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I'm a European, I love the project of building peacefully a political entity aggregating countries that have been at war for centuries. This is Europe, and mig
by gbog 10y ago
I'm a European, I love the project of building peacefully a political entity aggregating countries that have been at war for centuries.
This is Europe, and migrants issue is only a very small part of the equation. And, actually, Britain has never been in this Europe I long for. Just like an annoying neighbor who wants to share the commons but not pay for it.
Britain left, for whatever bad reasons: Good news, let her go, Europe will be stronger and will build faster without her.
In ten years, after having realized that none of UKs problems were caused by Europe, after realizing that she's become a small old lady no-one cares about, she'll come and beg us to take her back. And we'll take her back, but this time she'll sign to all the rules, including Euro.
- gbog 10y agoApparently some do not like this idea that Europe's fate will be better with brexit. True I didn't see it in the papers, but it seems very natural to me dit many reasons. First Europe should a choice. For many European nations it looks like a process decided above them. It is a very good news that one country tries the way out, it shows that the exit for is open. Also Europe is this kind of thing that has a lot of hidden benefits, which you'll feel only when you leave. Britain will show this. On the same line, Europe has been the scapegoat of all rightist populist speech since 15 years. In two years Britain will be out of Europe and all her problems will be worse, showing clearly that Europe was not the cause, but probably the hidden mitigator. It's also like hard things to do in code, it does not work if it is one way only. I would never say that a database system works if it can only add tables and never delete them. Adding countries to Europe has been proven to work, the reverse operation had to be tried, and I'm happy that Britain take the task to open the way.
- sien 10y agoThere have been 3 previous exits from the EU https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Withdrawal_from_the_European_Union#Past_withdrawals https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Withdrawal_from_the_European_U... The assumption that Britain will do poorly is also questionable. Perhaps it will do just fine. If so, referendums in other EU countries could start.
- gbog 10y agoYour previous "exits" are Algeria, Greenland, St Bartelemy. Do you really think it counts as precedents?
- sien 10y agoYes. Definitely Greenland. 92% of the exports go to the EU. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland%E2%80%93European_Union_relations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland%E2%80%93European_Uni... None of the examples are the same, but they were all in. There is an article 50 because of these exits. There has been a precedent.
- gbog 10y agoWhat's the population of Greenland already?
- dragonwriter 10y agoNo, as that article notes, none of the three examples is a member state withdrawing from the EU. (Two were withdrawals from pre-EU bodies by entities that we not member states when they either became independent of a member state or were granted home rule, and one of those remains associated with the EU as an OCT; the third was a region subject to a member state switching from OMR to OCT status.)
- to3m 10y agoBut if things get that bad, why on earth would the EU want us back? Especially as part of the currency union?
- andyjdavis 10y agoIf things get bad in the UK the EU wouldn't really want the UK back as such. They may however eventually permit the UK to rejoin. Once the UK has jumped through all of the hoops that new EU applicants have to jump through of course. The EU may even come up with a few new hoops just for the UK, to hold it to a higher standard than a genuine new applicant.
- gbog 10y agoBecause it will be more convenient for the Scots to not have to get out of Europe and in again when they travel to France to get their red wine.