Thursday 18 February 2016

Welcome to England


This morning, it was Robert Hooke's turn for an airing - he has waited 300 years for Melvyn bloody Bragg to give it, though you would think he was still alive from the way the historians continually refer (ed) to him in the present tense.

Now, what do you think? Should Britain remain in the E.U. or should we pull up the drawbridge? The economic carve-up will continue as normal whatever happens, now that we have handed our economies over to the global psychopaths.

Our Prime Minister is currently in Brussels, trying to gain little concessions such as not being forced to give child maintenance to parents whose children live in a different country, and the only opposition he is likely to get about this is from the countries who receive the money, not hand it out.

The 27 other countries are waiting to see what he can squeeze out of the deal, then they will all clamour for the same concessions, whether or not they need or deserve them. Nobody wants to look like a loser to their electorate.

The talks are predicted to be over by the time everyone has eaten a Full English Breakfast, not your namby-pamby Continental one consisting of a croissant, a bit of jam and a cup of coffee. Cameron has insisted that this breakfast must include Black Pudding, but Brussels are still discussing if this is permissible within current E.U. legislation. I predict that they will compromise by allowing Black Pudding made from neutrally Danish pigs. We've still got our £ and Denmark still has its Kroner.

Following these show-case media talks, us poor Brits will spend the next few months having the pants scared off us by both sides in the run-up to the Referendum. If we opt to leave, France will no longer hold 1000s of migrants at Calais, but will give them all train tickets to Kent, thereby saving themselves loads of money.

If we opt to stay, we will be forced to accept as many as can make it through Macedonia - possibly divided by 28, but this will not become clear until the end of the talks. Turkey is - at present - holding back about half a million by setting up camps just the other side of the Syrian border, but it could not do that if it had been granted membership of the E.U. when it first asked for it. Neither could it have used the excuse of anti-terrorism to shell thousands of ethnic Kurds, whose traditional borders spread - like a Caliphate - across about four national ones.

Whether we stay in or leave, it will not make too much difference to anything of real economic importance, because we sold all our assets to other E.U. members years ago, and now subsist on tourism.

14 comments:

  1. As one who lives in mainland 'Yerp', things are even more complicated; will they kick me out?

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    1. I doubt it. London is still full of Russians, after all.

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  2. Cameron has failed to achieve the far reaching reform of the EU that he set out to do. Every reform he says he has achieved is so watered down as to be invisible. I am with Nigel Lawson today. Vote to come out.

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    1. You made this comment in advance of the outcome, but you are still probably right.

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  3. I think no one wants Britain to leave. That means Britain will be granted some of its requirements and then they simply will not be enforced on both sides. Most importantly, the EU wants Britain in, and that's three of four aces.

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  4. The farmer supports staying in as I think most farmers do. I am undecided as I can see both fors and againsts. But I don't suppose my views will make all that much difference.

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    1. Yes, farmers are having a rough enough time as it is, without losing all those subsidies. They may just have to do what the French do and drive their livestock through central London (or Paris) if they don't get their way.

      If we leave the E.U., then we will set our own prices and welfare standards for milk, pork, grain and beef, but whether or not anyone other than Russia will buy remains to be seen.

      Farmers must be prepared for scare tactics like this in the next few months. As far as milk goes, how could it get any worse?

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  5. I am a bit off topic, but wanted to make sure you were aware that today, during his Mexican tour, the Pope opened a line of dialogue that has now been joined by D. Trump.

    World leaders.

    Returning to your topic, I do thank you and the prior commenters for helping me to understand more of the nuances of an issue that over here in NYC can get reduced to snappy news headlines that do not begin to explore the issues.

    Best wishes.

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    1. I think the Pope is beginning the first steps toward Trump's excommunication. Soon he will be blocked from using his iPhone by Apple.

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  6. With apologies to my hound, it's all a dog's breakfast.
    Living in France as pensioners we should be frightened enough to vote to Stay In, but if we were still in the UK I think I could be in the Out camp.

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    1. Cro has the same concerns - compromise through pragmatism seems your only way out - or in.

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