shurlock

What's your point, Trident. "UK has tended to give less state aid than other member states" - that's a matter of political choice. In Trident world, the free trade, shrink-the-state kippers will be chomping at the bit for higher levels of state funding

Back on planet earth, reality beginning to dawn. Like it or not, the EU has been completely consistent.

#anothersatisfiedcustomer

No complaints as yet Balders. This line of work can involve a lot of waiting, followed by manic spells -not to mention I have the opportunity to work through the night and on weekends.

No Les - not typified or the sort. You're not even close. You both missed spectacularly.

Another spectacular miss Les. Self-awareness -in what sense? It's a fact: I'm currently consulting for a FTSE 100 company - business I had to drum up myself. No EU money or Huffington Post articles involved. How about you Les - I thought you worked in the area of welfare and benefits

Did I mention you? You're the one who mentioned the decline of British operators.

EU loans that the UK and UK businesses as members of the EU are not entitled to? Explain that how works. Of course failings that have nothing to do with internal reasons and company management.

No I don't know the sort. Not personally anyway. The UK has had the ability to shape the rules and regulations of the largest market in the world -you know the one sitting on its doorstep. The one that actually matters in a world shaped by distance and economic gravity. The question was posed semi-rhetorically: the UK can't have both deep trade integration and unfettered sovereignty (in the substantive, not formal sense). If it secures the former, it will give up chunks of the latter. If it retains the latter, it will be because it has struck a symbolic deal that barely moves the dial. Most deals resemble the latter. There's a reason why globally services are still five times less likely to be exported than manufacturing products - despite their importance to economies like the UK. You're living in lalaland and been watching too much Apprentice pal if you think some of the most protectionist economies in the world are going to i) dismantle nontariff barriers and ii) do so on terms that are favourable to the UK Get real.

globalist Bilderberg vision? What's that in English rather than crazy kipper talk -or in Les case thinly veiled antisemitism. Are we talking about the same EU, the handpuppet of big business that's taking antitrust action against Google as it did with Microsoft. Are we talking about the same EU that has had its efforts to regulate the big banks consistently frustrated by the UK. Check your facts. You hark on about sovereignty yet show little concern how impoverished the UK's FPTP system is (the real democratic deficit) - and seem even afraid of it as you oppose a meaningful role for parliament in negotiations. You seem to have no idea that in a globalised world the UK's freedom of action is already circumscribed in countless ways. It may sound like a heresy to your average kipper but pooling sovereignty in certain cases can increase, not reduce control in the face of these challenges. Neither do you realise that there's a basic incompatibility between national sovereignty and closer trade, whoever its with. Cross-border trade is no longer about lowering tariffs (they are already low) but ensuring a level playing field in the way rules and regulations are applied by national authorities. If the UK wants to meaningfully boost trade with the rest of world by tackling nontariff barriers, it will face exactly the same dilemmas of control and compromise -only this time it will be on its own and enjoy much less bargaining power. So there we have it -taking back control just to potentially hand it over to somebody else. If it doesn't happen, it will only be because any deal the UK has struck is if limited significance. The kipper nostalgia for grandeur will only produce the opposite reality of the UK's status as a diminished, postimperial power. Truth hurts.

Suspect we'll see the contradictory expectations among Brexiters come apart in the next few years, You have the Jacob Rees Moggs of this world and golf-club tie wearing kippers like Les who couldn't give two f**ks about the working class and want to turn the UK into a free trade powerhouse. Leaving side the realism (or ridiculousness) of this vision, it'll likely entail more stress and disruption for those who have fallen behind. Interesting research has found that for all the bleating about immigration, a far stronger driver of regional support for Brexit, especially in Labour-held areas was globalisation and the surge of manufacturing imports from China. Needless to say, Brexit doesn't offer anying for these groups - in fact it promises to stitch them up even more. http://voxeu.org/article/globalisation-and-brexit

Not hurt, Les. Actually v. glad things are under way, so reality can start to expose your kipper delusions, one by one. So you are the golf-club tie wearing type? Your posts certainly reek of the type of provincialism that only a mediocre, overpriced education can inculcate. A duffer stuffed on a diet of nostalgia and petty grievance.

Look no further than our Les.

I'm just concerned for you, little kipper.

Just reveals the UK hasn't much leverage. Hard to take your average muslim/terrorism-fixated kipper seriously when they're happy to play politics with security.

You centre ground And they say kippers aren't known for their humour.

And they say kippers aren't known for humour

Seems like the government is sensibly retreating from some of the kipper complacency articulated in the media and on this place. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/mar/28/brexit-uk-backing-away-from-threat-to-leave-with-no-deal-say-eu-diplomats

Ayaan Hirsi Ali - a snow white, liberal reformer - good joke Makes you wonder why Fox News is so consistently drawn to her. That said, I don't know who's worse -her or her economically illterate husband.

Can I be a citizen in Jordan?

Cant access the link - its behind a paywall.

Yep I know, the more he pandered to the conservatives, the more the moderate wing fell away. Ultimately there was no Goldilocks solution that could keep all Republicans happy -and doubt there ever will be. For a party that has made repealing Obamacare a Crusade, it's been a car crash. Still seeing Paul Ryan admit that governing is not the same as being in opposition and playing spoiler has been particularly satisfying. There's so much noise around the Russian links, it's hard to tell what's true. Now the Republicans are trying to distract attention with this unmasking business. What's for sure is that Devin Nunes has proven to be out of his depth -and the sooner we have a special prosecutor or select committee, the better.

His own party -both the moderate and especially the conservative, Freedom Caucus wing- rebelled against him. They wanted a proper slash and burn, not a partial repeal.