The VFM Addict

I'm beginning to feel that I'll be very surprised if the balloon doesn't go up over Nth Korea some time soon. That's not good.

Worrying — link

That is exactly the point. Remember the Football Matches in the front line trenches early in WW1? Folks do get on together. I'm not sure the peoples of any country have ever started a war. Its the elite, once the Aristocracy and these days the Politicians, who wage wars.

Eating a straight banana while doing it, of course............LOL

Now that’s a huge bag for debate. Can the EU change? I’m not sure it can. Or, even if it can, whether it can change fast enough. The EU bureaucrats will stifle change just as often do our own Civil Service. Also, Management by Committee, which is what the EU is on a massive scale, is not renown for its ability to deliver rapid change.

The problem as I see it though is, at what point does 'the result' come in for one side or the other to admit they were wrong? 5 years? 10, years? 25 years? Or 40 years - which is about the time the UK electorate gave the European adventure to work out before it said enough is enough? Frankly I suspect most of us here will be long gone before 'the result' comes in.

Needless to say some Brexiteers would say - What a frightening prospect [remaining in the EU] - in all seriousness can any of you remainers tell us brexiteers why you love the EU so much that you are prepared to risk the future of your own country? Just like time and speed it is all different depending on the position (viewpoint) of the observer.

The biggest mistake May has made as far as I'm concerned is saying that politics is not a game. It is and always has been and the principles of Chess are nothing more that the principles of politics transferred to a board of 64 squares - The Fork, Discovered Attack, the Pin, the Skewer and the Zugzwang. What you just described, Nick, is a classic Zugzwang. A Zugzwang is when one forces one's opponent to make a move when that opponent would prefer not to have to vary their current orientation because all moves from the current orientation carry the inevitability of weakening their

Looks impressive until you look at sample sizes. Don't get me wrong it might well be that a bigger sample would yield similar results. But its not one bit unusual for samples of less than 200 individuals to throw up atypical results. Let's just concur that normal caveats very clearly apply.

Don't worry I'm sure your biggest trading partner, the one you do over 60% of your trade with will still cut you as good deal if the EU won't let you in.........

Errrmmm......wouldn't that result in an ever harder Brexit and hence an even harder border? I don't quite follow Eire's logic there.

There you go again, Mike, 'hair trigger' before reading in full or understanding the post you are responding to. It seems you missed entirely that I said in control of one's own negotiations.. That does not say no negotiation with others or no compromise. I would have thought that the fact that I was speaking of negotiations made clear that what I was saying was nothing like Fat Boy Kim who negotiates with no-one. Let me put it this way. My wife and I do not always have identical opinions and goals. When we don't we negotiate and come to a compromise. What I was saying w

LOL...............No, I never said or even implied 'total control' in the way you insinuate. Its just that I prefer being in charge of fighting my own corner in negotiations rather than have 27 other folks, who may have agendas different from my own, negotiating for me.

No, Mike, you missed the point of my post entirely in your first sentence. When we leave the EU we will be in complete control our negotiations with the EU. But if Scotland leave the UK and join the EU they will not be in complete control of their trade negotiations with their biggest trading partner (i.e. the rest of the UK). They will be stuck with whatever the other 27 want. Breaking off from your biggest trading partner and then having very little say in the terms and conditions of your trade with that partner is a far bigger leap in the dark than is Brexit.

Which might be why Scotland remains in the UK. Well over 60% of its trade is with the rest of the UK. It would be rash to leave the UK join the EU and then have little say in or control over the trade deal it has with its largest trading partner. Certainly if it becomes a Hard Brexit I see no sense in Scotland joining the EU. Far better, if they vote to leave the UK, to then do as we are doing and remain able to negotiate one's own trade deals, freedom of movement with the rest of the UK, etc.