First hand experience. It stemmed from Nigeria importing more cement than they needed or could unload at the docks during the 70s. Cement went off in the holds of ships waiting to unload. An idiot British MP called John Stonehouse was involved in a small way. Their import licence system was chaotic. For reasons of pride they refused help from Kenya and the situation got worse. Various companies in the EU, including the UK, wanted paying so put the screws in.
No link to demonstrate this "precedent" of the EU "punishing" Nigeria for "not paying their bills" and Nigeria then having to pay because of that punishment?
They are anyway, as there will be a serious hole in the EU budget once we stop paying. That's why they want to milk as much as possible from UK taxpayers while they can.
We are much safer now that six of those countries are no longer host to nuclear weapons aimed at us!
I'm not so sure. Can only speak about Lithuania, but in Vilnius most people we encountered were trilingual (English, Russian, Lithuanian) and to a high standard.
Getting 27 countries to agree to delegate control of items which to them may be sacrosanct is asking a bit much and in breach of one of the democratic ideals of the EU - as a state you have a say. It's unlikely.
This debate, which has continued since the announcement of the referendum, has been quite educational - with lots of easy to digest points laid out that people may not have considered or read about via other avenues. It also helps people to understand the points of view and driving motivations of people from both sides of the argument by seeing all the variations laid out and deconstructed.
You might be surprised by the amount of land around the country owned by unexpected parties like the colleges of Cambridge University. I know I was.
You are right. These old institutions crop up everywhere. Apparently the Waterstones shop in Truro, Cornwall pays rent to Cambridge University. I was told that all the old cottages painted pink scattered around Devon once belonged to one insurance company.
It's surprising people are still trying to flog this particular equine which expired before the vote even took place.
A much forgotten fact - The UK has an overall trading surplus with the rest-27, once so-called 'invisibles' are factored in. All this talk of "They need us more than we need them!" is just the sound of someone whistling 'Dixie'!
Nothing of the sort. The offer is perfectly reasonable, unless of course you think it a good idea for a foreign court to have jurisdiction in the UK.
The 2 year thing is I believe in line with how we treat immigrants from the rest of the world with leave to remain. Why should we discriminate in favour of the EU?
There you go, from the Guardian even:
Just because they aren't progressing at a speed you consider reasonable doesn't mean we won't be leaving the EU. If the team don't have a deal in time ... we leave with no deal.
I did read it and I don't think it is a reciprocal situation. We are not proposing that an EU citizen living in BIrmingham cannot move to Manchester.
No, it voted 494 to 122 to issue the Article 50 letter. It has yet to pass a bill or resolution to the effect that Britain should leave the EU.
Isn't Art 50 clear that once triggered you will have left a maximum of 2 years later?
Not only are we not best served by our politicians at the moment but by our press also. In one paper this story was illustrated by a photograph of a retired couple in the sunshine in Spain. The real and important issue of moving around Europe is for working age staff to be promoted or transferred to overseas offices without restriction. Everyone from banks to combine harvester makers has enjoyed this freedom and to cut UK employees out of the opportunities will seriously affect our business prospects.
In that case the Civil Service need to employ some civilians. I know of 2 people who have successfully negotiated deals with Putin. OK they were small deals but they did get what they wanted by not insulting him first, not keeping their cards secret and being very clear about what they wanted.
