Brexit Countdown

You were right to see through the propaganda, Paigey.

That referendum campaign was painful to go through – Osborne proclaiming that the UK economy was going to collapse on the one side, Johnson and the other Vote.leave, financed by the self-confessed liar Arron banks, fiddling with statistics and issuing scarem stories about refugees and terror.

We were swizzled into voting Leave, much to  the anger and despair of many young people, and we are leaving – one way or another. If we go back – which I hope will happen – then we can go over the arguments again, maybe, but for the moment I think it’s damage-limitation.

You are so lucky to have that Irish passport. I’d give good money for it, but maybe the leaving won’t be as sharp as the fanatics hope. Let’s wait on events.

Gawd, hugs, if only!!!

The practicalities if you have only a UK passport aren’t that simple, and I speak with the experience of having friends who have moved to another part of Europe.

It’s been changing for a long time, Ms M, and looks like  changing again.

It now seems to be in the process of dividing into two informal sections – one led by France, Germany etc pushing for a more integral ‘inner’ core. That division is openly talked about the EU’s goverments.

The others are becoming part of a trading arrangement, pure and simple. Britain would have been in this – it was already out of crucial parts of EU integration – had we not decided to leave.

All are bound by a large number of rules necessary to standardise healthy, safety and labour standards to a high degree. Both parts are therefore bound by these rules, administered by a Civil Service under the overall direction of the European Commission, whihc is appointed by elected governments. This is presided over by the European Court of justice, whihc ensures that human rights are not infringed.

Lots of strains – some say the EU won’t survive, but that’s speculative at the moment.

Freedom to travel from one part to another, along with freedom of investment hindered only by the rules, will always remain a necessary part of the EU, though. That will be modified, but not changed. I welcome the freedom of labour to travel, and teh freedom of people to move around to live wherever they want to live.

The UK decided to end that, for good or bad depending on your viewpoint.

Let’s see what happens in the coming months, because from what I see we will be forced by reality to keep the VAT systems of the  EU  and the huge array or rules regulating standards. I understand that the UK is now accepting this. Provided we don’t crash out, that is.

It’s the process of the next few months which is fascinating me – just how does a major economy leave one of the world big trading systems, with all its trade and supply routes, and with the problems of Ireland thrown in for good measure. And the consequences for our politics, which could be transformed.

*btw, that’s an answer to Rocky. Ms M is the only one I was really hoping to discuss the problem of Brussels bureacrats. The other two I really don’t want to discuss with them – I don’t have the time of day. Rocky presented a series of bullet points (recapitulating an Arron Banks Brexit handout?). I don’t argue with bullet points, and I don’t want to go through the horrors of that campaign again. No more referendums, please.

The points above are the ones I wanted to make about the mussels from Brussels.