holystove

"more" blatant? don't tell me you give any belief to this claim that the EU can somehow force a member state to vote one way or another on anything. The only vote the EU will force on the UK is to send members to the EU Parliament, which can hardly be described as a 'disregard of democracy', rather the opposite.

The person who created that petition has had numerous death threats and had to close down her facebook account. unbelievable ..

Thanks, great job by the UK creating economic hardship for thousands of companies

Well I've said before I disagree with your opinion he wants a no-deal; no need to get into it again. I indeed have a background in EU law (I work in insolvency now), I am not a politician though so I'm not 'switched on' with what remainers and EU politicians are cooking up. I certainly don't see any of that going on. Macron has said short extension without the deal is impossible. He also said a long extension requires UK to change its red lines. This is not really a controversial view among other EU leaders.

not that I'm aware of. strange obsession with Macron you have. he's saying exactly the same as the other leaders, which in this case is the bleeding obvious. Theresa May keeps forcing parliament to vote on the same thing, a short extension only makes sense if she succeeds. otherwise its no deal or long extension.

Pieter Cleppe is a Belgian eurosceptic. One of those guys you go to if you want a negative EU-quote from a non-English person. I think you are holding the EU very strange and oddly high standards. If a country chooses not to be an EU member, it is undemocratic of the EU to deny them the benefits of membership?

Shouldn't you be marching? Near Wetherby today.

Yes they are. I'm getting ads for cycling gear. What have you been googling @Palfy ?

Palfy, there is no way a no-deal brexit will ever benefit France's economy, no matter how much brexit-business moves to Paris. The country which has gotten the most inward investment up until now from UK-based-companies relocating to the continent is The Netherlands and even for them it won't even put a dent in the hit their economy will take. There's no hidden agenda or greedy vultures, there's only damage limitation and not letting this process drag on so individual member states (namely France) and the EU can focus on other pressing issues seems like a good strategy given the impasse in UK politics. I did say 'economic' ruin, because that is what I believe (short to medium term) will happen. I hope to be proven wrong. At least the UK got to vote to inflict this on themselves; the Irish, Dutch, Belgians, .. can only look on in despair as their economies are set to shrink. Other than that I refer to the other replies.

It's not just France; Spanish PM has just said the same thing. Brexit is a side issue for most EU countries who mostly just want it over with. If you find yourself in a position where you are dependent on 27 individual countries to save you from (economic) ruin, probably need to look at yourself instead of blaming others, Palfy.

The extension debate is very one sided in the UK. Extension has to be agreed to by the EU. Under what circumstances would it do so? An extension of only a couple of months offers no guarantee of the UK being able to ratify the Withdrawal Agreement. A longer extension is problematic because of the European elections. You can't be a member state of the EU without having directly democratically elected representatives in the European Parliament; the next elections are May 26th. Nobody wants to see 73 Farages crossing the Channel. I think there is a strong argument to be made to flat out say an extension is not possible. This way, the UK can stop pretending a "better" deal is only a few (extension- , transition- , .. ) months away. I think Macron is right to take this approach.

The great Ken Clarke on manifesto's

Do you need to ask?

pre-referndum Gove should really have a word with post-referendum Gove about "Project Fear".

I agree with you Matt. I was just showing Hannan (who is still a blind brexiteer) has been lying since 2015 on this issue. As for RR : https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/business/rolls-royce-approval-derby-germany-2491083

https://www.ft.com/content/9cd62bde-32ba-11e9-bd3a-8b2a211d90d5 "The differences of position, which the Hunt/Fox letter acknowledges as “challenging issues”, centre around Japan’s refusal to accept a simple “cut and paste” of the terms of the EU-Japan agreement ratified last year. Instead, its [Japan's] officials have been told to negotiate as they would any other trade accord, and to seek better terms from the UK than Japan won through its long haggle with the much larger EU." Noone could have predicted this ...

https://talkradio.co.uk/news/exclusive-jeremy-corbyn-called-european-union-be-defeated-explosive-rally-speech-19021129836 Yup.

That's brilliant .

https://videopress.com/v/i3QUGNOx This is your -opposition- leader.

Were you wearing a yellow vest while you wrote this? EU is, and will remain, at its core, a peace project. Why is it that all these movements that are crying out for more democracy, liberalism and rule of law in Central and Eastern Europe are waving EU flags...

I'm increasingly convinced the UK wouldn't meet the necessary standards of a modern parliamentary democracy to be allowed to (re-)join the EU.

I was watching some of it unfold in your House of Commons yesterday. Why don't they use electronic voting like any other modern parliament? Every time there is a 'division' it takes twenty minutes to count the votes.

I was making the comparison with Greece 2015 where they held their referendum, voted "OXI" to the deal ... (and then Greece accepted a worse deal 8 days later.)

House of Commons says "OXI".