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Brexit: give me a positive effect... XIII

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As CEO of the Scotch Whisky Association Frosty supported the case for remaining in the EU Single Market and stated that leaving would be "fraught with economic risk". That was his last known encounter with honesty.
 
wacko said:
As CEO of the Scotch Whisky Association Frosty supported the case for remaining in the EU Single Market and stated that leaving would be "fraught with economic risk". That was his last known encounter with honesty.
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You can get a seat in the HoL if you’ll be my meat shield.
 
Brian said:
I did say a new UK govt is what is needed. Trouble is, people who claim to dislike the tories have swallowed the propaganda and won’t support the alternative. Or other things take precedence...
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Or the opposition parties have to provide a genuinely electable alternative leader and not a 1970s socialist in a new suit.
 
ff1d1l said:
Sorry, but it is a spot on analogy - and holds up to scrutiny rather better than Barren Shelves Colin's Titanic one, which has also been trotted out rather more often recently than the golf cart has. If you're so analogy-phobic how come you haven't weighed in on that pisspoor example?
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I've pondered long and hard the golf club/EU analogy, and I conclude that there are a few somewhat lightweight similarities. Both certainly have paid memberships, and acceptance of members is dependent on some superficially similar conditions. Potential golf club members are individuals who must presumably be respectable members of society, and who agree to comply by the rules of membership. They join primarily to play a ball game, and secondarily as an affirmation of belonging to a certain social set. Acceptance into the EU involves countries comprising millions of individuals, with unique conventions and traditions born of long and varied histories, and a host of conflicting geopolitical interests. The application process is onerous, long, complex and depends upon adherence to high legal and democratic standards. Both golf club and EU are elaborately 'rules-based', in the case of the EU involving the construction of a vast and deep regulatory sphere of global impact and tens of thousands of pieces of complex and often arcane legislation, in the case of the golf club involving conventions, also often arcane, around a ball game, and dress and behaviour in the club house. Both have an institutional framework, the EU's being enormously complex, with an executive and legislature, a complex arrangement of notional national representation, and a court of law, all of it involving powers that reach decisively into nations and their societies, businesses and individuals. The golf club has a committee which involves itself in arranging tournaments, fixtures and social events, club expenditure and fees, and the arrangement of the car park. The golf club Committee is voted by members, the EU Commission is appointed by the President of the Commission who is sort of appointed by the German Chancellor and the French President, whilst the Golf club president is directly voted in by members.

The EU is an empire-building project. Golf is a ball game.

I was going to say that the Titanic/EU analogy holds water, but that probably isn't the best mataphor. Anyway, it is a reasonable analogy, given that all empires ultimately sink below the waves. Metaphorically speaking.

davidsrsb said:
Meanwhile at the other end of the planet we manage to trade all kinds of stuff with the EU by using their standards unmodified. They are bigger than us, get over it.
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Does the ECJ have direct jurisdiction in Malaysia?
 
What’s remarkable to pause and reflect on is that a British Prime Minister can, without consent, place one of the four countries that make up the United Kingdom outside the customs territory of the Union.
 
TheDecameron said:
I like seeing EU flags. We’ve got a lot of them in Edinburgh. Looking forward to more in the future.
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china-flag.jpg
 
ff1d1l said:
Excellent article.
Read it and weep, ET.
Read it and try and stop your lips moving, Barren Colin.
Get an adult to read it and explain, Brain, if you're still on here.
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I've already read it, and I often read Grey's blog. I disagree with much of what he says, usually in terms of weight and slant, and agree with much too. When he relents on the Johnson/lies rant he becomes increasingly interesting, as is the case with the linked piece.

He does though have a complete blind spot is regards the EU, but that is no less the case with much of the bien pensant pro-EU left, as well represented on these pages.
 
Spraggons Den said:
Or the opposition parties have to provide a genuinely electable alternative leader and not a 1970s socialist in a new suit.
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Not really given what the tories have done since 2010. Leaders are not there forever, look at the tories since 2015.

It was all predictable. A referendum on EU membership was in the tory 2015 manifesto and we know what happened after that. People here complain endlessly about the tories while not only refusing to support the only possible alternative, they undermine that alternative then they complain again.
 
TheDecameron said:
What’s remarkable to pause and reflect on is that a British Prime Minister can, without consent, place one of the four countries that make up the United Kingdom outside the customs territory of the Union.
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I would in essence completely agree with you on that, whilst also being slightly the pedant and pointing out that I think I'm right in saying that NI actually remains in the customs area of the UK, whilst also having to comply with EU customs rules on goods under the NIP.
 
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