I will be digging holes as well if Remain win:- a bloody big bunker, lining it with racks for bottled water and tinned food, getting a nasty dog with big teeth and getting ready for Armageddon.
I'm using my wife instead of a big dog Veering off track a little I'd like to thank the inventor of postcrete, the fast setting cement. It makes life so much easier. Mind you it gives you no time to correct uprights not quite vertical I'm now claiming the pergola is meant to be rustic looking to hide my bodges. Hopefully no bright spark claims postcrete was only invented due to the supply of EU research funds!!!
I wonder if the stroppy heads of other European countries now wish they had given Cameron something worthwhile during his recent, miserable, failed attempt to curb uncontrolled immigration.
As the number of EU. citizens living in the UK. is only 3.6% of the population - a lower ratio than that found in Germany, Spain, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg or Switzerland they probably didn't understand the hysteria (and neither do I). The majority of immigrants to the UK. are non EU. and there is no evidence that a points system has brought this down.
One of our clients that has a few funds that have investments in various currencies requested today that a dividend that was due to be paid at the end of the month be paid before the referendum.
If you don't look at it from the front you cannot tell its a bit like Cologne - left leaning Looking from the side you cannot tell my pergola is suffering from the same condition as Cologne - left leaning. Hopefully it is the only lefty in the domain.
So, what has Europe ever done for us ? Well.......we have the freedom to live, work or retire anywhere in Europe. Ok. but was has Europe really done for us apart from that ? It sustains millions of jobs. Holidays are much easier (& safer) - we have the right to emergency healthcare and also consular protection from any EU. embassy. Better consumer protection. Better environmental rules and workers rights (eg. maternity pay) Cross - country coordination and cooperation in the fight against crime. Anything else ? Well, our business depends on it - the CBI estimates that net benefit of EU. membership is worth between 62 Billion and 78 Billion pounds per year. We also have greater influence being a part of it. And lastly - 25% of all EU. money for research goes to the UK. The EU. does really do other things beside talking about the shape of bananas, but The Sun would never tell you about those. All a bit of a no brainer really.
“It is true that the single market is of considerable value to many UK companies and consumers, and that leaving would cause at least some business uncertainty, while embroiling the Government for several years in a fiddly process of negotiating new arrangements, so diverting energy from the real problems of this country – low skills, low social mobility, low investment etc – that have nothing to do with Europe.” He admitted Britain was at risk of losing influence and would “face some penalties”. "Firstly we wouldn’t be able to stick up for what we believe in." He has argued the choice is “really quite simple”: “In favour of staying, it is in Britain’s geo-strategic interests to be pretty intimately engaged in the doings of a continent that has a grim 20th-century history, and whose agonies have caused millions of Britons to lose their lives.” February 2016 Boris Johnson
If the UK leaves what happens to the status of UK citizens living in the EU? Will they have to get an EU passport to remain?
Only if the EU ever decide to issue passports - which they currently don't. I think the simple truth is that nobody knows - Cameron, Johnson & the media are all simply speculating on what may happen to 'expats'. As it currently stands, the only way they may be able to safeguard their right to stay may be to take out citizenship of the country they live in, if eligible - but that may mean foregoing other rights (free healthcare?). Of course, that's just me speculating too...
and... when Scotland breaks away as it will if we leave ....and we have a permeable land border.......... even easier for immigrants to slip in.... or are we going to rebuild Hadrian's wall like the Israelis have done... Oh and also there is the Irish border....
I doubt it - that would mean ceding the land between the wall and the border to Scotland. Westminster have a history of doing just the opposite.
The position is very unclear NZ. Presumably it would be a reciprocal thing and would depend on how EU. nationals are treated in Britain. As far as I know, new regulations could only be applied to new arrivals (in both directions) - because you cannot be punished in retrospect. Those who already have official residence would stay (unless Britain starts kicking people out !). Most of those in Germany are paying into the German health system already (not many British pensioners here) so there would be no changes there. What will change however is the ability to vote in local and European elections (although the extent of voting rights is not standard throughout the EU) - could they actually disenfranchise existing voters ? I have dual nationality - but I do not know if this will be possible for others in the future - because Germany only recognizes dual nationality with other EU. states. It may be that in the future people would be required to drop their British nationality to become German. It could also be difficult for people with pensions paid by 2 countries.
Perhaps if Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all break away they could legitimately collectively call themselves the United Kingdom (provided that the Queen remains their Head of State) and not have to renegotiate entry into the EU. Only England would have to leave.
If that happened NZ. then the minefield that SH. was talking about, would be there to stop the English flooding into Scotland.
