for me.
I still have permanent right of residence, excellent healthcare, and pay my taxes just like any Frenchman does.
I do note that often the Brexit debate centers around personal financial matters, indeed the original post that started this thread does exactly that. Also, matters of personal convenience are often raised such as having to show one’s passport to come and go to and from the EU when this is accepted normal practice when traveling anywhere else in the world.
For me, these personal matters are irrelevant to Brexit. The matter is not one of personal convenience or financial expediency as no-one is forced to visit or live in the EU.
The important point about Brexit is what is best for the UK. Do we wish our laws to be made in Westminster by British people, or in Brussels by people the majority of whom have probably never set foot in the UK and certainly have little, if any, knowledge of British customs and traditions.
There was always going to be a national financial cost of Brexit, but in my view it’s a price worth paying in order to maintain the independence of my country.
We have fought for centuries to maintain Britain’s independence, and paid a huge price in blood and lives doing so. Why on earth would we then wish to just give it all away to a law making body in Brussels that seems trapped in a morass of indecision.
I am all for promoting trade between the UK and the EU, but being a member state of the EU is not a prerequisite of achieving that.
Each time I visit the local supermarket I am being offered Avocados from Peru and Kiwis from New Zealand. China seems to have no problem doing business with the EU, whether it be an electric car or a new battery for the smoke alarm. Indeed we joke about everything being made in China because so many things sold here in the EU are indeed made in that country.
So there we have bountiful evidence that you don’t have to be in the EU to be in business with it.
In any case, for me this Brexit business is not about national financial gain, but much more about maintaining the independence of my country that so many of my forebears gave so much to protect.
God save the King.
“There”, in this case, being the UK not France.
As the only place mentioned in your post was the EU, I naturally believed that your use of the word ‘there’ was referring back to that named place.
Yes, I could have probably worded that better / more clearly.
And yet
Other than that all you offer is the hackneyed argument about sovereignty and laws imposed by Brussels - completely ignoring the fact hat we were supposed to be a fully paid up member of that process.
No-one every said you did, but it is easier and less costly if you are.
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So raising the houses prices, putting them out of the range of locals is ok? Benefits do not have to be only financial for a group who believes themselves to be entitled.
Britain is not independent, and under prevailing financial systems it never will be.
Britain is linked to the US economy and to world banking.
Everything that happens globally and nationally is defined by these people. The rest is just fairy stories to control the plebs.
We should be in the EU because it acknowledges that fact and gives us what little leverage is now available to a post-imperial, post-industrial, medium sized economy.
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Agreed.
I am probably a conspiracy theorist. I cannot stop thinking that the big players on the world stage, the USA, Russia and China, are quietly engaged in supporting those that want to weaken the EU. The reality of the situation is that a fully integrated EU, with all the members singing off the same hymn sheet, would be a formidable force in global politics.
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I’m pretty sure that’s what they’re doing and that’s why Russia allegedly interfered in the Brexit campaign, Hungary and so on.
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We will differ on the place that the UK has in the world of today, its reliance for nearly everything on countries, organisations and finance that are essentially outwith direct control, and with which the UK has increasingly little clout. Liz Truss thought that she could ignore the financial markets and that didn’t end well for her or the smack in the face that the UK economy took as a result. The same could be equally said of France, re markets, the big difference being that it is in a club with other countries prepared to flex their might, for all of their cumulative weaknesses, to promote a vision of how they see the world, and how to stand together in the face of the events presented to it. Pushing back against common think is not excluded, indeed, lobbying for one’s home countries interests within that common framework is part of the deal, as it were. The UK was a champion at brokering both the law within the EU, as well as exceptions to those laws for its own benefit. It has now lost that influence, and a good deal of political credibility in the process. I am still amazed that people believe that the UK is in an ascendant phase on the world stage, when in reality, its influence is waning faster than arctic ice melt. It appears to have become a rule taker from all sides, now, where’s the advantage in that? One can only hope that, as political wheels and fortunes turn, there will come a time when the UK might once again have a modicum of influence with the American administration, but that might take a while.
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In principle I think it’s a good idea to re-join but like many things in life the timing could be important as many countries in the bloc currently have serious internal issues so the fact that any decision won’t have to be made for several years is fortunate.
I think you might have replied to the wrong person.
I fear that many of the small businesses that relied pre-Brexit on trade between UK and Europe may already have gone out of business.
However, given how valuable freedom of movement was for young people, for that reason alone I think it would be worth UK rejoining the EU. And I gather the desperate need in UK for care workers, fruit pickers er al has already been busy building a new bridge.
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Quite.
That business which has survived has done so by adjusting and absorbed the costs involved. It will not willingly absorb a second set of costs just to return to the status quo ante.
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I did, sorry.
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So raising the houses prices, putting them out of the range of locals is ok? Benefits do not have to be only financial for a group who believes themselves to be entitled.
No worries.
Sweden I believe doesn’t have the Euro so why should the UK ?
Sweden is still an EU member. The UK likewise wasn’t forced to take the Euro when HMG decided to join.
The UK left, stuck two fingers up to Masstrict and the EU will want their pound of flesh to let the UK back in.