And part of "making the best of it" is recognising that the current arrangement is not workable in the long term and altering it. Again, Brexit is not a point in time, but a long process.
Thanks for admitting that the pro-Brexit side lied to the the electorate. It's rare to see such honesty.
If BMWs are more expensive then they will probably sell fewer of them. Maybe that is not suffering? There has been a domestic car manufacturing industry before, and this could happen again, in time. Sixty years ago very little wine of any origin was drunk in this country - habits change, particularly if motivated by economics.
The French, at least, might insist on something like 'The_Burghers_of_Calais' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Burghers_of_Calais.
Precisely, and predictably. Pour encourager les autres. (Or, to be more precise, pour decourager les autres, to discourage the others *)
Exactly. Red carpet, tick; honours for Sturgeon, tick; opportunities for Scottish fishermen, tick; etc. She's played her hand well (so far).
I would think that this is the best solution for them. Increase costs but at least they would have the goods. These people have set up small businesses in Europe that serve a niche market (in the same way that 'Continental Food Store' and others do here). In the Costas it might be worthwhile setting up some distribution centres but in somewhere like Belgium there is unlikely to be the demand, most of the Eurocrats have come home. (Have we given them jobs?) Not only were these shops provide a service for ex-pats but it 'flew the flag' as far as locals were concerned.
The UK represents about 9% of BWM group sales. If they lost all their UK sales, it would hurt their bottom line, but I doubt it would affect their long-term viability.
I really get the feeling that a lot of Brexit-supporting people think that leaving the EU is going to turn the clocks back to the 1950s. It won't.
Blimey, maybe it was the 1850s given the rolling back of worker's rights!
Fully agree that Brexit is not a point in time, but a long process. As of course joining the EEC and its subsequent morphing to the EU was, evolving over 40 years.
Of course Brexit IS good for some people. But they weren't going to get sufficient people to vote for them for that reason. So they tap into other unresolved issues/grievances which have a resonance amongst a proportion of the population. Pretty text book stuff really.
Far fewer viable businesses than there would have been if we'd stayed in the EU. Businesses that have a choice between locating in the UK or the EU will almost all go for the bigger market, and with a smaller economy there will be less opportunity in the UK domestic market.
Some in the UK may not be able to afford such things, or at least buy them less frequently.
The de-industrialisation of this country goes back at least as far as when we lost an Empire that we could force to buy our products. And de-industrialisation owes far more to the policies of Westminster governments than to anything related to the EU - after all Germany seems to have done all right...
They were able to do that because the choice was between a clearly-defined Remain option and a Leave option that could be spun to include rainbows and unicorns. That's one reason why a specific deal should have been worked out and put to a referendum (either the original one or a second one).
Furthermore they used blatant lies (not just promises they couldn't keep, things that were demonstrably proveable to be false at the time they were said) to skew the campaign. Democracy relies on a certain level of truthfulness on the part of politicians. If they can't convince people of their case without lying then how do they believe in that case themselves, unless they have some sort of hidden agenda?
A contributing factor of Germany doing all right is because their industries had been destroyed during the Second World War and they were assisted to re-equip with modern technology, rendering us uncompetitive. We spent our reconstruction funds on something else, because our factories were still functioning and there were other political priorities. In hindsight we made mistakes, but that was a different place and time. There is maybe an opportunity for us now.
That was just not a practical option. Negotiating a deal that the other side [who wants a reject vote] knows was going to be put to a referendum is not going to get you the best deal, plus the Brexiteers could not possibly risk another referendum - this was their one off opportunity to get Brexit. It would likely never happen again (in their lifetimes at least)
What would you have done if you were a Brexiteer? There was no way of not getting a 'punishment' deal from the EU (and being free of the strictures of the CU/SM) . Why would they; they want to discourage leavers?. Of course there is some sort of hidden agenda!
I fear that sort of mass realisation is an entire generation away from occurring when the UK looks at its EU neighbours and asks itself 'why are we doing so badly compared to those across the channel?'
So you're agreeing that it could only be done by deceiving the voters. Perhaps you could shed some light on what the "end" is that justifies those "means"? Because I can't see any worthwhile benefit whatever, despite spending five years looking.
It's sad just how accurate that is...
Well, we are both men of the world?
That probably had some validity in the early post-war period, but much more important in the long term is the difference in cultures and attitudes to manufacturing between Germany and the UK. In Germany engineering and manufacturing are seen as positive things to do which add value to the country in the long term. Engineers have status equivalent to lawyers, doctors and so on. Companies stay German (and often family) owned. Money is invested in product improvement. In the UK manufacturing was not seen that way. The upper echelons of society thought it was a second class occupation and only worth getting interested in if there was a lot of money to be made, preferably by buying and selling companies rather than getting your hands dirty by actually designing and making something. Good ideas were there to be exploited in the short term, sold on and if a foreign buyer offered more, so be it. The Thatcher revolution made the whole thing worse by focusing the country's talent on money making rather than adding value, but it was very consistent with British long term attitudes. I hope things are changing, but I am not convinced yet.
Contributing, but not determinative. Much more important is the fact that German society puts much more value on jobs where you get your hands dirty than we do.
Unfortunately we are who we are, and will have to play to our strengths, or positively deal with our weaknesses. However, we are also a pretty resourceful bunch, often resulting in success in spite of ourselves.
Heath taking us into the EU was a deception on a monumental scale. People voted for a trading allian e, like a glorified efta, not an EU superstate.
Indeed it was a deception since the EU wouldn't exist for twenty years, give or take. He was hiding the fact he was a time traveler.
I don't think that is quite true. Heath took us into the EEC trading alliance, and a referendum was held on that subject in 1975. The EEC morphing into the EU nascent superstate was the 1992 Maastricht treaty on the watch of Major, and then consolidated by the Lisbon Treaty in 2007 on the watch of Blair. No referendums were held for these Treaties; our elected representatives took the decisions for us.
The interests of thee and me were very much in the foreground.
I don't remember - did UK public opinion (polling etc) support Maastricht at the time?
Indeed. Uneducated with respect to what the EU is and does, but most people who support(ed) Brexit aren't stupid.
