Brexit Thread

[Kralizec]

Who would be surprised if David Cameron's next Career path lead to him being the next president of the EU?

Anybody with a brain would be surprised when a citizen of a non-EU country becomes "president of the EU"

Binding is an incredibly difficult word it seems

This referendum is not binding. The government certainly isn't going to ignore the result, but legally it isn't required to act on it.

What decided it for me, I think, was the German politicians talking about how it would be "hard" if we left and they're now saying we'll "suffer" so I think we'rem well shot. Trying to intimidate the English just causes us to set our faces, and the Welsh are the same. Ireland - as noted - voted along Sectarian lines but the split wasn't that clean, about 11%, the Scottish gap at 18% is more profound, but turnout there was also 6% lower.

If you're talking about Schauble (German finance minister) I think his point was that getting Britain into a similar relationship to the EU as Norway or Switzerland has would entirely defeat the point of leaving. EFTA is actually a bit of a misnomer, as it goes far beyond free trade. It includes freedom of movement and a large part, perhaps the majority, of regulations the EU has set.
Sovereignty and anti-immigration sentiment were important motivations for Brexit voters. Becoming an EFTA member goes against both, plus it actually removes the UK's say in those regulations.

If it's not Schauble, I wonder who you're thinking of, and wether or not you actually paid attention to what he or she said...instead of just going by the headlines.

If the EU is smart they'll offer the UK a deal that's better than WTO rules but not as nice as being in the EU and leave the door open for us to come back in 10 years after we've had our fill of living democratically.

Ten years seems like a fairly short time. But it could happen, and the EU could change a lot in that time - for better or worse. It seems unlikely though that the UK will get as many opt-out clauses as they currently have.