May’s position was for the UK to remain in the custom’s union. Her issue with EFTA was the free movement element as control over immigration was always her biggest red line.
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Interesting premonition.
The votes on the right to center is pretty much monopolized by the Conservatives while there’s an array of parties (Green, LDP, SNP, PC, SF, SDLP, Alliance, PBP) vying with Labor for the votes on left of center.
In geographical terms, in two major Labor strongholds, SNP and Plaid Cymru (in association with Greens and LDP) have established themselves as alternatives to the Conservatives in Scotland and Wales respectively.
Labor branches in Scotland and Wales are talking about becoming autonomous parties with their own Whips in the Westminster. If so, the English Labor will not be able to count on Scottish & Welsh Labor MPs as an singular entity like at present.
Maybe Labor will take on the Conservatives in a more centrist and English battleground. England counts for 82% of the total seats and Tories generally get 90% of their seats from England.
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Sorry, my bad.
My view is that border control being totally in our control is not really common knowledge. Anything that destroys that myth starts to make things interesting, all be it too late at this stage. I don’t think the UK government has any concern whatsoever with using inflammatory language to pass blame to the EU.
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By comparison to what we have now it makes you think she knew what she was doing.
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Not entirely sure that is true, as a number of EU countries locked their borders down during the pandemic.
The UK had the chance but BoJo showed his true colours not giving a fuck about the common man and only doing what was best for lining his back pocket and those of his cronies.
If they had stood to gain money by locking the borders down, I guarantee it would have happened without any hesitation
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That was my view to be honest but not closing the borders was the most bizarre decision. There was zero sense in keeping them open unless they were continuing with the herd immunity idea, they were completely stupid or something else. Brexit could be the something else.
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Now that Brexit has happened, is there any merits to some proposed unions like CANZUK - Canada, Australia, NZ and UK? Such an union would be really powerful but yet would be more “cohesive” in the sense that there are more commonalities in these 4 countries than the 27 in the EU, language, culture, history etc…
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Maybe. The main issue with Brexit is that most trade is naturally done with your closest neighbours, so this is an issue that will be ongoing.
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Within the EU, UK is the 2nd biggest economy, in the world it is 6th largest (hopefully I am right) and while separate from the EU means it might lose some leverage but if they form an union with 3 other countries which are very similar and in which 2 of them are top 15 economies in the world, surely that would create a huge leverage for this union with the EU and other trade negotiations?
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It isn’t solely about size but about distance from markets and resources etc. I can’t remember the economic term for it.
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Yes definitely it always make sense to do trade with your closest neighbours.
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Mia Culpa; the fault for the digression lies with me. I misread your post as indicating what you thought would/should be the UK’s next step following Brexit i.e. to join EFTA and then the EEA.
Sadly, neither option seems likely under the current administration.
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In addition to the distance, the respective commodity basket of prospective trading partners is also an issue. I think UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have similar products/service and don’t have too many things to trade with each other.
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More importantly, there is probably not that much in common when it comes to trade and difficult to see how the UK adds much value.
Australia trades heavily with Asia, is negotiating a deal with the EU. Canada already has a deal with the EU and the US through NAFTA etc. I think these countries wanted us to remain within the EU.
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I wonder if the Gallaghers are also signatories?
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For me it was a missed opportunity. I’ve argued for gradual stages. EU > Efta/EEA > new arrangement with a timeline of at least 15 years.
My view was that going to Efta/EEA would have had the most support within the electorate whilst also honouring the result (by leaving the EU), but simultaneously avoiding a huge shock to the economy, keeping many things much the same, but allowing the UK to strike independent trade deals and placing the CJEU jurisdiction at a further distance.
15 years further on, with the new position having had a chance to bed in, I’d have gone back to the electorate with a choice of stay as we are, rejoin EU or leave the EEA.
Unfortunately that didn’t materialise but I cannot emphasise enough how important I feel it was to leave the EU. It feels like the government have ripped off the plaster without any thought about how to then stem the blood flow. I mean, that’s one way to go but it wouldn’t have been mine.
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It’s not the Daily Mail readers you need to convince; they’d dance to the Tory tune come what may, no matter how high the death toll rises.
It’s the blue collar, ex-labour supporters in what was the “Red-Wall” that you will need to persuade to return to the fold to stand half a chance.
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Starmer questioned Boris on this as well. No answer of course.
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