Brexit has well and truly begun!

[G-Unit]

Thanks.  I also think I am fortunate.

I seem to have lost touch over the years, but I did briefly hope that Britain might still have some pride.  However, pride doesn't butter toast.  That's the bit I forgot.

Our politicians have no pride or integrity in my opinion, but they're not 'Britain' any more than Trump is 'America'.

[Eleanor]

When an economy as big as ours leaves an institution as big as the EU there will inevitably be losers and winners.  Exporters are already reaping the benefits of a devalued pound and tourism to these islands hasn't been better. It's an ill wind which doesn't blow some benefit they say. The Leave Campaign could have said anything but people would still have voted leave.

I have seen how Spain has been impacted by the EU and the introduction of the Euro. Things became massively more expensive overnight. Millions of homes, some half built, are lying empty, 20% of all youth are unemployed.

Is France the same Eleanor because it must be if the 'jaune gilets' demonstrations in Paris every weekend are anything to go by?

My son will be in Pontivy tomorrow as a member of The French Fire Service, just in case.  But I don't think they are expecting a really problem.

The consensus of opinion seems to be that Rabble Rousers who don't care about anything except a good day out, are what is escalating the demonstrations.
Same old same old.

[Venturi Swirl]

Our politicians have no pride or integrity in my opinion, but they're not 'Britain' any more than Trump is 'America'.

I don’t think you can say that about all 640 of them.  They are not ALL self-serving mendacious prats (though many are I grant you).

[Venturi Swirl]

“Brexit has already wiped £40 billion off Britain’s annual economic growth since the 2016 referendum, a top Bank of England official revealed today.

Gertjan Vlieghe said it amounted to £800 million per week of “lost income for the country” -- more than twice as much as the £350 million a week that the Vote Leave campaign claimed could be “saved” by quitting the European Union”.

[G-Unit]

I don’t think you can say that about all 640 of them.  They are not ALL self-serving mendacious prats (though many are I grant you).

The only one showing moral integrity in my ipinion is Theresa May. She is doing her best to deliver what the people voted for.

[Venturi Swirl]

The only one showing moral integrity in my ipinion is Theresa May. She is doing her best to deliver what the people voted for.

I don’t think she is the only mp showing moral integrity butI agree she is trying hard to implement a version of Brexit she believes the people voted for.

[Angelo222]

“Brexit has already wiped £40 billion off Britain’s annual economic growth since the 2016 referendum, a top Bank of England official revealed today.

Gertjan Vlieghe said it amounted to £800 million per week of “lost income for the country” -- more than twice as much as the £350 million a week that the Vote Leave campaign claimed could be “saved” by quitting the European Union”.

You can blame the dissenters for that because of the chaos they have caused.  Parliament should have got behind the PM and delivered BREXIT as it is the will of the majority and the last time I looked we all live in a democracy.  MP's like Amber Rudd, Dominic Grieve and Yvette Cooper should be booted out.

[Venturi Swirl]

You can blame the dissenters for that because of the chaos they have caused.  Parliament should have got behind the PM and delivered BREXIT as it is the will of the majority and the last time I looked we all live in a democracy.  MP's like Amber Rudd, Dominic Grieve and Yvette Cooper should be booted out.

I’m sorry but how exactly are the “dissenters” to blame for wiping £40 billion off Britain’s annual economic growth?

[Carana]

Well that's pretty vague. My guess is that she was trying to register for 'settled status' as the App for doing that only works on Android. It's happening because wives from the EU will no longer have the right to remain as EU citizens. Like forces wives from other countries, they will need to apply to stay. As will all EU citizens living here.

A different situation via Twitter that popped into my TL a few days ago (going from memory and I can't remember all the details): a couple in the UK for ages. She's British and he's Belgian. He's been very ill for a few years and she's more or less his carer now. They recently got a letter from the Belgian health service to say that post-Brexit, they would no longer be paying for his health care, and if they couldn't find another solution, they'd have to move to Belgium. Apart from the odd visit, she hasn't lived there, doesn't speak the language and "home" for both of them is the UK. They also have an adult daughter with autism, who also needs her parents around and would be devastated at being uprooted. If they did move, she might have trouble getting medical insurance herself.

I come across so many people tearing their hair out with worry about the very real consequences of this mess. 

