i would do it for an equal share of the premier league tv deal, but the germans dont care about money. it's all about principles, honour and doing the right thing for them.

What does "vibrant" actually mean apart from "high-crime"?

not derisory, £30bn/year could solve a lot of problems in eastern euro countries.

£35bn?

basically english people have said they are prepared to pay a lot of £ to not have the poles living next door and taking their jerbs

we just need to find the right price

Sorry Lektor, didn't know you live in Stoke.

British people didn't say anything of the sort. The Brexiters promised to bring money home, not send more away.

No it couldn't. For example the leader of the Slovak Liberals was on German TV earlier this year and asked them to stop sending money, something he has done several times. Sending so much money without any kind of controls just funds corruption.

(only in German unfortunately)


It's his view that keeping the 1 billion per year to spend on things we need would be better than 3 billion per year on corruption and things we don't.

alright the naive germans care more about the eu ideal than our piddling £ offer, so lets get smart about this. how about we offer £1.5bn/yr each to be paid directly to every state within the eu in exchange for common markt access with no free movement

gl merkel trying to convince the latvians that accepting this is a bad idea

sounds like the slovak liberals got short changed on their cut

It rightfully earned him laughter. So now the EU is to blame if Slovakia can't curb the corruption in their country. This already grants that it even exists to the extant he claims.

Not quite but close

After the last election it looked like he would form a coalition and be PM of Slovakia but interests associated with stealing eurofunds were offering individual MPs 1 million euros each to change side. Eventually 2 whole parties changed sides - the leader of one was rumoured to have personal debts from the election campaign of 2.5 million euros.

Basically the Liberals are the ones you vote for if you want to vote against that stuff and also if you want some kind of rules in politics. For example they think Greece should have been kicked out of Schengen and the eurozone years ago as per the relevant treaties.

More generally, though if money is taken from a British taxpayer and used to pay a Slovak winemaker to pull up his vines (a condition being that no more vines be grown there for 100 years), in order that the reduced supply means a German consumer has to pay more to a French winemaker for the same wine, it's clear that the French and Slovak winegrowers are winning (in the case of the Slovak assuming he was paid enough) and the German consumer and British taxpayer are losing. It's also clear that the German and British economies are losing and the French economy is gaining - it's a lot less clear that the Slovak economy as a whole is gaining from it. But those are the sick values the EU is based on.

Of course, because it's so far off from what Germans imagine eurofunds are doing.

I have no idea what is going on in Slovakia but the argument that outside money fuels corruption is not on its face laughable. African reformers have argued the same.

anyway here's my thinking: germany have us trousers down bent over a barrel re: financial services right. germans can just prevent us from access to common markt and all those massive tax paying wealth creating bankers will bugger off to frankfurt. thats great for germans. doesn't really benefit croats tho.

so happens that croatia&co just stumbled into a whole load of leverage over germany stemming from this brexit thing: one or two more dominos fall and the whole bloody thing might come crashing down.

so we offer something really favorable to the little guys which keeps our **** in place (sans free movement), thereby fanning the flames of euexit throughout europe if merkel stands in the way.

thats our leverage imo, lets use it in as cynical a manner as possible ty

Sure. Now you have the following solutions:

a) don't accept two billion Euros
or
b) fight corruption

C, fight corruption by limiting its source of power? I may be making too much of the African argument where reformers are asking NGOs to stop sending aid.

If b includes checking that the winemakers really are pulling up their vines then I'll take a)

This is getting pretty seriously financial crisis like right now. No coordinated action to stabilize the Pound. All Euro banks in fire sale mode. 20/25% off in two days.

They didn't do a very good job of seeming in control of the crisis over the weekend. I have a feeling people will be wishing they sold their pounds at 1.30 when they had a chance.

In a twist of fate, Soros was hugely long the Pound assuming the "proles" would fall into line and see how important it was that they vote in the best interests of their "betters". He was a much more effective anti establishment figure, playing against the rulers of the realm and their currency, back in 92'.

Now they are complaining about 16 years old not having the vote this time around. Perhaps next time they can extend it down to 10 year olds. They can vote in their government run schools right after government outlined civics class, and if they pick the "proper" side they get extra recess and a gold star.

There are few things in life as humorous as intellectually open liberals confronted by democracy when it doesn't go their way.

This looks banal, but can (the conservative) Britain really have a PM who looks like he never visits a barber? Being in charge of the liberal London is a different matter. Wonder what they think about Boris' haircut in Cornwall?

Then look at Cameron. Just his haircut gives him chances to continue as PM, even if that didn't get any love earlier itt (then it wasn't about the haircut though, more like "Stop Boris!")

Jebus 1.3. Lol.

I am going to London to buy some Rolexes and Louis Vuittons for resale in China ASAP. (fore real)

The value of UK Taxpayers stake in the Banks has lost 6BN pounds.

BAIDS is the expert on hair's important role in leadership.

Will look into it, to honour your 2/3 carpal/tunnel (4,000th) post!

Seriously what happens if the new prime minister refuses to initiate article 50 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Withdr...European_Union) in the name of national security interests and re-evaluation of conditions. In what sense is technically ethically or legally binding to violate as leader/government the results of a referendum if the prime minister that promised to do it is now gone? After all governments typically have less than 50% support anyway for great periods of time. You do not govern based on what the majority wants you to do on any given moment in time, otherwise what on earth are you doing if not testing your ability to be wiser than the avg person. They can always vote for another if they dont like how you do things and your own party/parliament (depending on alliances) can undermine you and your cabinet too if they think you are becoming arrogantly dangerous in that function. A leader must be able to be flexible and brave. A leader must be able to understand that important long term decisions cannot ever be based or have any indisputable legitimacy if they rely on small margins and prior decisions enjoyed much larger ones and the undecided were a significant fraction of the population plus promises were made either way to voters that were not accurate.

Prediction; UK will never leave EU. This is all a giant joke and a bell warning for Merkel and the other satellite morons that thought EU is their own to do whatever they like without a broadly based sensible sense of justice/consensus for/from all involved that results in symmetric and fair growth everywhere. This is re-evaluation time for EU's soul. This is a wake up call and a moment of coming together to learn from the rage of people not naively apply it if it leads to worse outcomes eventually. That is what leaders are elected for. To do hard things that the public may not initially like and appreciate later. If you exceed the legal authority you have in governing they can always take you down.

fat northerner horde tho

They have to make sure they get a PM who doesn't press the article 50 self destruct button. A natural choice would be Cameron, who has already told he won't.