BREXIT - Merged Thread.

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11 years 5 months

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Firstly much as a flotilla of trucks full of returned leaflets is indeed a salivating thought I fear it is a pipe dream. And secondly the idea of supporting taxpayers money being used to return the leaflets smacks of the worst sort of double standard after the furore rightly expressed at the cost of distribution in the first place.

Member for

12 years 11 months

Posts: 6,535

This is perhaps a classic case of the end justifying the means provided there are plenty of means ! Pipe dream ? Maybe, who knows, I don't have a crystal ball. Will we ever know the numbers returned ? I doubt it.

It behoves us to try and extract some measure of benefit from this miserable exercise in one sided democracy.

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George Osborne promises a plague of locusts, floods, and eternal damnation if we leave the EU.

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and a plague of immigrants if we stay?

Member for

19 years 5 months

Posts: 9,821

I'm an interested observer, I won't be presumptuous enough to tell you how to run your country (though that hasn't stopped my UK friends from b!tching amount mine. :D

I read in a UK paper that it costs the UK 14 billion pounds a year for EU membership?
Really??

I can understand that there would naturally be some administrative overhead, but I never would have guessed it would be that much.

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"how to run your country..."

Well, if you won't, Paddy O'Bama will !

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14 years 5 months

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The 14 billion is only one side of the balance sheet (The epitome of UK journalism that - give half the story and present it as fact to support editorial bias). The EU is a complex give and take mechanism, whereby the UK state contributes a sum and a sum comes back in terms of a special rebate, grants and investment. Ignoring the benefit of free trade, at present we are still a net contributor to the tune of 6 billion.

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So Obama said we would be at the "back of the queue" in dealing with the USA if we left the EU. Perhaps it was a bit like them joining WW1 and 2?

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Not to worry, Paul - it was all for his old mate Dave. He could just be heard saying "Dues paid" as they walked out of the Press Conference....from one lame duck to another!!:D

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12 years 11 months

Posts: 6,535

Paddy has spoken ! Stay in, or else.

Well, we'd all better be good little boys and girls or we now know what is in store. We'll be sat on the naughty step lamenting our loss of status as the Yanks best friends. Altho' when that happened, I've never been able to figure out.

I can't think of a more stimulating stimulus to voting Out.

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19 years 5 months

Posts: 9,821

Don't look at me, I didn't vote for him. :)
But as I recall, he had a lot of fans/worshipers in the UK when he was running.

Don't worry about the queue, you'll only be behind our long time friends; Iran and Cuba (and perhaps North Korea if they invite him for a visit and make a fuss of him while he still has the free use of Air Force One.)

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I expect there was a touch of self interest in Obama's statement.
Especially as a number of UK based companies are US owned. Also why Clinton has now
put her oar in to the debate.

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24 years 2 months

Posts: 3,566

Was pointed out that his speech probably had some help from Camorons office - the use of "back of the queue" was a bit of a giveaway - US use "line" rather than "queue", unless Obama has watched too much Top Gear and Downton.

And his standup act at the "town hall" meeting made me want to boak. The "great and the good" that filled the audience had obviously been carefully picked.

I did read this online which seemed apt (I've cleaned parts up up for here) -
Dear Mr Obama, shove your trade up where the sun doesn't shine! We weren't at the back of the queue when you needed us on operations, twice in Iraq, and then again in Afghanistan. I guess it's only a " special relationship " when it suits America. If you need help in future, you can always call on Germany, winners of so many wars, or Italy, but only if you're already winning before you invite them, and of course, the mighty French, but give them some notice, so they can get their military production running at full strength, by putting their white flag factories onto three shifts. Good luck with that.
Signed
BRITAIN

Oh, and just as a little P.S.
The last time you went to war without us, the Viet Cong handed you your butt on a plate

Member for

12 years 11 months

Posts: 6,535

Don't look at me, I didn't vote for him. :)
But as I recall, he had a lot of fans/worshipers in the UK when he was running.

Don't worry about the queue, you'll only be behind our long time friends; Iran and Cuba (and perhaps North Korea if they invite him for a visit and make a fuss of him while he still has the free use of Air Force One.)

Well, he happened to tick all the 'right-on' boxes for many supporters of the Mandela Tendency. Verdict ? Probably the most useless American President of all time - which is some distinction !

Member for

12 years 8 months

Posts: 851

Verdict ? Probably the most useless American President of all time - which is some distinction !

No, that would be one R.Reagan

A bad week fror the Brexists, funny how even Nige is distancing himself from The touslehaired one

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19 years 5 months

Posts: 9,821

No, that would be one R.Reagan

Only if one is a fan of the USSR. :)
Europeans thought he was a "cowboy", and many hate him for his special relationship with Thatcher, but UK/US ties were never closer.
After all, I can't see Obama supporting the UK in the Falklands the way R.R. did.

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12 years 11 months

Posts: 6,535

Yeah ! There is some merit in that. Personally, I'd put Reagan as No.2 behind Paddy O'Bama in the Pantheon of Most Useless Yankee Presidents.

Message for Oily Dave: I wouldn't just yet buy your ticket for your Brussels Triumph !

Member for

12 years 8 months

Posts: 851

Didn't Ron spend much of his second term asleep?
http://www.salon.com/2015/12/27/behind_the_ronald_reagan_myth_no_one_had_ever_entered_the_white_house_so_grossly_ill_informed_2/

On a different note, it appears that Boris has even upset his old chums at the Spectator

I am therefore writing with the caution of a lawyer and the deference of a palace flunkey when I say that Johnson showed this morning that he is a man without principle or shame. He is a braying charlatan, who lacks the courage even to be an honest bas****, for there is a kind of bast****ly integrity in showing the world who you really are, but instead uses the tactics of the coward and the tricks of the fraudster to advance his worthless career.

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/04/barack-obama-wants-boris-johnson-prefer-gutter/

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 4,875

I did read this online which seemed apt (I've cleaned parts up up for here) -
Dear Mr Obama, shove your trade up where the sun doesn't shine! We weren't at the back of the queue when you needed us on operations, twice in Iraq, and then again in Afghanistan. I guess it's only a " special relationship " when it suits America. If you need help in future, you can always call on Germany, winners of so many wars, or Italy, but only if you're already winning before you invite them, and of course, the mighty French, but give them some notice, so they can get their military production running at full strength, by putting their white flag factories onto three shifts. Good luck with that.
Signed
BRITAIN

Oh, and just as a little P.S.
The last time you went to war without us, the Viet Cong handed you your butt on a plate

How's that for the entire discussion in a nutshell!. Ignorance and mindlessly emotive twaddle all concentrated into a neat package!. The President of the sole remaining superpower on the planet notes that his nations trade interests would favour the 'large' multinational trading block that is Europe over a single nation entity that would be the UK and that is a surprising statement?. Surprising to the extent that would, somehow, justify suspending our core internationalist stance and refusing to participate in important military interventions out of some kind of pre-pubescent tantrum?.

The description of the French, Italians, Germans etc being what this drills down to. Simple xenophobia. Dont like Johnny Foreigner. Will be interesting to see how the voting comes out in this...be a useful litmus test for how broken UK society actually is!.

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12 years 11 months

Posts: 6,535

Jonesy

Don't waste your time wondering how 'broken' British society really is judged by Britain's outburst above, with which many of us would agree.

Instead, use your time more productively, wondering why is it, that if the EU is the all wonderful institution so beneficial to all our lives, that a more than significant portion of of the British want out. Could it be that it is not all that it is cracked up to be and has led to that 'broken UK society' to which you refer? If such isn't the case why are so many moaning and bent on leaving ?