EU protection racket threatens to kneecap England

Only because the Eurozone and EU destroyed their economies and employment. You are utterly clueless about this, your denial is the EU's denial. The EU and Eurozone has utterly decimated Southern Europe.

Err, you were the one who suggested that the US or China cares more about Germany than the UK...this is a lie. And anyhow, I couldn't care less what they think, this is your obsession. A global UK is one that can have free trade and not live within the confines of an authoritarian, bureaucratic protectionist cartel that threatens it's members into more political union. No thankyou, that is 20th century European history all over again and I want no part.

Greece treated fairly, what a joke. Most Europeans can see how utterly self-serving your arguments are. You even call yourself 'Teuton', can you imagine your self-righteousness if one of the terrible 'knuckle dragging' Brits said something similarly ethnic-nationalist?

Well Teuton, the UK has a nuclear weapon. You don't. You're extremely lucky we didn't do more than the bombing of Dresden, we behaved decently and saved the continent from German domination. I'm not remotely jealous of Germany....unlike you I argue proportionately. Germany is a moderately powerful economy, that is suffering a downturn as many are. To suggest that it is so beyond question, and unequivocally so much more than the UK, is indicative of your stock in trade- indoctrination and anglophobia. The only envy I can hear is yours, and the fact the EU has so little objectively to commend it, is precisely why it must try to 'make us feel the pain' of exit. It simply can't win the objective case. Push on, with more Europe, more centralization, and threats of punishment for those who leave. It will fail to work, i can assure you. The EU is doomed, you are behind the political curve.

But the UK is only asking for a free trade agreement, it's not a one-sided thing. Both sides benefit.

The thinking behind 'Flexit' if you're familiar with it is to remain in the single market for the short-term as we phase repatriation of our laws, and then further down the line remove ourselves entirely from the single market and the common external tariff.*

This is what the likes of Daniel Hannan had proposed before the referendum, but after the narrow victory he, along with many others, would have liked a compromise where we essentially remain in the single market indefinitely due to the lack of a mandate for such a 'hard Brexit'. Despite this, all those die-hard Remoaner types won't even discuss any of these Brexit possibilities, instead they just shout "'Nah, you racists can just leave for good, it's what you wanted all along!!!". Quite amusing.*

I've heard this over and over- we must be in the EU because empire is gone, and Brexiteers want to 'relive empire'. It has no basis in reality and reeks of projection. Actually remainers are the ones obsessed with 'foreign policy presence' and want the US wants. It was absolutely nothing to do with that, I'd be quite happy conducting very little foreign policy at all. I voted on the basis of economics, self-determination, liberty and democracy.

You will not get free trade without free movement.

There's a precedence for getting free trade in goods based on the 53 non-EU countries that have trade deals with the EU(which kind of kills the Brexit argument about the EU stopping us trading with the world but that's another story).

Free trade in services is another matter which I doubt we'll without free movement, but we have got a massive trade deficit with the EU which gives us some bargaining power.

A defining characteristic of a protection racket is that once you have bought in to the "service" and are receiving the "protection", any attempt to break free will result in immediate threats and maybe physical violence. The racketeer cannot allow the victim to see that they can live without the racket.

And thus we see the European protection racket behaving in the same way. Juncker (who is a violent drunk and one of the major architects of the system of legal European tax avoidance that deprived advanced economies of billions by inducing these companies to legally headquarter themselves in Luxembourg) and German ministers from the SPD (social democrats) have said that the UK must be punished. The EU must make it as uncomfortable as possible for the UK; and they're not even ashamed to admit the reason. They are upfront in saying that it is to deter others from thinking about leaving.

Today the Slovakian PM said;



https://www.ft.com/content/d0bb8d4a-7dc2-11e6-bc52-0c7211ef3198

These kinds of comments display the immature and supercilious attitude of people who are extremely insecure in their own beliefs. Is the European Union so flimsy that it has to insult and threaten any country that decides it may not want what the others want? Is there no room in Europe to say, "Thanks for the times we're worked together. We think we need to follow our own path now, but we wish you all the best and would like to stay friends"? Apparently not. You're either joined at the hip with them, or they hate you.

It's also interesting how they say the UK cannot have freedom for goods, services and capital without taking free movement of persons. There is no logical reason why they have to come as a package; all or nothing. Particularly given the EU has been negotiating a free trade agreement in Canada and the agreement on services with a whole range of countries that will allow freedom to trade goods and services without free movement of persons.

The eurocrats are desperately fearful that if Britain gets its way, the people of Europe will see there's no inherent reason why you have to have free movement of persons to have free trade. Thus we get the threats, the hysteria, the one-sided demands (the Slovakian PM spent 20 minutes insulting and threatening Britain, as if we give a crap about that fourth-rate nothing country, and then makes demands on the UK with respect to allowing his citizens who work in the UK to keep working there... the Poles particularly know they couldn't absorb 900,000 unemployed Poles moving home)

Except you also have London. If the EU can make it just so that financial services say well might just be better to move to Frankfurt/Paris, then that outweighs the trade deficit. In fact, it will be one of the most important things of Brexit for the UK to achieve, London remaining attractive.

So you think the EU saying we must be hard on UK is terrible, but you would do the same to Scotland?

You will not get free trade without free movement.

Where did I state that? Your assumption is bizarre.

Actually I will fully support Scotland if they voted to be independent. If you have read my post on Scottish independence, I absolutely support the democratic will of the Scottish people and I don't support punitive measures on Scotland.

If the EU maintain its stance that free movement is compulsory, then we should trade as a member of the WTO under the 2.3% MFN tariff. We are already seeing great level of support for this scenario.

Most Brexit voters voted Brexit for control of immigration, not free movement. This is the absolute bottom line for the majority. The EU will soon realise that this is not something we will compromise on. Whether they want to soften its stance is up to them.

Sure, because a finance-focused economy that 98% of respectable organisations, think-tanks and experts predicted to be permanently worse-off with a currency that took a huge hit commands envy!



It seems to work pretty well so far. You have pissed off a huge trading bloc which you heavily depend on - doesn't sound too good, does it?

You did **** all. Without just one of Russia/US you would be speaking German now. Nuclear weapon? One it was largely driven by German scientists and two we have learned from our past and we as a nation do not want such a weapon. The fact that you do and boast about it, speaks volumes about your character. The rest of your post is just Brexit gibberish. Thinking that as a sole country you have a better standing than combined

And most of Europe will seemingly be speaking German within the EU whilst it destroys southern Europes economies and sends them to Germany for work.

It is not a lie. You just wish it was a lie. Germany has traditionally strong ties to China, and the EU is a much bigger market than UK. The only reason China is interested in the UK is to exploit it. China is the much bigger market. UK needs China much more than vice versa. China knows this, hence any trade deal with China, will not be as amazing as Brexiters think.

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So two thirds of the southern European nations in this poll name Germany as the most trustworthy nation in Europe. Yep, pure, unadulterated resentment and hate, no respect at all.

Here's a tip: If you want to prove a point, don't quote polls that disprove your point.

So? China is a much bigger market than the EU. What is this logic that say just because we are a smaller small proportion of Chinas size, we will get a bad deal? The EU does not have an impressive economic record, whatever the blindly in love claim. We do not have history of failing to profit through relations with other countries, whatever our size.

Destroys them or bails them out after mismanagement?

The single market is over. Why are you so sure it isn't?

There is more anti-EU sentiment in France and the Netherlands than there is in the UK.

The people using the currency thing clearly know nothing. If that's the most you can come up with....currencies fluctuate.

That is how bargaining power works...