Re:UK triggers the official Brexit process in a letter to EU
by concinds on Wednesday March 29, 2017 @03:12PM
(#13989594)
> * the EU cannot strive for the closest relationship possible because that would encourage other countries to leave. There must be a price, an ongoing cost*
Which is a symptom among many of how grossly dysfunctional and fragile the EU is. It's also compounded by the TARGET-2 mess and Germany's obligations to the South through rescue packages. Commenters above talking about the EU being a "voluntary alliance" conveniently obfuscate this.
Re:UK triggers the official Brexit process in a letter to EU
by mdekkers on Wednesday March 29, 2017 @09:05AM
(#13985723)
the EU cannot strive for the closest relationship possible because that would encourage other countries to leave. There must be a price, an ongoing cost.
I don't understand why this wasn't a centerpiece of the Remain campaign.
Re:UK triggers the official Brexit process in a letter to EU
by taejo on Wednesday March 29, 2017 @09:11AM
(#13985808)
Because it makes the EU look evil, and remaining looks like submitting to bullies.
Re:UK triggers the official Brexit process in a letter to EU
by barrkel on Wednesday March 29, 2017 @10:19AM
(#13986395)
The EU is a protectionist island in a global economy filled with large ambivalent actors. It's less evil, more like self-preservation, or an immune system. There has to be surface tension to retain mass, and there has to be barriers because that's it's raison d'etre.
Re:UK triggers the official Brexit process in a letter to EU
by taejo on Thursday March 30, 2017 @04:01AM
(#13993682)
I understand the game theory, but I think politically, it would be easy to spin this as the EU being a bully who punishes you if you don't play with them, and many voters would prefer to tell such a bully to bugger off than to play along (indeed, a lot of the Leave campaign was already about how Brussels bullies Brits into doing things they don't want).
Re:UK triggers the official Brexit process in a letter to EU
by Nursie on Wednesday March 29, 2017 @09:13AM
(#13985826)
To echo the other poster - because it looks like the actions of an empire-building bully. It looks like spite.
Re:UK triggers the official Brexit process in a letter to EU
by TheCondor on Wednesday March 29, 2017 @09:18AM
(#13985886)
Because, as it was also seen in the US election, it wasn't possible for them to win.
It will be interesting to watch, nothing has been negotiated, that's the irony, nobody even knows what they voted for. I can't imagine Europe making it easy though.
Re:UK triggers the official Brexit process in a letter to EU
by taejo on Thursday March 30, 2017 @04:03AM
(#13993695)
I don't see how it was impossible for Remain to win. There was <4% margin; different turnout demographics could have swung it. I can imagine holding it a week earlier or later could have led to a different result.
Britain is trapped with a forked strategy: it can go the Singapore route or the supplicant route. The two are incompatible and neither of them is realistically feasible. The Singapore route is what hard Brexiteers want but there's no mandate for it, and nor is there plurality of votes in it. The supplicant route is what Brexiteers will attack, and there probably isn't a majority of votes in the Tory party for it.
The UK's political landscape are in the wrong shape for the negotiation to come. Parties would need to be configured into those that are split according to negotiating strategy. Since they aren't, the fork will weaken Britain's negotiation throughout; every attempt to go down one road will face extreme resistance from those who prefer the other path.
Britain is screwed, AFAICT. Myself, I'm aiming at November or so to get out.