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'No Turning Back' on Brexit as Article 50 Triggered (bbc.com)

An anonymous reader shares a BBC report: Britain's departure from the European Union is "an historic moment from which there can be no turning back," Theresa May has told MPs. The prime minister said it was a "unique opportunity" to "shape a brighter future" for the UK. She was speaking after Britain's EU ambassador formally triggered the two year countdown to the UK's exit by handing over a letter in Brussels. It follows June's referendum which resulted in a vote to leave the EU. In a statement in the Commons, the prime minister said: "Today the government acts on the democratic will of the British people and it acts too on the clear and convincing position of this House." She added: "The Article 50 process is now under way and in accordance with the wishes of the British people the United Kingdom is leaving the European Union."

21 of 667 comments (clear)

  1. Tradeoffs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They'll be poorer, less powerful and less influential. However, they might actually be happier. Or, at least a fraction of the population will be.

    1. Re:Tradeoffs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You can say what you want about Trump, but Putin is in no way a simple-minded populist. He sees power and knows how to hold on to it. His country is small, but he knows how to wield power to achieve his goals better than the entire EU put together.

    2. Re:Tradeoffs by ranton · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Britain has survived far worse. What makes you think leaving the EU will be the death knell?

      Who said anything about a death knell. The original post simply said they will be poorer, less powerful, and less influential. When you have 5th largest economy in the world, you can get poorer without becoming poor. The danger is members of the UK having a lower standard of living after Brexit, not that they will completely implode.

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      -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
    3. Re:Tradeoffs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You mean people who know more and are more experienced? Perhaps people who saw what past attempts at a centralized unelected government can turn into?

    4. Re:Tradeoffs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      They are 5th because mostly of the City and its banks. But has a bunch of big banks said they will move to Paris to stay in the European market, this hit could be really huge...

      (posting anonymously to keep moderations)

    5. Re:Tradeoffs by wisnoskij · · Score: 3, Insightful

      populists

      So the people, as a general rule, are happy about it.

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      Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
    6. Re:Tradeoffs by Kagato · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't think it was the right move but I understand it. Over the years as I've traveled to London I've had less and less interactions with Brits and more and more with Eastern Europeans. Last trip there wasn't a single hospitality employee I interacted with that wasn't a legal Eastern European immigrant. Though London has a fairly low unemployment rate. Still, there is a perception that the UK Manufacturing is a shadow of it's former self and EU companies use cheap labor in the East to ripsaw more expensive labor in the West.

    7. Re:Tradeoffs by ChrisMaple · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Far more Americans died in automobile accidents during the Vietnam War than died in the war. That did not make it not a war. The intention of Islam is to conquer the world, and you're a fool to ignore that fact.

      There are more forms of war than tanks and uniformed armies, and Islamists know they would be wiped out in a conventional unlimited military conflict. That is why they have chosen to invade with one un-uniformed combatant at a time, draining the economies of victim countries and occasionally engaging in violent outbreaks to generate an atmosphere of fear.

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      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    8. Re:Tradeoffs by MightyYar · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This isn't "globalist", it is exiting a regional trade pact. I have misgivings about free trade, but almost none of those apply to countries with similar standards of living, similar product safety requirements, similar financial rules, easy migration, and similar worker protections.

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      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    9. Re:Tradeoffs by fiannaFailMan · · Score: 3, Insightful

      One might say that the web of treaties that made up a united Europe of the early 1900s, The European Union 1.0, was exactly what instigated and fueled WW I & II. We had the exact same situation then, just with a different name. A group of powerful unelected globalists controlled Europe together, and lead us into the two most deadly wars in human history while they divided the world between each other like you would a cake. The history of a Europe tied together by laws and treaties and centrally controlled is one of bloodshed and chaos.

      This is flat out incorrect. Europe of the 1910s had nothing in common with the EU. The web of alliances in those days were based on economic protectionism and military rivalry, not peace and cooperation. The EU, and to a large extent the WTO, are attempts to prevent a repeat of the same economic conditions that led to two world wars. The right wing anti-immigration sentiment that's infesting the continent now is what could put us right back there again. The EU is a firewall against it.

      Incidentally, Winston Churchill called for the creation of a "United States of Europe" after WWII. He had seen enough of conflict and was smart enough to see that the best way to prevent it was through economic cooperation and development, not militaristic posturing and trying to shut out international trade.

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      Drill baby drill - on Mars
    10. Re:Tradeoffs by Shakrai · · Score: 3, Insightful

      This isn't "globalist", it is exiting a regional trade pact. I have misgivings about free trade, but almost none of those apply to countries with similar standards of living, similar product safety requirements, similar financial rules, easy migration, and similar worker protections.

