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?
Related Stories
UK Prime Minister Theresa May has given a major speech calling for a clean break from the EU:
Theresa May has said the UK "cannot possibly" remain within the European single market, as staying in it would mean "not leaving the EU at all". But the prime minister promised to push for the "greatest possible" access to the single market following Brexit. In a long-awaited speech, she also announced Parliament would get a vote on the final deal agreed between the UK and the European Union. And Mrs May promised an end to "vast contributions" to the European Union.
Previously: Brexit: The Focus is on the EU Single Market
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 08 2017, @08:35PM
Remain with May!
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 08 2017, @08:54PM
British PM is a woman. Scottish PM is a woman. WTF America, you had your chance and you fucked it up.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 08 2017, @08:55PM
Moar Merican News we don't give 2 shits bout no fuckin eurotrash problems.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 08 2017, @10:11PM
we don't give 2 shits bout no fuckin eurotrash problems.
Then what are Trump and Pence?
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Sunday January 08 2017, @09:39PM
Yep, although after she started that whole vote recount thing in those states Hillary lost, my respect for Stein fell off significantly, but before that, you are totally right: America missed it's chance to elect a woman who wasn't a warping, wall street colder, fracker, surveillance state promoter, prison-state lover, inveterate liar, and an all around piece-o-shit.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Sunday January 08 2017, @09:39PM
warping = warpig
(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Sunday January 08 2017, @11:45PM
I used to use warpigs to take down Win95 boxes.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 08 2017, @09:45PM
Thank you for voting Stein, my green blooded friend.
(Score: 3, Funny) by VLM on Sunday January 08 2017, @09:51PM
I like this comment because there's so many directions it can go.
If you're sexist and judge people's worth by their genitalia and if you hate white men then you'd prefer women (probably?) so the response would be that Hillary was not a wimmins but some kind of hellspawn possessed by a demon, which is somehow even worse than "Fucking white males"
If you're not sexist and just want the best leader, well, the sexists got their way in those countries and those countries are all Fed up, so we did dodge a bullet. If we got ourselves a woman she'd come with 10M invaders killing and raping their way across the country and a semi-civil war. So pretty glad we got Trump.
You can go with the Stein angle where until she became a money grubbing hypocrite at recount time she was at least semi-respectable. I wouldn't vote for her now knowing what she really is, but before the recount I liked her.
Or you can go for comedy that if our inferior lapdogs who ask "how high?" when we tell them to jump, then electing a guy who wants to grab em by the pussy is extremely appropriate.
Like the day after the election I started seeing memes for Ivanka Trump to get elected in 2024. I'm sick of decades of Bush and Clinton so Ivanka would be OK.
So there's at least five directions to take from that one post, not bad.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 08 2017, @10:23PM
Nice catch. I think I will try to keep my eyes open for this sort of open ended argument starter.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday January 08 2017, @11:17PM
Because straight women, queers, and dykes never engage in locker-room talk discussing sexual hyperbole and the features and sexual mannerisms of their partners.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2017, @01:36AM
You only wish you could find a feisty cock grabber who doesn't want to twist your nuts off and make you eat them.
(Score: 2) by mojo chan on Monday January 09 2017, @10:11AM
It's more like "people who have a small amount of respect for other human beings don't joke about their power and wealth allowing them to sexually assault their genitals without resistance or consequence".
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
(Score: 2) by turgid on Sunday January 08 2017, @08:43PM
Make it stop!!!!! :-(
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 08 2017, @08:48PM
Moar Merican News we don't give 2 shits bout no fuckin eurotrash problems.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Sunday January 08 2017, @08:43PM
Real badasses make their own passports.
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/29/sports/lacrosse-a-goalie-keeps-faith-for-an-iroquois-nation.html [nytimes.com]
"He travels to conferences around the world on his own buckskin passport."
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 08 2017, @08:50PM
Moar Merican News we don't give 2 shits bout no fuckin eurotrash problems.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 08 2017, @08:57PM
Moar Merican News we don't give 2 shits bout no fuckin eurotrash problems.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 08 2017, @11:01PM
More fookin XML we don't give 2 shits bout no fookin eurotrash XML.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 08 2017, @09:38PM
"There is a desire by my competitors in mainland Europe to exclude me from the market."
