31-05-2016 9:57 PM
Hello everyone,
I searched the forums about this and did not find anything, and I believe it is an interesting subject to dscuss, as the referendum approaches.
I know it can be a touchy subject, but I wonder what your thoughts about it? Will it change in any way the relationship with the European Union? Can this subject harm or benefit your business?
Disclaimer: I am not interested in anything political side of the issue, only the economic side.
Thank you.
22-06-2016 3:52 PM
The polls are still neck and neck, and while being the most important vote perhaps in our lifetimes I think a large proportion will inevitably be voting on gut instinct even though there is some useful factual information on the net at least about how the EU works.
I wonder if I am just being cynical or whether there is a possibility of rigging the vote which will be so close. The Bilderberg Group wont like it one bit if Brexit wins, and let's face it, votes have been miscounted/ got 'lost' in the US preidential elections - supposedly a democracy!
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I would like to add that I am so glad that this thread was moved to the RT (and the other one about the referendum that was moved here).
It's so nice to see different posters other than the few who regularly post in here (2 or 3 of which seem to be unable to resist making personal comments to those who don't agree with them).
It would be good to see the new (to here) people popping in in future although the board is likely to grind to a virtual standstill again after the referendum. Perhaps you can liven it up! ![]()
22-06-2016 4:04 PM
Apologies if this video has been posted already, my laptop is at the end of its days and my browsers keep crashing
Mostly about how the EU works and how much influence (not!) that the UK has.
The Jeremy Paxman documentary on the EU workings and Brussels was very interesting, and quite funny at times (snippets of JP sarcasm!), but it's 50 minutes long. This one by Toby Young is just 14 minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gILTIDr4Ra8
22-06-2016 4:24 PM
16 minutes from Rees-Mogg, factual and unemotional and I think worth a listen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Gu7-Dl93fM
22-06-2016 5:31 PM
22-06-2016 6:24 PM
@suzieseaside wrote:16 minutes from Rees-Mogg, factual and unemotional and I think worth a listen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Gu7-Dl93fM
Nice piece by Rees-Mogg, calm, measured, concise, and unscripted. Nice backdrop to his clip also.
*like*
Memo to FA.
Why are you responding to the OP ? He never mentioned Rees-Mogg or any of the other stars of stage, screen, and radio. It was Suzieseaside who came up with his name, in the post above yours. Does your pince-nez need updating ?
22-06-2016 6:31 PM
Because my Iphone does that, posts randomly to whoever whenever whatever, my response was to the Dowager Lady Seaside.
As for the measured response, thats exactly how his public school housemaster trained him, weel done Moggy old chap.
22-06-2016 6:50 PM
@fallen-archie wrote:
Rees - Mogg ? Very impartial, good working class lad with no axe to grind. No he is from the establishment luvvies out to protect their own interest, Same league as Irritable Duncan Smith, Willy Cash in hand, Boris Johnsonberger, Nigle forage, Lord Haw haw and Mr and Mrs Smallminded from Railway Cuttings Cheam.
I didn't say he was impartial, I said he was unemotional.
No one in the debate can be impartial unless they are going to abstain from a vote or don't care which way it goes.
Which bits of his video is not factual or full of lies?
Of course politicians and big business men are protecting their own interests. Let's see, Camoron might have a nice gravy train job in the EU once he has gone; the Beckham millionaires have the Beckham Brand interests (and OMG he has a front page photo in the Guardian today!) and there's that nice Mr Branson who thinks Britain and Europe is so great he lives in the Virgin Islands.
Perhaps you can convince me FA of one good factual reason that's good for the UK to stay in the EU? I would like to hear a good point for our future in the EU.
Yours sincerely'
Ms S-M. of Cheam
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Camoron is now appealing for us to stay IN for the sake of our children's future, but I have yet to hear on what grounds this is an oerwhelming preference. After a few years of sorting ourselves out, who is to say that this won't be a better country for them to live in if we make the break?