      We don't have similar standards of living, worker protections, educational attainment, or health outcomes across the 50 United States. What makes you think the EU can claim such outcomes between members? The anti-EU crowd was bitching about internal EU migration years before they started bitching about the Islamic "invasion." Imagine a New Yorker getting pissed because someone from Mississippi moved next door and took his job....

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      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    11. Re:Tradeoffs by Zemran · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I love the lying moron alert at the start of a moronic lie :) MEPs are democratically elected but have no power to put forward a motion for debate or to enact a law. They are simply there to enact a theatre of democracy. The people of Europe do not get to vote for the EC. All those in power get their positions behind closed doors. They are not answerable to the people. The famously corrupt entity decides who will get what post in secret meetings and the power stays away from the electorate. Why not just have a simple easy to understand elected government? Why not let the elected MEPs put forward motions? Why not let the elected MEPs take votes on policy and enact policy? Why have policy made by someone else? The system is deliberately obfuscated to maintain the corruption that it is famous for. If that ended the EU would stand a chance of survival but the current structure is unworkable.

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      I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
  2. Re:A completely unaccountable governing body by ranton · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is the only method member states have of telling the EU it's doing it wrong: leaving.

    How is this comment modded up? Do you think the only way of telling your own government is to leave? The EU government, like the UK government, is full of elected officials.

    Saying the UK has no control over the EU is like saying the West Midlands or Greater Manchester have no control over the UK.

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    -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
  3. Re:A completely unaccountable governing body by Nidi62 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This is the only method member states have of telling the EU it's doing it wrong: leaving.

    This isn't England taking their ball and going home. This is England slashing the ball up with a knife and breaking their own legs. The EU will find a new ball (probably one with a Scottish accent) and keep playing while England is stuck in bed with a broken leg for 6 months.

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    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
  4. Let's not forget Northern Ireland by MAXOMENOS · · Score: 3, Insightful

    UK out of the EU....Ireland in....what to do, what to do?

  5. And might barely, barely won that one by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If a simple 50% majority was sufficient to join, then a 50% majority is sufficient to leave.

    Neither should be the case as turning over so much power should be a supermajority decision of people in a nation (because if you can't convince most people that such a big change is a good idea, you have no business doing it.) But somehow people are trained to believe a simple majority is a godlike authority instead of an abstraction of might makes right, which it should be treated as.

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    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    1. Re:And might barely, barely won that one by WrongMonkey · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The reason that popular votes tent to float around 50% is that widely popular or unpopular policies don't need to be voted on. The only time you need to take a formal vote is when the consensus is unclear.

  6. Re:You spelled Lesser Britain wrong by WrongMonkey · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Northern Ireland would only stay in the EU if they vote to leave the UK and unify with Ireland.

    http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-nor...

    Scotland is definitely leaving the EU along with UK. If they vote for independence, they could reapply to the EU. But this is far from automatic, since there are other EU members that are struggling to discourage their own secessionists.

    http://www.politico.eu/article...

  7. Shill much? by s.petry · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why do you omit more than 50% of the populace who voted for Brexit? Considering the massive amount of propaganda for "remain" having over 50% for exit is an insanely high number.

    It's almost like you are actually ignoring facts to back an ideology. Why does that seem so familiar? Oh, I got it! The elitists in the US did and do the same thing. People have caught on to the game, repeating the lies won't make the true. All it does at this point is expose the amount of people involved in attempting to maintain the charade.

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    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

  8. Death Knell for Britain Clear by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Britain has survived far worse. What makes you think leaving the EU will be the death knell?

    That's an easy one to answer: Scottish independence. Without Scotland we are no longer Great Britain and certainly not a United Kingdom. What happened today was that we shot ourselves. What remains to be seen is whether we shot ourselves in the head, the foot or the gut. My guess is the latter because unless we either reverse the decision or the EU itself collapses the UK is likely to suffer a long and lingering death both from Scottish and possibly Northern Irish independence as well as internal political conflicts in England and Wales. The latter is because leaving the EU is unlikely to fix any of the issues most of those who voted for it would like to see fixed and the 48% who voted against it are being utterly ignored in pursuit of a "hard" Brexit. This is a self-inflicted existential crisis and I see a good chance of it getting very ugly.

  9. Re:The results of any election or referendum.... by GNious · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Not voting also expresses an opinion, even if it's a lack of opinion or lack of attention or care or anything else.
    Those that did not go to a polling station simply voted to follow whatever everyone else decided.