UK Votes to leave EU

steddyeddy wrote: »

Do these "up Britannica" caricatures not realise that it's their rosy eyed nationalism that's causing this mess? A delusion of grandeur about the Britain's ability to be be "great" again. The world is laughing at you Britain.

Britain may well be laughing at all the globalist gob****es if they are able to make good trade deals on their own.

steddyeddy wrote: »

What will May negotiate with?

The lucrative market for German cars and French wine/cheese that her country offers. Remember that the UK spends more money on Rest-of-EU goods and services than the rest-of-EU spends on British goods and services. If the EU fails to agree a Free Trade Agreement with the UK, it's countries like Ireland, France and Germany that will hurt more than the UK. The British people voted, their choice is clear.

The E.U. has two choices:

1. Negotiate a sensible Free Trade Agreement with the UK, that allows goods and services to be traded easily between the two, and upholds the Common Travel Area between the UK and Ireland. This would be in the interests of most European peoples, e.g. all Irish people and also auto-workers in Germany and food-makers in France, but would be bad for the EU because it would give people in other countries the same idea: "hey we could just be good neighbors, be friends with each other, trade with each other, but not be part of political union!" This would be a Eurocrat Euronationalists worst nightmare. As such, it may not happen.
2. Throw their toys out of the pram and negotiate in bad faith. Do not even discuss a FTA with the (or offer a trade agreement that the UK couldn't even consider) and default to World Trade Organisation rules. Force Ireland to rescind the Common Travel Area and force both Ireland and the UK to establish customs and border protection posts on all landed crossings between the Republic and Northern Ireland.
   
   This would serve the EU very well in that the resulting difficulties may discourage other countries whose populations may be thinking of escaping the European volkerkerker and taking back their countries. Like how a pimp might beat one of his hookers to death or at least very badly just to "make an example of her". Indeed there's already evidence the EU is prepared to do just that with its selection of Brexit negotiator:
   
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQgFdSFBtxo

There is actually room here for Ireland to show some leadership, though I doubt this will happen:

The Irish government should state in no uncertain terms that the preservation of the Common Travel Area and the lack of a "hard" border with the UK is an absolute requirement is not negotiable. Further, that if the resulting EU/UK agreement or lack thereof require the re-establishment of passport or customs checks on the republic/northern border, then the Republic will have it's own Article 50 referendum with a recommendation to leave.

This would temper the venal Eurocrats desire for revenge, by giving them a choice of either giving the UK a free trade agreement (and thus keeping hundreds of thousands of German car-makers and French wine/cheesemakers in jobs) or needlessly losing another member state.

steddyeddy wrote: »

It's crazy to think that farmers in the Republic will get farm payments yet farmers across the border will get nothing.

Do you think farm payments come from nowhere? Farm payments come from the EU, but EU government money comes from member states. If a member state no longer has to pay the EU, say £55million per day, it can spend this money on anything it likes including farm payments.

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Until Feb 1st 1915 UK passports didn't have photos. Free movement of people wasn't an issue before WWI. People could pretty much come and go worldwide.

Umm ... ever heard of Ellis Island? International travel was not so common in the old days and most countries did have some form of border control, even if it was necessairly quite loose. That's why we inherited a world of cohesive societies and unique and distinctive cultures.