22-06-2016 7:17 PM
No I cannot convince you because your mind is made up. We can be isolationist or we can work with others, we can fight for whats right in a forum or we can once more send our young people onto a battlefield to resolve our differences, I am am an Old Fart, you are a venerable lady, but this is not our fight, not our future, we are soon to be compost. The opening of a Polish deli does not spell the end of Britain, we have genuine concerns and worries but they are surmountable, we can shake the EU foundations and force change and that is desirable whichever side of the fence you sit. Nigel Farage is a pawn of the establishment with a mouth bigger than the Thames estuary, stuff the waffle and the narrowminded parochialism, be brave, punch above our weight and make the changes we need to make.
22-06-2016 7:25 PM
'Camoron is now appealing for us to stay IN for the sake of our children's future',
Would that be his child that he accidentally left in the pub ? Very paternal, I must say. Yes SS, you got the name right - CaMoron.
22-06-2016 7:40 PM
Mr Rees Mogg...I rather like him.Did anyone see the HIGNFY episode where Victoria Coren Mitchell told Mr Rees Mogg that she found him rather attractive...priceless! His face was a picture!
Sorry....I digressed there....on with the debate.
22-06-2016 7:47 PM
That fine Lady VCM is one helluva Poker player Astro 🙂
22-06-2016 8:21 PM
Jacob Rees-Mogg takes a lot of stick over his background, his manner, his sense of style, but he is probably the most articulate man in the Commons. A very calm, measured speech well delivered.
22-06-2016 8:25 PM
You are quite right JD, well delivered, articulate and measured, just what he was coached to do.Change the subject matter, reprise the performance and ask the voters of Bedworth what they think.
22-06-2016 10:21 PM
@fallen-archie wrote:No I cannot convince you because your mind is made up. We can be isolationist or we can work with others, we can fight for whats right in a forum or we can once more send our young people onto a battlefield to resolve our differences, I am am an Old Fart, you are a venerable lady, but this is not our fight, not our future, we are soon to be compost. The opening of a Polish deli does not spell the end of Britain, we have genuine concerns and worries but they are surmountable, we can shake the EU foundations and force change and that is desirable whichever side of the fence you sit. Nigel Farage is a pawn of the establishment with a mouth bigger than the Thames estuary, stuff the waffle and the narrowminded parochialism, be brave, punch above our weight and make the changes we need to make.
No I cannot convince you because your mind is made up.
That’s your opinion but you can’t read my mind. I suppose you think you know my mind because I have recently posted some songs about leaving in the last day, but I am still open to hearing some convincing reasons to stay and I will not decide for sure until I go to the Polling booth tomorrow. I would like to know why being in the EU is best for young people, so to say you can’t convince me because you think my mind is made up seems like a bit of a cop-out. Is it just that the risks of the unknown far outweigh the certainty of more of the same?
I was unsure for months so posted little about the referendum on here. Less than 2 weeks ago I started to lean towards Brexit because I have spent weeks and weeks reading and watching what I can and I have found little of substance from the remain side, and am getting increasingly disappointed at Cameron’s efforts to convince us; sometimes I even wonder if he is really committed to the EU himself from what he said back in 2014 but of course he has no choice but to fight for it now. However I am willing to listen if someone comes up with something other than rhetoric or threats of war or a disaster for our economy – there are enough top economists who have said that the statistics spouted by Osborne have no real foundation, and the Brits are pretty inventive and resourceful.
I have already said that if I vote to leave it is based mainly on sovereignty and the lack of democracy in the EU, and not on immigration issues as I believe that this will be a challenge whichever way we go. You already know that I am not anti-immigration, but I will say this about it since you mentioned sending young people onto the battlefield. Whether our leaving will result in war in Europe I don’t know (we are still in NATO) but I am pretty sure that if we continue with unsustainable levels of migration in such a small country (in area) that strain our resources much more (accommodation, NHS, jobs etc) there will be a lot of civil unrest and violence in the future within the UK, not to mention the rest of Europe where there are already signs of political polarisation (e.g. Far-right vs Green in Austria and just 0.3% between the vote)
Isolationist
Not sure what you mean by that. There is a whole world out there beyond Europe which is not struggling to weld together countries with different cultures and GDPs. How many more bail-outs will there have to be before the EU can progress as a healthy United State of Europe?
