Comments by "Nigel Johnson" (@nigeljohnson9820) on "Fourth round of Brexit talks ends with « no significant progress »" video.

Maybe if the eu dropped its demands that would effectively turn the UK into a vassal state of the EU. It was the EU that insisted the political declaration was non-binding. That means the UK is free to ignore the contents of the declaration, it was clearly what the EU intended to do, or why else did they not make it legally binding.
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@alexwars8327 even less so for a Frenchman. Why should the UK be held to an non binding agreement, when the EU refused to make it one. The EU is certainly not to be trusted, it has been reported that its intention is to punish the UK for having the temerity to leave the EU or was it just for refusing to obey orders after it left. I see no reason for the UK PM to trust a hostile power.
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@fitzstv8506 if it behaves like a hostile power, makes the demands of a hostile power, makes threats like a hostile power, then by definition it is a hostile power. The EU's demands, if met, would turn the uk into a vassal state of the eu. It laws would continue to fall under the jurisdiction of the ECJ and be made by the eu through its directives. It is demanding access to UK coastal waters, and has threatened also sorts of trade embargoes and attempted to block the uk forming any trade relationships outside the EU. It has already forced custom controls between members of the UK, and has demanded the return of uk territories, such as Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands. By any calculation the eu is it a friend to the UK and is close to being a true enemy. It is certainly a hostile power. You say the eu has recognised the referendum result, yet it is still demanding controls over the uk consistent with it being a member, failing that it no longer has voting rights in the EU. This is cherry picking of the first grade. It has demanded money, despite the uk always having been a net contributor to the eu budget, getting consistently less out than it put in. It has cut the uk access to the Galileo project, despite the considerable contributions the uk made to the project, both technical and financial. If anything,the uk did not leave the EU, the EU left the UK, by its continued evolution away from a trading block and towards a political union.
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@fitzstv8506 I really don't see how you can deny my assertions. Do you deny that the eu wants the same access to uk coastal waters as it had when the uk was a member? Do you deny that it wants the uk to be subject to the rulings of the ECJ? Do you deny that it wants eu laws and directives to be written into uk law so that they automatically update when the eu decides to change them? Do you deny that the eu is refusing to treat the uk in the same way as Canada, just because it is closer? In other words it wants to treat the uk as a lesser independent state,simp!y because it was once a member. Worse, the implication is that it wants to shackle the uk because it fears open competition.
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@fitzstv8506 on the question of competition, it is not what I think that matters, it appears the eu are worried that the uk will out compete it. As to the uk changing its competitiveness, it did not change during the forty years of membership, so maybe it will change outside. Madness can be defined as repeating the same thing and expecting a different outcome. Remaining in the eu would be madness. The eu not only wants the uk to follow its standards, it wants them included into uk law with the eu in control of them. Not a chance of that. The EU will not even give the UK the same deal as Canada let alone a Canada ++ deal, so frightened it is of uk competition.
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@hfricke2661 you are suggesting a level of eu solidarity that really does not exist. It is yet to be seen if all members sign up to the 500 billion euro grants or the 250 billion euro loans. Let alone all the other money the ECB is magically producing out of thin air. Merkel is concerned with her legacy, since will not be in office much longer, and will not be required to deal with the fallout produced by so much borrowing. It is easy to appear generous when the money is being printed without the costs being obvious. Macron is proxy Empire Building, using the pandemic crisis to further his federalist agenda. The EU is in a mess and I am very glad we will not be part of it. From the very start of the brexit process, it has been well known that the EU wishes to punish the UK for having the temerity to leave. From the practical point of view the EU cannot afford to allow brexit to be seen as a success, as it risks other increasingly eurosceptic states from following the UK example. EU propaganda would have the world believe that everyone on the EU just loves being there, this is in ,armed contrast to the growing populist movements who want to leave. Populist, as in popular as in the view of the majority. The EU elites are dragging the UK citizens into this federal, globalist, plutocratic Europe, much against their will, and resistance is growing. It is unfortunate that the UK was the first to be sufficiently brave to leave.
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@fitzstv8506 I am not interested in access to the EU free market, I am happy Togo to WTO rules. As I have already pointed out, the EU will be at a significant disadvantage if the UK takes the necessary action as a small independent third country. The eu will then find it very difficult to sell into the eu market. It will certainly not get access to UK coastal waters. It will not be able to control how the UK decides to compete with the EU. While this will not destroy the EU, it will certainly do it noticeable damage. Just another problem that the EU will face.
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