This minion is obviously a different contact to the one that wants to limit eligibility to participate in the referendum to young people. You do know there is no current EU trade deal with USA, this has not stopped trading. I would expect many deals would continue on broadly similar terms as at the moment. It seems an ever increasing number of people are willing to accept a little short term uncertainty to achieve self determination.
And it is exactly here that the argument of Brexit increasing our sovereignty falls flat on its face. In the search of new partners, and doing this as a small island and not as part of a block, we will actually lose sovereignty - you can't have more loss of sovereignty than having the Chinese building your nuclear power stations. Britain would also be more or less forced to accept TTIP under any conditions - again, loss of sovereignty. The Brexiters appear to think that we are living in the 30s or something - where we could withdraw into our safe sphere of influence ie. the Commonwealth. As SH. would say - 'times have changed'.
I actually said the EU has changed for the worse since Margaret Thatcher's days, rampant unemployment, Eurocrats choosing the government in Italy, poverty for millions in Southern Europe. The EU is a failed political experiment, Brexit or not its days are numbered, certainly in the present form. I expect France to become even more disillusioned with the EU as they continue to fall behind Germany. In the early days the EU may have fostered good relationships between members, that has clearly turned to recrimination and self interest especially in Euroland.
During the last visit to the UK a few months ago by a trade delegation from China, there were demonstrations complaining about them dumping steel on the market at below cost and their abysmal human rights record - it was even debated on this thread. It would appear the Germans are less bothered about China dumping steel and abusing human rights than the Brits!
"China now represents the UK’s sixth-biggest export market, taking 3.6% of its goods and services. But some analysts characterise Xi’s visit as all one-way traffic, with a grateful Britain buying almost anything China had to offer, from nuclear technology to investment funds for the HS2 rail line, with only a handful of Chinese purchases of UK goods and services going the other way." Report from last October when President Xi Jinping visited London. This sounds more like the Brits do want investment from China just as much as Germany.
W_Y. It is an unfortunate fact of life that we all trade with countries with human rights records. I so much wish it were different but we justify more or less anything by saying that it creates jobs. Britain is no better on this than Germany is (the only difference is that Britain has been more exposed to the flow of information regarding Tibet, and so public sympathies are more anti Chinese than here). On the other hand both countries are major weapons exporters and are not too particular where those weapons end up - Saudi Arabia etc.
China is number 5 on the list of German export partners Frenchie. The first 6 are: 1. USA 2.France 3.UK 4.The Netherlands 5.China 6.Austria Germany imports from the following 6 in order: 1.China ! 2.The Netherlands (This even includes slurry from their agriculture !) 3.France 4.USA 5.Italy 6.Poland Surprisingly the Netherlands is Germany's third most important partner in terms of overall turnover !
In their desperation the remain camp have ditched Cameron and brought out another has been, Gordon Brown. This guy, without any power, is offering things he cannot deliver, he is, after all the man who sold a large part of our gold reserve at a rock bottom price. I would expect him to have as much affect as Tony Blair/John Major. Of course they might all be secret brexiters.
I think you will find it's the French in EDF that are actually building it with finance from China - but I believe that a French union is trying to get it stopped. What a strange world...
Yes - and it makes it all the harder to understand the outcry from 'down south', and from opposition parties, when the Scottish Government signed a memorandum of understanding over trade with both SinoFortone and CR3 a couple of months ago. What's good for the goose apparently isn't good for the gander.
The French may indeed build the power plant with some investment from China. There are big problems though as EDF cannot raise the money, similar plants are way behind schedule and vastly over budget. EDF is largely state owned and is unable to cope with the vast debt it already carries, especially now that the wind farms are costing more in subsidies than they produce. The finance director and some other members of the finance committee resigned earlier in the year, saying that this project was more than the company could handle, and was a real threat to it's ability to continue. A new board was appointed and they having re-examined it, wanted it to continue, but required the government to pump more money in. While the government goes in search of spare cash the whole thing is on hold. The union does have some members on the board and they have expressed their doubts along with many outside commentaries. To say they have held it up is not correct. It seems that before any decision is made now, the referendum result will be known and there was an article a month ago suggesting that the final decision should be held back until it was clearer in which direction the UK went. This actually seems to have happened.
Farage has been labelled a disgrace yet again by people on the leave side. It is no wonder that he has never managed to get elected to parliament with his racist views.
What's he said now OFH? I have not seen much apart from some reporting his previous comments after it was discovered that a young Syrian man recently arrived with his family and planned to be part of a series of BBC Newsnight programmes on newly arrived asylum seekers, has been charged with sexually assaulting a 14 year old girl.
He tried to link the murders in Orlando with the EU debate. Many on the leave side have condemned his actions, and he has withdrawn his comments. IDS seemed very upset that someone who is supposed to be on the same side should be seen to be so clearly close to him.
IDS is upset? The man is incapable of being upset - it's a human emotion. I doubt too many care anyway.
Nigel Farage has been one of the most influential UK politicians for many years. UKIP winning the European elections was a stunning result and certainly forced Cameron to honour his promise of a referendum. In last year's election UKIP had the third highest number of votes behind the Conservatives and Labour, more than the SNP and Liberal Democrats combined or the Liberal Democrats and The Green Party combined. I'm still waiting for Cologne to campaign for PR so UKIP could have more representation in parliament. I'm sure Farage has enjoyed the limelight rather than be a run of the mill MP that nobody has heard of. I'm not sure what he will do if Brexit win, if they don't I'm sure there will be plenty of EU injustices to fight in the future.
Apart from having strange ideas to begin with he also gets nervous and says even more stupid things when he hasn't had a *** for a few hours !
I am pleased to see that you are prepared to defend the man when none of the other mainstream leave campaigners are. This is the crank wing of the leave campaign, attracting people like Carswell and Galloway along of course with Putin. Shame really that he failed to get his group to lead. Still waiting for SH to tell us about his vast experience of exporting to the world. Seems he is quite a good dancer with his sidesteps.
Two new polls by ICM tonight showed an increase in the lead for leave from 4 points to six. Polling expert John Curtice told the Guardian, who commissioned today's ICM surveys: "These results are consistent with the generality of numbers over the last couple of weeks, in which there has been some weakening in the remain position" Time to panic Mr Cameron.
