Brexit slowly becoming a Farce.

[Jeff Venom]

Surely leaving a political union shouldn't be this difficult?

Leaving a union seems quite a popular notion in modern times, given the situation in Spain with Catalonia and in the United Kingdom with Scotland. Also the former Yugoslavia and former Soviet Union. I'd imagine this sort of situation will keep popping up. Maybe the politicians/lawmakers should put better plans in place for this eventuality. Maybe even plan for countries rejoining a political union.

Been thinking the same myself though I have limited knowledge on the procedures of the break ups that have come before this.
Basically, when we signed up too the EU, did we know/foresee it being an utter c**t to withdraw, or did we just sign away responsibility for that in the hope it would never come to it? Simply put.

[Tamdunk]

I have very little knowledge of the history of the EU, but I think it's pretty safe to say that it'll have become a lot more complicated as it's grown in size and influence.

[welshbairn]

3 minutes ago, Jeff Venom said:

 

Been thinking the same myself though I have limited knowledge on the procedures of the break ups that have come before this.
Basically, when we signed up too the EU, did we know/foresee it being an utter c**t to withdraw, or did we just sign away responsibility for that in the hope it would never come to it? Simply put.

 

You start off with free trade then you look at sharing regulatory bodies, financial deals across frictionless borders, free movement of workers, then finally you get to a position where your industries rely on these things and it would be hugely costly to leave. If you do all you get is trade and exchange barriers and having to set up a whole new duplicate set of regulatory bodies, and a parallel set of red tape for companies having to deal with. 

[WILLIEA]

9 minutes ago, Jeff Venom said:

 

Been thinking the same myself though I have limited knowledge on the procedures of the break ups that have come before this.
Basically, when we signed up too the EU, did we know/foresee it being an utter c**t to withdraw, or did we just sign away responsibility for that in the hope it would never come to it? Simply put.

 

We joined the EU ( when they eventually allowed us in ) because the UK was the sick man of Europe with the economy in the shitter. Since joining the UK economy has markedly improved largely due to being part of a large successful block.

There is also imo anyway the notion that over time it is better for groups, clans , wee countries, then bigger ones to more closely integrate.

[capybara]

http://derekbateman.scot/

 

Bateman nails it again.

 

[Granny Danger]

There’s a lot wrong with the EU, ironically the binary debate caused by Brexit has done nothing to address this.

 

[Guest Bob Mahelp]

50 minutes ago, btb said:

Surprised by Ruth Davidson's statement, everything else she's said since the GE in June seemed to be geared towards her getting a safe seat down south but I doubt very much whether this is the sort of policy that'll go down well in a Rotary Club in the Shires.

Still respect to her for showing a bit of support for her ain wee region!

Davidson's comments have nothing to do with showing support for Scotland.  They're entirely to do with stressing that Scotland should not have any kind of separate deal.....it's the Union above everything.

In that sense her comments echo those of David Davis. 

[LongTimeLurker]

She's reminding Theresa May what it should mean to be the leader of the Conservative & Unionist Party.

[Granny Danger]

Spot the odd one out:

1.  Morcambe & Wise

2.  Cannon & Ball

3.  Strong & Stable

 

[DublinMagyar]

Spot the odd one out:
1.  Morcambe & Wise
2.  Cannon & Ball
3.  Strong & Stable
 

Cannon and Ball weren't funny

[Kejan]

YER STEPDA!

http://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-politics-42245012/iain-duncan-smith-eu-needs-to-back-off-or-move-on?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_politics&ns_source=twitter&ns_linkname=news_central

[bob the tank]

Davidson's comments have nothing to do with showing support for Scotland.  They're entirely to do with stressing that Scotland should not have any kind of separate deal.....it's the Union above everything.
In that sense her comments echo those of David Davis. 

Totally right, just talking down Scotland in favour of her precious union again

[Cerberus]

49 minutes ago, Kejan said:

YER STEPDA!

http://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-politics-42245012/iain-duncan-smith-eu-needs-to-back-off-or-move-on?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_politics&ns_source=twitter&ns_linkname=news_central

IDS, Gove, Redwood, Mogg, Johnson definitely want a hard Brexit because it benefits the common man.

 

[Lurkst]

6 hours ago, LongTimeLurker said:

It obviously opens the door to Scotland doing something similar in the years ahead, and there are so few viable border crossings thanks to lots of high hills and the river Tweed getting in the way between Scotland and England that it wouldn't be anything like as great a logistical nightmare as the RoI-NI border is to police in customs and excise terms. 

Still there's an average of around 30 vehicles a minute crossing the border at Gretna. 

 

[LongTimeLurker]

Not arguing it would be ideal, far from it. Staying in the EU single market is by far the best option, but in logistical terms that's manageable if you have enough lanes to channel traffic through checks and you can funnel commercial traffic through a very limited number of crossings without creating huge disruption. That sort of scenario happens all the time on the busier crossing along the Canada-US border like Detroit-Windsor or Buffalo-Niagara Falls, for example with passport checks included that wouldn't be necessary in a Scotland-England context if different customs regimes were applied in an internal UK context. Looks like sanity is prevailing and top Tories now appear to grasp that anything that is done with NI to keep the NI-RoI border open should apply right across the UK and that should mean a significantly softer Brexit, which was probably the EU's end game.

Edited December 6, 2017 by LongTimeLurker

[HTG]

Staying in the single market is a customs union by any other name. I thought it was already clear that customs union had to come with free movement of EU citizens. I can't see the Poles signing up, nor indeed others who might prefer a reduction in inter-EU migration but who tolerate it for the greater good.

Just clearing the way for trade talks doesn't mean these issues will have gone. They've not really reared their head yet and if the £50bn agreement along with the Irish border outcome is anything to go by, the UK will posture its way towards a scenario that already exists.  

And I'm not sure how you can have free trade without agreed regulation. That means aligning our laws in this area to EU law. And when there is a significantarea of dispute, where will ultimate arbitration sit?  

This is either all in our all out when it comes down to it. "Red, white and blue Brexit" - what a load of shite.  Daily Heil liked it though - meaningless pish or not. 

[Baxter Parp]

11 hours ago, Granny Danger said:

Spot the odd one out:

1.  Morcambe & Wise

2.  Cannon & Ball

3.  Strong & Stable

 

Cannon & Ball the others are dead.

[Baxter Parp]

Unnerving.

[Baxter Parp]

The other two-thirds won't admit it.

[zidane's child]

6 minutes ago, Baxter Parp said:

Unnerving.

There has to be a good reason for the current government not carrying out any impact assessments. They are either:

a) extremely naive and stupid

or 

b) looking at a softer version of Brexit, which has a minimal impact on the economy - despite all the talk of no deal and a "hard brexit"