CelticRambler wrote: » ... and most of the English don't know or care what the GFA is; and the DUP need to realise NI is not at the centre of the UK. No-one in London will lose any sleep about it, if NI is relegated to having more of a provincial status than it already is. It's actually quite sad looking on from the sidelines at the DUP, clinging on to a foster mother that really couldn't give a damn about them. If they weren't so utterly determined to always think badly of the "south-of-the-border" Irish, they might realise that we care about them and their well-being far more than Westminster does.
lawred2 wrote: The Brussels 'establishment' is the EU. Not sure why you're trying to paint them as some other autonomous body with their own agenda.
Capt'n Midnight wrote: » BTW this is where the UK is headedhttps://euobserver.com/economic/143739
downcow wrote: » Unfortunately the insistence of a backstop is the very reason the will be a border ie the UK has no choice but to leave with no deal and your government will then have no choice but to erect a border.
Irishmale0399 wrote: » I would ask the question......Can the Irish government afford Northern Ireland?? Could we support their public spending, could we support their social/pension system???....the list goes on. I see Ireland (I have been living away for 20 odd years) struggling with what it has at the moment without the burden of more. I have also seen the damage done here in Germany by joining East and West.....one major eye sore is the pension system which is on its knees. They were not ready to take on the problems East Germany brought with it.......high unemployment etc. I personally feel the best and easiest way of solving things is to make Northern Ireland independant. Let them run their own country, let them decide if they want to be EU members after 1 or 2 years......until then they have to fend for themselves.
Irishmale0399 wrote: » Can the Irish government afford Northern Ireland?? Could we support their public spending, could we support their social/pension system??? ... I have also seen the damage done here in Germany by joining East and West.....one major eye sore is the pension system which is on its knees.
judeboy101 wrote: » They backed down on FOM in Switzerland post Swiss referendum. EU citizens no longer have freedom to get any job they want in the alpine country. Imagine if the UK had been offered that version of FOM before 2016, they'd never have left.
Following protracted discussions between Switzerland and the EU, the Swiss government largely climbed down from the initial referendum proposals, adopting instead a "light national preference" to implement the referendum. This outcome was decried as a failure to properly implement the referendum by the Swiss SVP party (which had promoted the referendum) as it fails to put any curbs on immigration.
road_high wrote: » NI couldn’t function as independent in any way, shape or form. It’s an economic basket case, it’s a total disaster area. Without that massive subsidy from England it would collapse, and I mean utter collapse.
Slovenia has been taken to court by the European Commission for allowing national investigators to look into documents and seize IT hardware belonging to the European Central Bank without permission. The case relates to a 2016 investigation into Slovenia's central bank chief Bostjan Jazbec for possible "criminal abuse of office" related to a €3bn bailout preventing banks from collapsing.
Irishmale0399 wrote: » Thats my point. Let them learn to grow up and take responsibility for themselves instead of blaming everyone else for their misfortune. Reality is sometimes hard at first but it can make people or nations grow up very fast. Only by taking away from them will they see what they had.
ThePanjandrum wrote: » https://euobserver.com/tickers/144007 No-one is permitted to check the EU's honesty then?
CelticRambler wrote: » They'll get that "tough love" soon enough, when Westminster draws a line down the Irish Sea so as to be able to move on with Brexit; and again when the Westminster subsidy tap runs dry.
Zubeneschamali wrote: » They do have a choice. They could still sign Mays deal or they could cancel Brexit. Both of those choices would do less damage than No Deal, which would be the maddest act of self harm any nation has ever done to itself short of civil war.
Strazdas wrote: There is also an EU Ombudsman to whom any individual or organisation can lodge a complaint if they feel they have been treated unfairly by any EU body.
Irishmale0399 wrote: » Thats my point. Let them learn to grow up and take responsibility for themselves instead of blaming everyone else for their misfortune. Reality is sometimes hard at first but it can make people or nations grow up very fast. Only by taking away from them will they see what they had. As it stands they want everything with cherries on top. Still hasnt sunk in that the UK has nothing to offer the EU which would hurt it.
downcow wrote: » Again you are not understanding the UK. It’s when people tell us we have the English national anthem. We own the UK and anthem every bit as much as England Scotland and Wales. The clue is in the name. United Kingdom of gb & NI.
jm08 wrote: And the Welsh and the Scots laugh at both NI & England for clinging onto GSTQ at sporting events. Its actually booed in Cardiff when Wales are playing England.
jm08 wrote: » And the Welsh and the Scots laugh at both NI & England for clinging onto GSTQ at sporting events. Its actually booed in Cardiff when Wales are playing England.
Borderhopper wrote: » I would add the EU blood directive to that. It has vastly improved transfusion safety in the EU, including both Ireland and U.K.
Folkstonian wrote: » It makes a nice change for the Scottish to hate someone else as opposed to each other once in a while, I guess. And I’d probably go to war with the world if I was welsh too. But in all seriousness, I don’t think you can draw many conclusions about wider political trends from the potato-brained louts at an international football match that will yell anything if it may get a rise from the opposition fans. In saying that however, I do think an independent England would be a good thing. Scottish politics have diverged wildly over the last few years. The SNP government north of the wall are every bit as inept, and even more extreme than their counterparts in London. But more troubling is the absolute dominance they have over the electorate. They are a single issue party and they, nor the independence debate, will ever go away. Similarly to Brexit, Let’s just get on with it. Compromise is always good, but sometimes you have to accept that you will never fully see eye to eye again.
Strazdas wrote: » A few constitutional experts have been saying recently that it's crazy that England is being allowed overrule Scotland and Northern Ireland on massive constitutional change with a mere advisory referendum.....they say the other two should have been allowed a veto, this would be standard practise when holding a referendum across a political union of countries. The Brexit referendum is treating Scotland and Northern Ireland as if they are two English regions who have been overruled by the 'rest' of England.
EdgeCase wrote: » Have you spoken to any English nationalists about that? They tend to see it that way when it suits them, but dare you thwart their sovereignty and all of a sudden your first minister's being called names and you're being accused of all sorts. Without a proper federal parliament and structure, the UK will always have serious power imbalances between quasi-autonomous bits and also between the English regions (which should be autonomous!) A lot of things are fundamentally English. Even your central bank is the Bank of England. There's almost a permanent sense of identity crisis in the UK from what I can see. It's even hard to find an agreed adjective for many things. E.g. the olympic team "Team GB" yet, "Team UK" would more accurately include NI. Try saying the "national news on the BBC" and which nation are you talking about? Some people will be referring to the UK, some to Scotland, some to Wales, some to England and some in Northern Ireland could take it to mean all sorts of things. Also you've always had NI operating as a parallel political system within a system - voting for entirely different political parties. Scotland's heading that way too, albeit with only the SNP so far. Anyway, it's a bit of an off topic post, but I just think sometimes the UK needs to sit down and have a long conversation with itself about itself and what it wants to be. There's a good opportunity for the country to shed a lot of the imperial baggage and become something new and vibrant, but it's never happened. Socially, it did happen after WWII, but politically and structurally it's stuck with a lot of legacy nonsense. It has the ingredients to be a very nice place, but it seems to have always lacked the recipe. It all works fantastically ... until it doesn't.
downcow wrote: » You still not getting it. That’s their choice. And I would love a NI spitting anthem as many English also want their own sporting anthem. But in Remembrance Day etc most. Want gstq.
downcow wrote: » A wonderful rich diversity
RobMc59 wrote: » The EU are treating the referendum result the same (ie:collective result,not individual countries)but for some reason that is overlooked by some posters-why is that?