This is why there will almost certainly be no relationship between EU and UK after article 50 is triggered. It's hard to see any incentive to keep the UK in the single market. If I were the EU I would drag it out for 2 years while siphoning off as much business to the EU as possible and let the UK fall back to WTO rules, all the while smiling and promising to be BFFs.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by khallow on Sunday January 08 2017, @10:48PM
This is why there will almost certainly be no relationship between EU and UK after article 50 is triggered. It's hard to see any incentive to keep the UK in the single market. If I were the EU I would drag it out for 2 years while siphoning off as much business to the EU as possible and let the UK fall back to WTO rules, all the while smiling and promising to be BFFs.
Who actually is the EU here? I notice a remarkable thing here. For decades, predecessors to the EU were about inclusion, making a common economic system and trying to get as many parties as possible to join. 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.
So what sort of system makes it easy to join, but hard to leave? A trap.
Europeans should be looking hard at the system that's being created. You don't have to like the current leadership of Greece or the UK to wonder why it is so important that the whole of these countries should be screwed as hard as possible.
That leads to my question. Who is the EU? What value does it provide to the people who live within its borders? Maybe rather than out-grouping the UK, a bunch more people should be looking for the exit as well.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by HiThere on Sunday January 08 2017, @10:54PM
You mean like the US? Just *try* to leave...
What you need to decide **before joining** is whether the bait is worth the entrapment. And this *will* be a gamble.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday January 08 2017, @11:43PM
You mean like the US?
It's worth noting that the Confederacy easily succeeded at seceding in 1861. But then they frivolously started a war with the US without first lining up suitable allies. The war might have gone very different, if for example, they had the naval and logistics support of one or more European powers and thus couldn't be blockaded without requiring the US to defeat this European power.
Since then, there has been no serious attempt to secede from the US.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday January 09 2017, @01:50AM
And yet, the Confederacy seems to have won just now. The Union fucked up; they should have cut those inbred moonshine-swilling sister-fucking toothless morons loose and left you to fend for themselves.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday January 09 2017, @08:31AM
And yet, the Confederacy seems to have won just now.
I bet a fair portion of what you term "the Confederacy" now had immigrant ancestors who weren't even in the New World in 1860. And slavery isn't on the table.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday January 09 2017, @05:28PM
I would say you're correct, too. But tell them that, and they'll start frothing and seething and going "but MUH JERBZ!" Historical literacy is not a strong suit of most Americans, but especially not those south of the Mason Dixon line.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2017, @07:23AM
Check the tax reporting obligations of a person who changes his nationality from USian. You have to report Your earnings to the Creepy Uncle Sam for quite a long while, if memory serves, even despite being no longer a citizen.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Monday January 09 2017, @08:35AM
You have to report Your earnings to the Creepy Uncle Sam for quite a long while, if memory serves, even despite being no longer a citizen.
Do other countries recognize this law?
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday January 09 2017, @12:26AM
Once it progressed beyond the common market concept it sort of went off the rails in an orgy of governmental overreach.
Not content to form a framework for common government, and let time handle the details, the EU charter tried to micromanage every aspect of life.
That some countries to this day participate mostly in the single market aspect of the EU (basically the EFTA [wikipedia.org] members) suggests that as a still valid approach post Brexit.
Its pretty clear that the first significant challenge faced as a Union (massive illegal immigration) brought the the boarder fences out of storage, temporary rule changes that somehow became permanent, and one county's decision being imposed upon all members.
Nobody got a vote on that whole debacle. No member would even consider allowing such a vote. It was a foregone conclusion it would fail. And that pattern has been visible for decades. Just impose it because no one would vote for it.
So maybe the EFTA states had it right all along.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2017, @01:48AM
> So what sort of system makes it easy to join, but hard to leave? A trap.
Or... a system where everybody is interdependent and leaving doesn't' just affect the leaver it affects everyone else so they are kinda fucking pissed you'd do that to them and no longer willing to cut you the same slack they would for someone who hadn't just kicked them in the balls.