The opening of a Polish deli does not spell the end of Britain.
Of course it doesn’t and in all seriousness who really thinks that other than a small percent that are xenophobes? Certainly I don’t, I regularly shop in 3 of them in a local large town and I have several Polish friends who live and work here. Interestingly many of them have said we should leave, as has a friend who lives and works in Spain – he says even his local Spanish friends have said we would be better off out when they look at the state of their own country.
We have genuine concerns and worries but they are surmountable, we can shake the EU foundations and force change ...... stuff the waffle and the narrowminded parochialism, be brave, punch above our weight and make the changes we need to make.
OK, that sounds great and I could go with it if someone could tell me how. How are we going to shake the EU foundations and force change? In various factual documentaries I have seen about how the EU works and how much influence Britain can exert (or not), I see no mechanism for that and would genuinely like to hear about how that can be done, otherwise it is also waffle.
(BTW – I am not yet a widow with property derived from a late husband, or even dignified or elderly enough to be a Dowager! I shall make no cheeky names for you, but you said you are an old fart so I guess that must be true !!
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23-06-2016 12:18 AM
All these re-assuring comments about we Brits being resourceful and so on don't mean a thing. The truth is that we are not more nor less resourceful than the occupants of any other bit of land on this planet. We had some luck to begin with a couple of centuries back in being able to capitalise on coal, slavery and exploitation of less industrially developed peoples. That got us a head start and we're still living off the wealth and status acquired then, with our advantage rapidly being worn away by the advance of developing nations. We are living in a very different world now from the one in which we grew to be "Great" Britain. We needed the help of the US to help us resist the rise of fascism last time and we'd need it even more were that philosophy to rear it's ugly head again in Europe. That's why I think we're better off staying in, giving it one more go, if you like, and trying to work with the EU rather than as a competitor. If we fail to do our bit to support the EU we won't need a Brexit because the EU will soon be no more.
That said, I don't think it really makes much difference to me personally and I don't really care which way the vote goes. I know that whatever happens my opportunities will scarcely be affected either way. It's really a choice between two not particularly different scenarios.
23-06-2016 6:13 AM
23-06-2016 7:08 AM
So here we are, it's Decision Day
As far as I can see both sides of the arguement cancell each other out and far too much from both sides is based on guesswork backed up by conflicting statistics.
For me it finally comes down to whether or not I want to live in a democracy which the EU definitely isn't. It doesn't have any plans to change into a democracy. So far as I've heard there are no reforms in the pipe-line to even start the process.
So I'll be voting LEAVE.
23-06-2016 7:20 AM
@fallen-archie wrote:stuff the waffle and the narrowminded parochialism, be brave, punch above our weight and make the changes we need to make.
Well it hasn't helped us in the past, if we stay in why should the future hold out any hope of change ? They'll simply brush us aside like the insignificant little nobodies they see the UK as, and ignore us as per usual. I'm amazed at some people's misplaced (IMO) optimism, when it comes to the Bureaucratic State of the EU. But hey-ho, their choice.
http://www.coolmoviesounds.com/wavs/woo_notinkansas.wav
23-06-2016 8:36 AM
23-06-2016 9:34 AM
@theelench wrote:So here we are, it's Decision Day
As far as I can see both sides of the arguement cancell each other out and far too much from both sides is based on guesswork backed up by conflicting statistics.
For me it finally comes down to whether or not I want to live in a democracy which the EU definitely isn't. It doesn't have any plans to change into a democracy. So far as I've heard there are no reforms in the pipe-line to even start the process.
So I'll be voting LEAVE.
So reducing our influence in Europe, but handing more power to our unelected head of state, unelected second chamber, as well as Rupert Murdoch is a good thing for democracy?
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Sums up that some people are citing Singapore as an example to look up to. They do realise they've had the same government since 1959? Political opposition is a no-no. As is a free press.
To me, it's like the majority (not all) of the baby-boomer generation are treating this referendum as a jolly up down the casino, and have no qualms about the consequences when their kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids have to foot the bill.