[Carana]

BBCQT: a woman in the UK who started and expanded a business, with staff, selling both in the UK and the EU explains how she may have to move a proportion of her venture to the EU. On the panel is JRM...

https://twitter.com/Femi_Sorry/status/1096220940885782528

[Carana]

Presumably, she wasn't actually married to her husband at the time?  Or was she?  Household bills are always in the name of one person, which doesn't mean that his wife wasn't living there.

This getting beyond ridiculous.

Do yourselves a favour.  Stay in The EU.  It is becoming increasingly obvious that Britain has lost the plot.  Much as I am loathed to admit.

She referred to him as her husband and they have adult children.

[Carana]

People voted leave because they were sick to the back teeth of unelected bureaucrats dictating just about everything in our lives and paying handsomely for the privilege. People aren't stupid although there are those who would have us believe they are. Those who voted leave knew there would be a cost and were very prepared to accept that cost but what nobody was prepared for was the attacks on the process by those who would change the referendum result. People like Gina Miller, an immigrant from British Guyana who had the audacity to try and change the referendum result to suit her own agenda, no wonder she attracted so much abuse. 

Those idiots asking demanding a second referendum are a disgrace imo.  Asking people to voted again is a farce, no wonder Theresa May has ruled it out.

We will leave the EU and the sooner the better but hopefully on the 29th March 2019 as planned. Europe is planning for our departure on that date so we must not disappoint. There will be a cost but that applies to not only the UK but to every country in the EU. The EU will have to significantly tighten its monetary belt.  No longer will British millions be squandered on basket case economies.

The British economy will adapt and we will flourish again!

On the topic of "unelected bureaucrats"... Who isn't elected?


If someone in the UK voted for their MP in whichever constituency, they don't vote on UK cabinet appointments, or the shadow cabinet. Nor ambassadors or other government representatives, for that matter.

Aside from the PM, all of the UK frontbenchers are also "unelected bureaucrats" then, aren't they?

Re the EU:

- The heads of government who make up the Council are elected nationally, currently May.

- The MEPs in Parliament: The UK voted for their 73 MEPs, one of whom is... Farage, in all their wisdom.

- The members of the Commission are proposed by the members' governments.

A European Commissioner is a member of the European Commission. Each Commissioner within the college holds a specific portfolio and are led by the President of the European Commission. In simple terms they are the equivalent of national ministers. Each European Union member state has the right to a single commissioner (before 2004, the four largest states—France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom—were granted two) and appoints them in consultation with the President.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_Commissioners_by_nationality#United_Kingdom

The current UK Commissioner is Julian King, who is responsible for Security Union.
https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/countries/member-countries/unitedkingdom_en
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/commissioners/2014-2019/king_en
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_King_(diplomat)

- The Council of the EU (a different body to the EU Council, confusingly) is made up of national ministers and the national governments' representatives.

ETA: picking up on another part of this sentence:

"People voted leave because they were sick to the back teeth of unelected bureaucrats dictating just about everything in our lives and paying handsomely for the privilege."

In what ways are "they" (actually the UK and others) dictating "just about everything in our lives"?

Which EU laws do you feel the UK should scrap?

[Carana]

You can blame the dissenters for that because of the chaos they have caused.  Parliament should have got behind the PM and delivered BREXIT as it is the will of the majority and the last time I looked we all live in a democracy.  MP's like Amber Rudd, Dominic Grieve and Yvette Cooper should be booted out.

But what exactly IS Brexit?

[G-Unit]

A different situation via Twitter that popped into my TL a few days ago (going from memory and I can't remember all the details): a couple in the UK for ages. She's British and he's Belgian. He's been very ill for a few years and she's more or less his carer now. They recently got a letter from the Belgian health service to say that post-Brexit, they would no longer be paying for his health care, and if they couldn't find another solution, they'd have to move to Belgium. Apart from the odd visit, she hasn't lived there, doesn't speak the language and "home" for both of them is the UK. They also have an adult daughter with autism, who also needs her parents around and would be devastated at being uprooted. If they did move, she might have trouble getting medical insurance herself.

I come across so many people tearing their hair out with worry about the very real consequences of this mess. 

It sounds like he needs to apply for 'settled status' too.

[G-Unit]

But what exactly IS Brexit?

After it happens there will be 27 EU countries instead of 28.