Nah, it couldn't be that... Selfishness is OK for me, but for thee.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday January 09 2017, @08:25AM
Or... a system where everybody is interdependent and leaving doesn't' just affect the leaver it affects everyone else so they are kinda fucking pissed you'd do that to them and no longer willing to cut you the same slack they would for someone who hadn't just kicked them in the balls.
Nah, I don't think it's that. UK can still be part of the trade bloc without harming that interdependence.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Monday January 09 2017, @02:21AM
So what sort of system makes it easy to join, but hard to leave?
Book of the Month Club, or Columbia Records? And, the opt-out only marketing model is baaaack!
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-adore-me/ [bloomberg.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday January 09 2017, @09:51AM
(Score: 5, Insightful) by lx on Monday January 09 2017, @05:14AM
It's easy to leave the EU.
The problem is that the May government wants to leave and retain all the advantages of EU membership.
Of course the rest of Europe isn't going along with that plan.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday January 09 2017, @08:33AM
The problem is that the May government wants to leave and retain all the advantages of EU membership.
Maybe that is so, but I get the impression that there's some EU unionists who want to cut the UK completely off for spite.
(Score: 3, Informative) by mojo chan on Monday January 09 2017, @01:40PM
It's quite simple. The European Economic Area, the common market, is based on the principal of the free movement of goods, capital and labour. You can't have two of the three, it's all or nothing. No other country gets to pick and choose.
The only alternative to negotiate a deal. Lots of countries have done that, but it takes a long time. Certainly more than 18 months that the UK realistically has to negotiate its exit from the EU. So there are only two realistic options - we stay in the common market and accept all the rules and freedom of movement, or we come out and lose all the benefits.
Other European countries are naturally going to take advantage of our stupidity. France and Germany and Ireland can build up their financial services as companies leave London. Spain can get joint sovereignty over Gibraltar or cripple its economy. On top of that, Scotland will leave the UK if we leave the EEA. There will be some kind of weird border with EU Ireland and Scotland. And we made some kind of promise to Nissan that now has to be factored in too.
Okay, I lied, it's not simple at all. The point is that the UK is in a very weak position. We could lose so much, and have very few cards in our hand.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
(Score: 2) by tonyPick on Monday January 09 2017, @02:38PM
Minor point - the EU technically refers to the four freedoms (goods, people, services and capital).
Otherwise everything you've said is correct - the UK's fundamental problem now is that the leave campaign means it's politically unacceptable for the government to accept free movement of people but it's also economic suicide for the UK to lose the other three, and there's simply no way around that or enough time to get an alternative deal that isn't economically punishing in the two year time frame.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2017, @10:34AM
> Of course the rest of Europe isn't going along with that plan.
That would be incredibly stupid and childish. The single market is benefiting them too.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2017, @01:39PM
> That would be incredibly stupid and childish. The single market is benefiting them too.
If you really think like that you are out of whack compared to the vast, vast majority of humans and even apes (first best link from Google: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140918141151.htm). [sciencedaily.com]
Large-scale cooperation is impossible without fairness, giving someone a better deal (especially if unfairly so where they benefit vastly more than anyone else) for leaving WILL rip the community apart and in the end almost certainly mean the end of even the single market.
I am pretty sure no sane human would first insult his boss, then ask for a pay rise and lower work hours and expect to get all that even when the business still would get more benefit out of it than they are paying salary! (even if it may happen in rare cases when someone was EXTREMELY underpaid compared to what they are worth to the company)
(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].
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 08 2017, @09:58PM
Rich ass-hole says he won't give money to political party unless they pass laws that favour him. Will the party comply/capitulate/bend over? I'm biting my nails!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 08 2017, @10:35PM
It's pretty amusing that these types always whine about taxes being too high yet they have lots of peanuts to toss at politicians all the same.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 08 2017, @10:33PM
"Popular vote is wrong, I don't pay you to be faithful to their mandate but my wishes, obey".
Revoke citizenship or try for treason?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by theluggage on Monday January 09 2017, @12:31PM
"Popular vote is wrong"
No, "Popular vote asks for the impossible".
