Europe IV: The Final Hour

[Golgo]

So are we all in agreement that when October comes round we ask for a further extension?

An enjoyable six months of ineffectual bickering and dodging the obvious issues then yes, that would seem the sensible and properly British thing to do.

[Dogg Thang]

Nobody needs more months of this. Is she just going to keep doing votes on her deal until they get bored enough just to let it through? Does this mean you are holding MEP elections? Seems like that will be a bit of a pointless exercise.

[Neon Ignition]

On the Guardian a former European commissioner has said he thinks the 6 month extension will help cement a no deal outcome. Essentially he says there's nothing to suggest the UK MP's have any intention of changing their ways when it comes to Brexit and come 31 October the leading brass structure of the EU will be unrecognisable post-elections meaning the new EU top brass will likely want to wash their hands of Brexit rather than take the existing brasses approach. In effect, this is the UK's final lifeline.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/live/2019/apr/11/wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-arrested-at-the-ecuadorean-embassy-live-updates

Assange gets his latest release... just not one he wants - his own into police hands

[Golgo]

^ MEP elections? We are. It'll cost British taxpayers 100 million pounds to do so (May's legal henchmen are already trying to use that to incentivise chumps to vote her deal through now on 4th attempt). And Rees-Mogg and other Brexiteers have said we should use our incoming MEPs to be as disruptive as possible in the EU and veto everything in sight - just for the sport of it, and to further endear ourselves to Europe.

What larks, Pip, what larks!

[Mayhem]

He tells May not to waste the time as she still intends to try and get her deal through before the end of June. May attempted to avoid blame for the UK remaining in the EU by once again blaming MPs.

Which is rather true, however it's mainly Conservative MPs who have been voting down all the proposals put in the Commons...!

[MartyG]

Nobody needs more months of this. Is she just going to keep doing votes on her deal until they get bored enough just to let it through? Does this mean you are holding MEP elections? Seems like that will be a bit of a pointless exercise.

There will be MEP elections because rather than compromise, MPs are entrenched in their positions.

It's not a totally worthless exercise though because it will be an indicator of the Brexit mood, based on the number of pro and anti EU MEPs that get elected, given it's proportionally representative.

[Dogg Thang]

That speaks volumes. That you can expect anti EU people to get voted as MEP is bananas and says a lot about how the UK doesn’t play well with others. Farage made a tit of himself for years there and was just disruptive, like throwing a toddler into the mix.

At this point, the delays are tiresome. You just need to leave the EU for the sake of the rest of the EU now, I think.

[MartyG]

It's just going to carry on like this until the EU has had enough I suspect. I'm not convinced that the EU will allow a perpetual extension forever.

Right now though in the HoC it's just more of the same, May is stating that she won't accept the Labour proposal and that she wants the UK to "keep the advantages of a customs union" but not actually be in a customs union - it's just pie in the sky, unicorn thinking and whilst this continues, nothing will ever be agreed. But get rid of May and you can expect a far right conservative as PM.

[Dogg Thang]

But get rid of May and you can expect a far right conservative as PM.

At least then this would end and you could get on with the business of rounding up the immigrants, gay people and whoever and putting them in camps and working your way towards the next war, which is probably where the UK is heading after it becomes abundantly clear to everyone that leaving the EU hasn't made anybody's life easier except for those rich people now not bound by EU tax avoidance laws.

[Golgo]

^

Sincere apologies for the inconvenience, Dogg Thang, but you make it sound like the entire UK is composed of Pro-Brexit bigots and these delays have been engineered by 'us' just to irritate the EU on 'our' way out.

[Dogg Thang]

the entire UK is composed of Pro-Brexit bigots and these delays have been engineered by 'us' just to irritate the EU on 'our' way out.

Nope. I never said the entire UK. And that's obviously not the case, not by a long shot. But those people exist, they're all over influential media, they managed to pull a referendum win and, as Marty says, if May goes then it's far right afterwards. And I've asked here and it doesn't seem like they really have much by way of challengers. And you're not the only country with far right problems these days and that certainly could be what pulls down the rest of the EU but it does seem to be the way the UK is headed unless there is a course correction very soon.

[MartyG]

UK does not need to be a full member of the single market to get its benefits

As if we needed yet another example of lack of comprehension in government.

Yes Mrs May, we do have to be a member of the single market to get its benefits. That's the whole frigging point of being in it. A customs union is NOT the same thing as being in the single market and being outside of even a customs union is definitely as far removed from the benefits of the single market as you can get.

More unicorns and unfortunately there will be clowns that believe her F.U.D. spreading.

[Brad]

That speaks volumes. That you can expect anti EU people to get voted as MEP is bananas and says a lot about how the UK doesn’t play well with others. Farage made a tit of himself for years there and was just disruptive, like throwing a toddler into the mix.

At this point, the delays are tiresome. You just need to leave the EU for the sake of the rest of the EU now, I think.

Indeed he did, along with the other joint leader of the Independence/Democracy group and MEP, the Irish politician Kathy Sinnott...
It's not just the UK that has eurosceptic MEPs and I don't believe the UK even had the first openly sceptical MEP. The French have been at it for ages.

It's probably good to have some sceptics in the mix isn't it?

All that said, Farage is a berk.

[Dogg Thang]

It's probably good to have some sceptics in the mix isn't it?

No, I'm not sure it is. I don't believe in a god and so I'm pretty sure I'd be a total utter waste of space as a bishop. All I'd be doing is being the pain in the rear end who disrupts everything while taking a seat that could have gone to someone who maybe wanted to make the church a better place. I would be in no way contributing.

If you have someone who thinks the EU is a total mess and wants to reform it, great. Go for it. If you don't want it to exist at all, no. That's not the place for someone like that.

[MartyG]

Indeed - there's a difference between building, rebuilding and just knocking something down.