ChopSauce wrote: ↑Mon Jan 25, 2021 12:21 pm...I'm -*- really -*- feeling like the EU is willing to punish UK for leaving the union...
I think the EU has been pretty reasonable, all things considered. It runs counter to their interests to make life outside their umbrella a bed of roses for us. It’s certainly going a lot better for the UK than it did for the Southern Confederacy, when they decided to secede. So far, at least.
I’d like to think that Brexit was a nonsensical fantasy sold by Murdoch and the international corporation-government gravy train to a gullible electorate that was hurting from 5 years of an insanely extreme austerity. But then even my big brother, who’s a clever guy and certainly nobody’s fool, voted for it.
Whatever, its implementation is showing the harsh reality of it, ie an extremely retrograde move on almost every front. But I’m relieved that the brexit hotheads lost out on their goal of us leaving on WTO terms, at least the negotiations gave us a basic deal - we pretty much rely on the EU for fresh food over winter - and big manufacturers in the UK may have a basis to carry on here. The reciprocity necessary for us to import German cars, Italian washing machines etc certainly helped to grease the wheels for that happening. It awaits to be seen whether government lackeys to the international corporations will have their way and tie us into secret trade deals their equally secret arbitration courts. The gov seems tied into them for the implementation of any and every policy initiative, despite a track record of waste, incompetence and failure.
The whole system stinks, and with the apparent ongoing public support for the craven liars that swept away any semblance of accountability / credible opposition in 2019, it can only to get worse. The UK is going to be on the wrong side of a feeding frenzy when the monumental debt racked up by the pandemic response begins to get accounted for
I hope and pray that the EU will be able hold together and keep the pressure on to reform and improve its accountability and transparency. The stresses arising from a combination of brexit, the migrant crisis, Merkel stepping down, grievous societal fractures within France, Spain etc, and now the pandemic and its fallout, might be too much. Something has to get the credit the fact that for the first time in maybe 10,000 years, peace and stability has reigned over mainland Europe; I give the lion’s share of that credit to the influence, political structures and mutual economic and social benefits that the EU provides.
people tell me it will be worth it in the long run....
