The idea that the UK had “little” influence is a bit weird. I mean, even the deal that Cameron came back with prior to initiating the Brexit vote was full of special provisions where the other EU countries had bent over backwards in order to accommodate the UK’s interests. This was (everywhere but in the UK) considered a big win for Cameron. Historically, the UK has had a huge impact on shaping the modern form of the EU - the internal market and the rapid enlargement of the EU during the past few years - both things that Brexiters now object to - are unlikely to have happened without the influence wielded by the UK (France and Germany both resisted these changes).
Mentioning Denmark and Netherlands as part of a Franco-German axis is just incorrect - Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark are the UK’s closest allies with the EU, and this is easily proven using voting data. @MarinusWA has already pointed out the Dutch perspective and Denmark shares many of the same political leanings as the Netherlands. More so, in fact - like the UK - Denmark has a lot of opt-outs from the European Union, and for Denmark, the UK has been a welcome and useful ally in defending these opt-outs from the more federalist drives of the central Eurozone countries. The loss of a big state with similar opt-outs is going to be a big loss for Danish EU politics.
Finally, the idea that the UK is some kind of peripheral state in Europe (a nationalistic viewpoint that has a long history, to be sure) will - I think - soon be proven wrong. It may have been true in the days of Empire - though even then, the UK meddled in European politics incessantly, so I’d argue it wasn’t even true then. It’s absolutely not true today.
vyshka
4489
IIRC the EU went out of their way to accommodate the UK when it was joining as well.
Menzo
4490
The fact that the Pound still exists proves that to be true.
And the next exit date is 31st Oct. Honest guv.
A land of fools lead by idiots.
The enlargement of the EU here refers to adding in the Polish and Lithuanians right?
I was under the impression this was resisted by the UK.
Ofcourse not resisted very well as we never used the veto.
I’ve always had the impression of the EU as being France and Germany more or less acting together, Britain and the smaller states (no bigger pop wise than Holland, I. E. countries like Denmark being on the UK side of things) more or less in concert with the UK and then the medium/big countries drifting between orbits and doing their own thing, e.g. Spain, Italy, Greece.
Edit: I was also under the impression that the UK anticipated an Eastern European influx of upto 200,000 a year.
And in the 1st year a million Poles came. Plus as many again of the other new countries.
In other words a colossal lack of planning and preparation for the influx.
Sound familiar?
I imagine analysis of the voting records and minutes of meetings and debates will establish what the UK position was wrt enlarging the EU
Spain has always mostly been aligned with France, tbh.
New deadline on 31 Oct? Wtf is this shit?! It’s clear now these are, in fact, not deadlines, but an unlimited extension until the UK can figure out their shit. Which should take a decade at least, give or take.
Businesses that prepped for brexit just spend money for nothing and businesses that hadn’t prepped are even more emboldened not to do so because the deadlines are bullshit anyway.
Once again the EU decides to take the festering wound approach like they did with the banking crisis last decade.
I think France is adamant now on October 31st as a final deadline (there’s anew Commision November 1st). It seems other countries believe that, given time, Brexit would be cancelled. I think it’s unlikely.
I would like to see the UK figuring it out before then, but today there were (again) calls to renegotiate the WA.
I think cancelling it is in everyone’s best interest.
Then call a general election, which would represent interest in rerunning the whole thing, i.e. If a party wins on a leave platform, and has a clear majority in Parliament, we start again. Better to have a hung parliament before starting the operation, instead of a hung one like we do now, with a ticking clock.
And that avoids needing another referendum.
Great news. Assange’s asylum revoked and he’s been arrested. A big fuck you to this shill for Farage, Trump and Putin.
Let’s get him into an illegal CIA black prison and attached to a water board ASAP eh?
He’s an underpants gnome eh?
- receive data
- ??? = give it to Trump
- profit
I think the problem is that the EU really, really don’t want to seem like the bad guys here - they don’t wantr the history books in 10 years time writing that “the EU forced the UK out”. So they’ll continue to extend the deadline, as long as possible. Extension beyond May 22nd is also conditional on MEP elections, if I understood correctly, right?
The irony, of course, is that irrespective that the EU is - again - being extremely accomodating toward the UK, the EU will still get painted as the bad guys by Farage, Trump, et al (cf. the lattest tweet by the Orange head-honcho, basically blaming the Brexit debacle on the EU).
Timex
4505
They arrested the freaking mandarin.
magnet
4506
From the DoJ release regarding Assange:
If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties.
There’s some irony in Assange avoiding trial by self-incarcerating for seven years…
Aceris
4507
Much as I dislike Assange, I don’t think he should be extradited. The charges seem pretty thin for an extraterritorial case
Let him serve 6 months for failure to surrender and then release him.
