I did reply, but was overshadowed by vanessa.
I thanked you Barry. I read your post before it was hidden 
Oh, I am SO fed up with people saying things like âwhere are the EUs proposalsâ and âthe EU must respect us and our decisionsâ. The EU did not throw us out. The EU did not ask us to leave. The EU owe us Nothing. When we get that into our heads Mrs May, then we may get somewhere. We must make proposals and put them to the EU. If they do not agree we must start again. And on and on and on, until we get it right. Otherwise we must just stop wasting everyoneâs time and GET OUT (and stop trying to have our cake and eat it). We made the greatest mistake of our lives in voting to leave the EU. Now we have to just get on with it and take the worst that is to come. We will have to have a hard border between North and South of Ireland. It is idiocy to think anything else.
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It is not that simple unfortunately Norah.
No country has ever left the EU before so this is new territory for all concerned, the EU have to stand firm on their âfour freedomsâ otherwise other countries may seek to leave and âcherry pickâ as the UK is trying to do but the ROI/NI border situation has made the leaving process difficult as neither side can accept a hard border. On the UK side, the general election last year was a huge mistake as it wiped out the Tories majority so TM is now having to scramble around trying to please everyone which is simply not going to work.
The UK has to have an agreement in place upon leaving, just pulling out should never be an option.
Norah is spot on. The UK has no right to ask for concessions. They need to remove their impossible demands, get the leave process underway then get on with the vital but tricky job of negotiating trade deals with the EU. It was always stated that those deals could only be negotiated after Britain had left so whether they finally decide to negotiate for a Norway, Canada or North Korean model should not be allowed to stop the leaving process. A border between the EU and a country that does not want to agree to terms that include a customs union and freedom of movement? That cannot be an open border.
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It is not over yet.
I cannot agree with the result of a process where it has been proved that one side broke the law.
Were this a generalelection there would have to be a re-run.
It is certainly the view held by many in the EU, one with which I mostly agree and one which the UK team do not seem to âgetâ for some reason.
But leaving the EU without a deal will hurt the EU, not as much as it will hurt us but there will definitely be downsides for them as well and it might destabilise Northern Ireland so the EU does have a vested interest here.
I was reading an analysis of Chequers which suggested that, if pulled apart, there was some stuff which could be agreed upon, even within the trade stuff. It mostly hinged on what the EU will accept as not threatening the four freedoms (they are immobile on that so the best approach is to fudge the definitions a bit). It is perhaps not totally unreasonable to say âwell you have the document, tell us how we can work with itâ.
Just mostly unreasonable
Having a hard ROI/NI border will not be acceptable so either the UK or the EU will have to compromise.
You make it sound so easy Tim.
What about a plan for a United Ireland? I wonder how much opposition to this would be expressed in a UK/ROI-based referendum.
I hardly think that most English would object to NI becoming part of an all-Ireland self-governing entity, as part of the EU, nor would many Scots or Welsh voters.
Those Ulstermen and Ulsterwomen who wanted to keep their British passports and voting rights could keep them for their life-time, and enjoy continued EU-citizenship if they wished.
A small and probably diminishing number of ideological and religious die-hards might object, but whatâs new there? I think itâs about time this page was turned, and Brexit supplies the opportunity for doing so.
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Northern Ireland voted overwhelming to be part of EU in Brexit Referendum.
I do think however that the Unionists would not accept it as they seem willing too often to âcut their noses offâ
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The GFA allows the possibility of uniting Ireland if a majority in NI wanted it.
Given that the Catholic population has been increasing percentage-wise and that Brexit could re-ignite the troubles I would not like to guess which way a devolution vote would go, were one held in the near future.
Interesting thought, but Iâm not sure if that will be the case. We have several Australian families that have holiday homes here and at least three families from Russia living here permanently. If those requirements existed now, I would imagine that we would be aware of them.
Iâm just commenting upon your statement of âthe demise of Sterlingâ. In late December 2008, the official Bank Of England rate was around âŹ1.02 to the Pound Sterling. For many people, that rate would have been parity or below when it came to exchanging their pensions or their UK salary. Having lived through that period, we still have a way to go before it happens again. Iâm not saying that it wonât.
We are looking to downsize and move out of town as our house is far too large and the Taxe Fonciere quite expensive. We are considering selling and then renting until the right house comes along, but I would not agree that rental prices are economical. They have risen considerably over the years. A look on leboncoin in our area produced very few houses for rent and none that I would consider economical.
Bill has left us for the moment so isnât around to reply.
You are right that the ÂŁ dipped very low in late 2008 (the lowest I can see in the data was ÂŁ1 = 1.0219⏠on Dec 29 that year) but, to be fair, that was the Xmas period where trading is very light and it did not stay there more than a few days having recovered to just shy of âŹ1.12 by the end of the 1st week in Jan 2009. There were a couple of further dips below 1.10⏠that year but mostly above so there wasnât that much âliving throughâ rates around parity to be done. Not that 1.15⏠or so is all that much comfort if you did your calculations on the basis of 1.50⏠to the ÂŁ which someone retiring to France in the early 2000âs might have done.
I think you are right though - I doubt the market has fully priced in a âno dealâ scenario so expect parity (or dare I say it less) if that is how things pan out. It wonât take a few days to fix either.
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Thanks
Bill has left us for the moment?
I would have thought that the EU will be obliged to impose some sort of hard border in the event of a hard Brexit. If the UK is not sufficiently compliant what else can they do? We cannot have loose borders with all sorts creeping in through the UK.
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He hasnât asked for his profile to be deleted but he hasnât been on the forum for about three weeks.