Hindsight is not very helpful, apart from the fact that we should learn from mistakes. However, the more I think of this mess, the more I blame John Major and his contemporaries in the rest of the EU. It was after Maastricht that the really bad stuff happened: BBC News - A timeline of the EU After 1992 we had enlargement of the EU, to an extreme degree, Shengen, the Euro. All the things that have gone badly wrong. And the EU didn't even enforce the debt and deficit commitments that the Maastricht treaty set up...
Germany will decide for Germany, the rest can, in the words of Len Goodman, "turn up, keep up and shut up"
On TV a couple of months ago, a company making small hovercrafts and selling to the EU were costing £20,000. Under EU trade rules the same hovercrafts cost £31,000 when sold to India( I think it was India) making them too expensive, they said they welcomed the chance to negotiate our own trade deals with other countries around the world.
In the meantime, the Bundesrat wants to force the EU to ban all cars etc by 2030 to help the German carbon emissions figures go down.
India imposes substantial import tariffs on many types of goods. It is hilarious that you imagine this is somehow the fault of the EU.
Another nail in the coffin for the EU if that happens and serves to underline the importance of getting out of a dysfunctional organisation that sooner or later will implode.
All 27 other member states have a say, obviously. And all 27 of them are keen to maintain the integrity of the single market in goods, people, services, and capital, from which all of them so greatly benefit, obviously. If any one or more of the member states decides to take a different position, they can say so. Obviously.
I said a long time ago that hydrocarbons are too important to burn, but we need to get our energy from somewhere and fossil hydrocarbon is just so damned convenient and fun
The EU and India have been negotiating a FTA since 2007. In 9 years they still haven't come to an agreement. It's hilarious that you think it isn't the fault of the EU. :Hilarious: http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/countries-and-regions/countries/india/ The EU obviously realise that India, with 1.7bn inhabitants is such a massive market for them is probably why they have moved so quickly to get this FTA in place. :Watching: Maybe we'll see it before we cut free and go our own way, but I very much doubt it. The Italian olive growing industry or the Greek Yak farmers will no doubt raise objections and scupper the whole shooting match. What's the betting that an independant, post EU; UK, can manage to wrap a deal up with India rather more quickly? U.K. starts trade talks for post-Brexit deal with India - The Hindu
cool. looking forward to making products affordable for a country of such wealth. hmm i wonder how we will do that? The World Bank reviewed and proposed revisions in May 2014, to its poverty calculation methodology and purchasing power parity basis for measuring poverty worldwide, including India. According to this revised methodology, the world had 872.3 million people below the new poverty line, of which 179.6 million people lived in India. In other words, India with 17.5% of total world's population, had 20.6% share of world's poorest in 2011.[7][16] As of 2014, 58% of the total population were living on less than $3.10 per day .[17] According to the Modified Mixed Reference Period (MMRP) concept proposed by World Bank in 2015, India's poverty rate for period 2011-12 stood at 12.4% of the total population, or about 172 million people; taking the revised poverty line as $1.90.[18][19][20]
i guess it still leaves a lot of people making more than a couple of quid a day right enough. one of the growth markets for whisky i believe. which reminds me, heres one for the country north of the boarder. The Minister of State for Toys-R-Us « Wee Ginger Dug
will trade with India make the UK a. richer b . Poorer c. I want all Indians out of the UK so don't care if we trade with em or not
silly question that could easily be turned round to supporting our poorer EU members and troublesome neighbors. question time will leaving the EU make you wealthier or poorer? (bearing in mind wealth doesn't necessarily mean monetary) do you love the idea of having to compete with some of these countries that pay daily the equivalent of a bag of uncle bens?
Quiz time: is the question of the UK's relative wealth before and after Brexit the only. or even, most important issue? I realise I am asking a Scottish man a money-related question but bear with me ...
I burnt some hydrocarbons this afternoon, very noisily, at high speed, without a catalytic converter or Euro 4-compliance. It was brilliant. Its the future.