After Brexit - am I stupid or what?

On a lighter note: I ran a quiz last night. One of the questions (topic was France) was "What do the French call the English Channel?"

All the teams got it correct but one team added a footnote:

"Our French member of our team has said the proper answer should be 'Not Wide Enough'!"

 

To be honest, I think the extremist on both sides will try to scupper a decent deal. I think one of the real problems is as Shiney has said........

Our Media carries a lot of blame, not that it ever will, in Headlines and articles deliberately stirring things up. I can think of a lot of TV journalists, who were out to make a name for themselves, in programs and interviews where they were completely negative and aggressive without any real concern of the outcome, and now they are foremost on TV presenting themselves as authoritive, wise, learned Journalists who never entered into such behaviour.
We have a year ahead of us of the UK/EU Trade negotiations and I'll bet a bottle of my favourite whisky that the Press, Wireless, and TV will be back to their old tricks of distortion, rabble rousing etc whenever we get to the sticky bits of negotiations............which is why this sibling thread of "Brexit - am I stupid or what?" will probably get quite busy while serving a useful base to discuss issues.
Leaving the EU is now History and we can either learn from it or, as Humans tend to do, ignore it..........we have a choice. One thing is plain from the last 4 years is that friendships in GC have grown stronger despite of, and probably because of, our different points of view.

 

Well, that's where democracy comes in. We either have a Referendum where one side wins by 3.78% or even, say, by .5% and we accept that vote or we continue to have another Referendum because the result wasn't liked by the losing party, and then another Referendum after and so on. The Remainers who couldn't/wouldn't accept the result argued repeatedly that "well. it's a narrow margin, so we need to have another one". What is the point of holding a democratic Referendum of which the result, 3.87%, is not accepted because it was a narrow margin.
How much margin in a Referendum is enough.?? In Business, on a Directors or Shareholders vote it only takes 51% to pass. When Remainers argue about the "narrow" margin of the 2016 national EU referendum what they're really saying is that "we want another Referendum because we didn't like the first result" knowing full well that if the referendum had been a "narrow" margin to stay in the EU of 3.87% they would have been quite happy with the democratic result because it had gone their way.

 

I always thought that with such a massive, country-wide decision that a decent majority, maybe 55% should have been set to remove any thoughts that it was too narrow a margin. They didn't obviously but it would have helped perhaps.
Now, I just want the next stage underway! I'm expecting and have already seen both sides beating their figurative chests which sets the stage for getting nowhere fast.
As a country, we're used to adapting and overcoming horrendous odds so I can't see any reason we cannot do it again and be a thriving nation

 

Why are you are a Guest, Selleri? You live here and as the song goes,"Wherever I drop my Hat, that's my Home". Well, hat or not, you're here for whatever time, then this is your Home.............and to prove it, should you ever drop into my Local Pub, it's your round!

 

To be honest, Loofah, 55% would still have been regarded as a narrow margin by whoever lost in such a divisive issue. In truth, the bickering is not about the size of the winning margin but because like in most national referendums the losing party would not accept the result.
Do you think that if there was another Scottish Independence Referendum, (God forbid) and the SNP lost the vote by 55.30% as they did in 2014, or if they lost by 65%, that would stop them arguing for another Referendum the very next day?? There can be no vaguenss in any demcratic result, so if one party wins by a majority vote
however small then that is the result.

 

Reverting to politicians and media meddling: whether you are for or against another Scottish referendum I can't see why Donald Tusk should be commenting in the media about the situation.

He shouldn't be sticking his pole in!

 

He's saying he sympathises with Scottish leavers and they would be welcome in the EU.

There's nothing wrong with him having a private opinion - in private, but for a prominent figure in the EU to announce it to the world's media is interfering and stirring things. It can only foment bad feelings all round

 

Well, Barnier has just been stating that unless the UK conforms with their rules and standards there will be regulatory checks at the border. One thing that the EU seems to be "afraid" of the UK becoming a competitor on their doorstep and Barnier mentioned that in his speech this morning. He was also threatening that UK international financial services would need a "passport" to operate in the EU, and they also want free access to the UK's fishing waters, so it appears that, as expected, the EU is still believing that it's standard bullying, threatening, and "we hold all the cards" stance with work again, but this time I think they've got it wrong.