"Popular vote" as promoted by the totally irresponsible and unaccountable Leave campaigns, was to leave the EU, stop immigration, get rid of all the EU regulations, stop paying our EU subscription and give it to the health service and somehow keep all of the economic advantages of the single market.
Just to translate that: if the EU offered that option to the UK, half of the other countries in the EU would immediately say "hey, yeah, we'll take a bit of that action, too" which would mark the end of the EU. Since the leave deal has to be passed by all the EU countries, that just isn't going to happen, the 2 year deadline will expire and we'll have the hardest of hard Brexits whether we want it or not.
That's why simplistic referendums on complex issues are stupid: if you offer the general public the moon on a stick of course they'll take it. The reason the government is dithering now is that they're desperately looking for some fudge to make it look like they can make a stick long enough to reach the moon.
Summary: Cameron screwed the pooch by calling a referendum and assuming that he'd win.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by fritsd on Monday January 09 2017, @12:01AM
Here's an option that I read somewhere on the Guardian website: (it wasn't called "brexit lite" actually, I don't remember if it had a name)
- The UK stays a proud, fully paid member of the EU (what?!, I hear you ask)
- England and Wales split off from the UK and form a new country and negotiate at leasure about their relationship with the rest of the world
Disadvantages:
- New EU outer border south of Scotland (but I'm told there are not many motorways in or out of Scotland to Cumbria and Northumberland)
Advantages:
- Democratically favourable for all four countries, because each one gets what a majority of its voters voted for in the referendum
- Ireland isn't torn apart by a new EU outer border on the very long internal Northern Irish border (smuggling!!), the Good Friday agreement is saved despite the Brexiters' best efforts
- EU doesn't have to change its letter paper etc., saves some money. New translators better be proficient in Gaelic though.
- England and Wales together are fully independent and as sovereign as they like
- Scotland doesn't have to do the Hokey Kokey "out of EU, out of UK, then into EU again" and can stay just where they are
- Might be good for economic development in Aberdeen which is unfortunately a much larger distance than Dover-Calais
- If the Northern Irish are comfortable with it, they can decide to join the Irish Republic if they like (in 50 years or so) without too much fuss like "you can't glue together an outside-EU with an inside-EU country".
(Score: 2) by BK on Monday January 09 2017, @02:40AM
To be fair and democratic about all of this we should let other countries tear themselves up then too. Spain will end up being 3-4 countries. Belgium will be two. France will get nibbled at the edges because of Spain and may well chop the remainder. Italy, at least 3 bits etc. Everyone has their oppressed others yearning to be their own nation.
Tell me about Catalonia.
...but you HAVE heard of me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2017, @03:43AM
Germany just said no to Bavaria http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/749748/Germany-Bavaria-no-independence-referendum-Bayxit [express.co.uk] . And what Germany says, EU applies to everyone. So no splitting. Only crushing.
For more info https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_active_separatist_movements_in_Europe [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2017, @02:01PM
That is one crazy guy, supported by a party that in local elections in the last decades managed at best 2%, but usually stays fairly solid below 1%.
And I wouldn't be surprised if only a small minority of even that 1% even supported independence.
The wikipedia list is really bad, it just throws everything into one pot, from the 1% crazies that often even they people living there never heard about over the ones that have massive support to those that actually have active or semi-active wars of independence currently ongoing.
Of the parties listed there for Germany, the one in Schleswig is the only one that can reasonably be taken seriously, but that party primarily represents minorities and the wikipedia page of that party doesn't say anything about any attempts at independence. According to their web-page their primary topic for the election is education! As far as I can tell, Wikipedia is just plain wrong to list them as an independence movement, they have no such intentions going by their election platform.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2017, @07:11AM
Free Montana! Keep the nukes! Keep out the Trumpsters!
(Score: 3, Funny) by nethead on Monday January 09 2017, @02:50AM
Stop it! Now you're just being sensible.
How did my SN UID end up over 3 times my /. UID?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2017, @04:05AM
There is also the Brexit zero option:
- Admit everything was a farce, with no plan, just lies by everyone.
- Start working for the well being of EU citizens, not the companies and not foreigns.
