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from the somebody-didn't-think-this-all-the-way-through dept.
At least one UK businessman is attaching a condition to his continued support of the ruling Conservative Party:
A major Tory donor has threatened to stop funding the party if Theresa May plans to remove the UK from the "critical" single market after Brexit. Sir Andrew Cook, who has given more than £1.2m to the party, told BBC Radio 4 that ending single market access was "chronic and dangerous" to the economy. The engineering firm chairman said at least one of his factories was almost "entirely dependent" on access to it.
Sir Andrew backed the Remain campaign in the EU referendum. "There are barriers to entry without the single market, there are tariffs," said Sir Andrew, who chairs William Cook, his family's firm which makes components for the rail, energy and defence industries. "One of my factories has 200 people employed making engineering parts that go to France, Germany and Italy," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
Also at Reuters. Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has offered to take a Scottish independence referendum off the table in exchange for a "soft Brexit" involving access to the single market.
The BBC reports that while the EU's presence in London is likely to shrink, organizations like the European Banking Authority (EBA) might stick around if the UK remains in the single market.
Finally, have you applied for your Irish passport yet?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2017, @01:24PM
> trying to get as many parties as possible to join.
That was, in large part, the UK that wanted it. Others like France were not so enthusiastic about it ever.
> But when members like Greece or the UK today become somewhat unable or unwilling to go along with this growing integration, they get treated like dirt.
Greece doesn't want to leave AT ALL, so I don't get that point at all.
The UK doesn't get treated like dirt, they just get told that the rules (in particular the rules the UK wanted) are for everyone!
If they get pissed on, that is mostly for things they absolutely are to blame for like
- Lobbying ultra hard to get more countries into the EU, then blaming the EU for all the immigrants from those countries (and many more instances like this, with all too many UK citizens happy to play along and blame the EU when it was THEIR politicians who were responsible and they should simply stop voting for politicians that betray them).
- Putting rules like the "no negotiations before exit process starts, and max 2 years for negotiations" into the contracts and the complaining about them when they're affected by them
- Holding a referendum that nobody actually could know what any of the options ACTUALLY meant, in order to solve internal party squabbles, and promising people the sky for voting their way (while course shortly before having heaped shit on Scottish politicians for doing exactly the same thing)
> Who is the EU?
Primarily, the consensus will of (the governments of) its member states. If you live in the EU and something bad comes from the EU, it is almost certainly because YOUR LOCAL GOVERNMENT said OK to it! Thus I cannot see how logically anyone could believe that leaving the EU would make anything better! (well, there are some arguments around diversity and competition, but most people - especially those opposed to the EU - seem to feel that e.g. China is providing enough competition and hardly are out for MORE of it, but for anyone having a problem with the DECISIONS "coming" from the EU need to realize that they do come from their own government and leaving the EU would be most likely to make things WORSE - if it doesn't look like it it's because you government is lying to you and you believe them for some crazy reason).
(Score: 2) by turgid on Monday January 09 2017, @08:47PM
Stop talking sense. This is the Intertubes.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].