Slashdot Mirror
Bank of England Accidentally E-mails Top-Secret "Brexit" Plan To the Guardian
schwit1 writes: The first rule of "Project Bookend" is that you don't talk about "Project Bookend." In retrospect, maybe the first rule should have been "you don't accidentally e-mail 'Project Bookend' to a news agency," because as the Guardian reports, one of its editors opened his inbox and was surprised to find a message from the BOE's Head of Press Jeremy Harrison outlining the UK financial market equivalent of the Manhattan project. Project Bookend is a secret (or 'was' a secret) initiative undertaken by the BOE to study what the fallout might be from a potential 'Brexit', but if anyone asked what Sir Jon Cunliffe and a few senior staffers were up to, they were instructed to say that they were busy investigating "a broad range of European economic issues." And if you haven't heard the term before, "Brexit" refers to the possibility of Britain leaving the EU -- one of the possible outcomes of an upcoming referendum.
"Accidentally" isn't certain here. If I was part of something that was wrong and I wanted it to be known, I would very well "accidentally" leak it too.
The headline exaggerates, anyway. The e-mail doesn't contain a Top-Secret "Brexit" Plan: merely the top-secret fact that the bank is going to be working on a "Brexit" plan. It's neither a surprise that they're doing this, nor a surprise that they want to keep it secret: the finance ministers of certain other European countries were already offended by the Bank of England having a Grexit plan.
If you support a strong EU (which is a necessary counterweight to the aggressiveness of Russia and the instability of the Middle East), then the UK should be in.
Unless you don't.
:. Ultimate Control Dedicated/VM Servers
I second that. UK has always being the nagging friend who is crying all the time for attention, asks for cigarettes and drinks but never pays back, and only contributes for the holiday budget after everyone already paid up and had to "remind" him several times that he needed to pay his part. After the same old stories he has to tell grow too old and it became too much we always stop calling that friend to parties. The best that could happen is this friend (UK) just go away instead of us having to avoid him.
UK, get your game right, we kind of have had enough. And apparently your banks had it as well, they already warned that you exit EU, they move back to Hong Kong. Grow up.
If the UK was actually more interested in ties with the rest of Europe than its ties with the US, I'd agree. In the current form I'd not expect it to be anything but a spy and tool to stop legislation that goes against the interests of the US.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I can only wonder how incredible the timing of those "leaks" always happens to be. Just not that the big discussion is brewing on whether the UK should retain its "Brit-rebate" and other undue privileges, we get to hear that the sky is falling over Europe should they dare to withdraw.
Timely blunders indeed.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I want EU to be strong.
UK is pretty arrogant toward EU and showed so far no desire to integrate fully in long-term.
Them waving often their veto right (even if they are not part of some negotiations) also doesn't instill much trust.
I do not see the point in a larger but weaker union.
All hope abandon ye who enter here.
I also live in germany it is not this simple.
What the UK needs to do is finally figure out if they want to be some sort of US overea-territory - or if they actually belong to Europe. What the political leadership is doing right now is "a bit of both, none really". I think the political UK has not understood they are not "The Empire" anymore and that the political landscape in central Europa has changed a very lot when compared to 100 or even just 50 years ago.
Gemany, France, Poland, parts of Scandinavia, East Europe, somewhat Italy, Greece and Spain are not more and more working together, entwining economically, ripping down borders, limitations, taxes, even attempt a common currency - but the UK is the only big player who pretends all this was not happening or actually the future (if it works out. If not, well, that is a world which will bring a lot of other problems).
For the political stability we can live with both in regards to balance in Europe (vs. Russian advances or other cases where you need political weight on a global scale) and practice keeps the UK tied to europe no matter what they decide anyway (e.g. in regards to anything related to security and military, also as in regard to economics).
I don't see much aggressiveness from Russia. The middle East yes... it is a problem... mostly caused by USA and UK and all the sheeps here in Europe that keep following them .
The economy of the UK isn't that strong. And they don't support that much anyway, they negotioated special tarifs for them in the past under the threat of leaving. Now they will try that again, but I think it won't work anymore. The others will simply say "you want to leave? Fine, then leave".
After all, we're not the American Empire that declares war on parts that want to leave and then calls it a civil war.
Leaving would be economic suicide so I expect Cameron will extract some concessions to persuade people to stay in and dodge that bullet. Because if he doesn't it's likely that the UK will leave the EU and Scotland and Northern Ireland would leave the UK. That would be Cameron's legacy and he knows it as much as anyone. It's probably why the Conservatives are already trying to take the bite out of some of the pro-exit talking points by tackling illegal immigration at the moment.