No idea which of them is "more" impossible (you know, like "bigger" infinity when resolving some math problems)... probably politicians working for citizens.
Instead we are going for "mutual assured destruction", sans the nukes. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/sir-ivan-rogers-brexit-secret-talks-david-cameron-prime-minister-theresa-may-eu-ambassador-a7515541.html [independent.co.uk] Western world seems to have severe suicidal tendencies.
Or the farce continues, but towards Brexit zero anyway, by means of a defusing at Parliament.
(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Monday January 09 2017, @08:07AM
Demographic genocide is the goal of the ruling class.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Monday January 09 2017, @08:53AM
Your option would be the most sane one, I think, but that ship has sailed now.
However, if you think about the "attitude" of the EU (which is some kind of Gestalt of its constituent states) then the balance between "for the well being of EU citizens" and "for the well being of multinational corporations" has for a long time been pushed towards the neo-liberal side of the scale by the UK: they have always been the ones pushing for TTIP, and vetoeing a Banking Union so that 2008 cannot be repeated. Also the UK newspapers (almost all in foreign hands) are notorious for blaming everything bad on the EU for the past 40 years, so that the UK representation in the Europarliament is actually dominated by the UKIP which wants to destroy the EU (while being paid by it). The voice of the British people, when given a means of expression, sounds like the voice of Nigel Farage "you're not laughing now!!!!". Maybe the Brits would vote differently if they watched "Life of Brian" and asked themselves "what has the European Union ever done for us?", but they didn't so now it's divorce time.
So with the UK removed from the equation, it may actually be a lot easier for the EU-27 to finally get some things done that are regarded as necessary to keep it limping along into the future as a vehicle for the expressed will of the European people. Of course the 2019 budget will be substantially smaller so we'll all have to tighten our belts.
If I was an EU politico, I'd reduce the budget with the UK's contribution, and for every country/region that complains about the subsidies being cut, say: "that's because the UK independence movement dragged the UK out of the EU. Understood? We're out of money."
It would be the truth AND it would be Realpolitik. We can all hang together, or we can all hang separately as the larger blocs (USA, Russia, China) play the small countries against each other.
There is some unexpected flexibility w.r.t. playing the different regions against each other, because of the plan of "Europe of the Regions" [wikipedia.org]. Even if e.g. Belgium would finally split, Vlaanderen and Wallonie would happily continue within the larger EU framework (dunno what would happen to Eupen and Malmedy).
(Score: 2) by mojo chan on Monday January 09 2017, @10:09AM
The best outcome would be for the UK to leave the EU but remain in the single market, kind of like Norway. Get all the benefits but have no means of sabotaging the project any more.
Unfortunately it looks like we are going to try to negotiate a hard Brexit, which is impossible. The timescale makes it impossible - 2 years as set out by Article 50, but realistically 18 months because the last six will be the practicalities of actually doing it. Not enough time to negotiate a good trading deal. In any case, EU member states will be looking to discourage others from leaving, or to improve their own situations by e.g. taking control of Gibraltar or wrecking UK financial services in order to build up Frankfurt and Paris.
There is also the Le Penn factor. If she wins the UK will be given a bad deal to discourage the French from following. If she loses the UK will be given a bad deal to bury her movement once and for all.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2017, @06:28AM
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Rivenaleem on Monday January 09 2017, @09:57AM
You missed one small point. The lads down in the Republic are not so sure they want the north anymore. That place is a big bottomless pit that suck up money. Have you seen the levels of unemployment there?
Maybe in 50 years, true, but not now. We don't _really_ want a united Ireland at this point in time. We've been making nice babysteps (joint sports teams etc) but there's really little point in unifying the island anymore.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2017, @05:11PM
This replaces over 300 years of common heritage [wikipedia.org] with a relationship which mostly on the same land mass with a at-most-75-year relationship [wikipedia.org] with people who speak a different language on a different continent... plus leaves England and Wales in a mostly-surrounded-by-EU position (which isn't impossible, as per Switzerland, but is a bit odd).
This may or may not be a good idea, but is not the most intuitive or natural course of action in my opinion.