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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."
and thanks for all the fish and chips.
But perhaps they could change place with Canada. Europe gets Canada and Northern America gets the UK.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Scotland just voted to have a post-Brexit independence referendum.
Without Scotland, there is no UK.
Just the greater Welsh Hegemony.
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.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
Airstrip One was always part of Oceania, not Eurasia.
Look at some of the people who are happy with this outcome:
- UKIP, of course.
- Donald Trump
- Marine Le Pen
- Vladimir Putin
Simple minded populists, right-wing nationalists and the enemies of the West.
Is this what the UK stands for these days?
After Brexit, Scotland will reconsider if they still enough common interests to remain in the UK. If the West Midlands or Greater Manchester wish to do the same, that's their prerogative, too.
This whole concept of Nationalism and Nation-States is only a 19th century experiment and it doesn't seem to working out well in a lot of cases. It might turn out that the most stable expression of democracy is something that resembles the loosely allied city-states of ancient Greece.
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.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
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.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
UK is losing free access to a market 6x their domestic, and won't be the financial market for Europe. Hard to see how that won't result in a slowed economy and they'll certainly have less political influence as they can no longer affect EU policies.
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...
I savor the irony in saying Congrats, Britain, on gaining your independence.
It's not like the continentals are going to erect a wall and stop trading.
What about a moat?
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?
It's so sad that even after Brexit people like the above commenter continue to display their ignorance and have apparently no idea how the EU works or what it actually is. Here is an executive summary:
- The president of the European Council is elected by the heads of state of all member states.
- The president of the European Commission is elected by the European Council.
- The members of the European Parliament are elected directly from the citizens of the member states.
- The president of the European Parliament is elected by the European Parliament.
- The European Commission is not democratically elected, they are civil servants, but the European Parliament can dismiss it by a vote of censure or no confidence. Legislation of the European Commission must be approved by the European Parliament and/or by the European Council (depending on the kind of legislation).
- The European Council consists of the heads of state of all EU member states, the European Commission President and the High Representative for Foreign Affairs & Security Policy. Obviously, the heads of states are all elected democratically by the citizens of their respective country, since the EU does not allow member states that do not satisfy high democratic standards.
Not only that, the whole structure of the EU is the result of unanimous votes of all member states, which is one of the reasons why it took so long to built this union, and the European Council usually has to decide unanimously (= not a single vote against) and only under rarer exceptions by majority. This means that (by population) smaller countries have a much larger voice in the EU than larger countries, but since voting usually has to be unanimous, this has never caused any problems. Moreover, just like the EU has been built by their member states it can also be changed by their member states. But it doesn't stop there. The EU is also ridiculously cheap, the EU budget is only about 1% of the total GDP of its member states, and the 28 current EU countries spend about 50 times more on national expenses than on the EU budget!
And here is the most ironic and sad thing about the Brexit: Since 1985, the UK got a rebate of 66% on their EU spending! No joke, they got a 66% refund, just so they don't bitch around too much. Talking about ungratefulness...
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.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
Ironically, Canada just concluded CETA a free trade agreement with the EU and so Brexited UK will have no more than normal WTO trade status with Canada (which is what they'll start with after Brexit for all of those other nations you called out until they can negotiate some other agreements).
But had the UK stayed in EU, they would have had a premium trade arrangement with Canada they won't get now.
Even though Canada's head of state resides in UK. How is that for ironic?
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.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
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.
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.
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.