Yeah, those ships from Libya should just be sunk with the people on it. And we should raise fences all over the border, shooting at anyone without a valid pass.
Ever you considered, how those Somalis and Libyans got in the situation they are in now.
Somalia - this started by big companies dropping waste on Somali shores, and over fishing their shoreline, destroying the livelihood of fishers who became pirates.
Libya - by removing their dictator, opening the way to several tribal and terrorist groups.
Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
Foreign policy was never the strongest point of the EU. In fact, there's hardly any international issue where the EU really can speak with one voice, without some national leaders acting directly against it. And the EU has nothing to say about military actions at all. So foreign policy, or counterweighting Russia, is really the worst possible reason to support the EU.
Many of us who are labelled "europhobic" are actually in favour of a Union, even a strong one. The problem we see in the EU is that it has become a bureaucratic, intransparent, undemocratic monster with a far too wide mandate. And if you look at the people building the EU, that is no accident. Considering what this EU might turn into, I think it would be better to not have it at all.
What the EU lacks first and foremost is a proper constitution: a simple document that describes what the EU does and doesn't do, who does what, how, and under what conditions, and what the rights are it grants to its citizens and national governments. Since we don't have one, the EU can grow in any direction and in any way its architects desire. And that direction might not be what's best for Europe or its citizens, but for those running the show in Brussels. As Juncker once said: "When it becomes serious, you have to lie". And that is sort of what they did with the thing that is called the European constitution. It's a huge document and you have to be a legal expert to make any sense of it. And that too is by design: when several countries voted against the "constitution", they took out one part (making "An die Freude" the European anthem) and rewrote the rest in impenetrable legalese.
There are many good reasons for having *a* union. And there are many more for not having *this* one.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
The Eurozone nations have opted for a degree of financial integration that the UK doesn't want or need. Obviously that hasn't worked out very well recently, at least for the economically stronger EU nations
There is a saying that goes "share your wealth with us or we will share our poverty with you". The whole point of the EU is that the stronger members bring up the poorer members so that they don't dissolve into financial chaos which tends to have other inconvenient outputs. The UK wanting to leave the EU is just the problem with capitalism writ large: The proponents claim it is good for everyone, but the moment it starts to actually be good for anyone else they do everything they can to change the game so that it's best for them and crap for everyone else again. That, in a nutshell, is the UK leaving the EU.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
The whole point of the EU is that the stronger members bring up the poorer members so that they don't dissolve into financial chaos which tends to have other inconvenient outputs.
The trouble with that argument is that it relies on the stronger members having enough economic power to actually do that. It is far from clear that this is currently the case, with the expansion of the EU in recent years to include many far less economically advanced member states, not to mention a few of the longer-standing ones habitually cooking the books. The likes of Germany can't make up for shortfalls across so many of their fellow EU nations indefinitely; it isn't politically viable, and even if it were, it probably isn't economically viable in the long term either.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Britain is one of the few countries within the EU that exports more to countries outside it than to ones in it, albeit by a small margin. One of the arguments for leaving is that the regulations required by the EU (which may have protectionist origins) make it harder to compete outside of it with faster growing world economies.
It does make it harder to compete, but let's be absolutely clear why. It's things like employee rights, environmental protection rules, anti-monopoly rules, data protection rules and the like. Basically stuff that benefits the citizens but slightly reduces corporate profits.
How do you think they will compete with "growing world economies"? By paying you growing world wages, and paying growing world levels of tax.
Don't think for a moment any of it will benefit you. It will benefit corporations and the already extremely rich people who own then or have large interests in them.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
The trouble with that argument is that it relies on the stronger members having enough economic power to actually do that. It is far from clear that this is currently the case, with the expansion of the EU in recent years to include many far less economically advanced member states
The problem with that argument is that the economic condition enjoyed by the stronger nations is built upon the exploitation of the poorer ones. You don't get to complain about how poorly someone is doing at treading water while you step on their head.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
The amount of my money subsiding the EU gravy train is working against me. My health services being overloaded due to EU migrants is working against me. The rapid drive towards reducing the sovereignty of member states continues to reduce my ability to influence the direction of the country in which I live.
The whole "Make Ireland hold a second referendum" on the Lisbon Treaty shows you how utterly undemocratic the whole process is. Shit, the rest of us didn't even get a referendum.
Ironically the biggest cock-up of the EU hasn't hurt the UK, because even Gorden Fuckface Brown wasn't stupid enough to join the Euro. Lucky escape there.