Comments by "Taint ABird" (@taintabird23) on "James O'Brien: How We Know Who To Trust On Brexit - LBC" video.

  1. Britain was economically 'the sick man of Europe' before it joined the EEC. Low productivity, strikes, power cuts and it even required an IMF bailout shortly after it joined. Leaving the EU is only the start of something in the UK - what exactly happens next is not clear, but not much of it suggests that 'the British people' will survive as an entity in the long term: will the Scots leave the UK? Will Northern Ireland unite with the Republic of Ireland? Will the English tire of the UK and become independent of it? Will the UK economy fall flat? Will there be greater inequality between rich and poor? It is the answers to these questions that will determine if the 'the British people survive once they split'. Especially as there is a diminishing British Demos anyway. There are no countries in Europe that have better economies that members of the EU. The EU is by itself the largest economy in the world, larger than China and the United States. The is leaving and putting trade barriers up against, with the intention of replacing lost trade with the EU with trade much farther way with Australia, China, the US etc. There is much negativity about Brexit because before the democratic vote, nobody agreed as to what it meant exactly; promises made about it by those promoting leave have all be shown to be untrue while assumptions that were made were found to be serious miscalculations. The truth is, many of the reasons why people voted to leave have nothing to do with the EU and everything to do with domestic policies by successive UK governments over decades. It is often easier to blame 'the foreigner', those against whom you fought all your wars, for your shortcomings than to accept responsibility for you own flaws.
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  2. It looks like you need to do some research on the topic, particularly in relation to the IMF: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_IMF_Crisis and the UKs de-instrialisation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_the_United_Kingdom#1960%E2%80%931979:_the_Sixties_and_Seventies Many Brexiters today blame the UKs loss of manufacturing on the EU, because they don't know the history of their own country. Few study history at school, apparently. Norway has oil, and is closely aligned to the EU; Switzerland has one of he most protected economies in the World, but is also aligned in many ways with the EU. Not sure about Iceland, it has applied to join the EU though its application has been put on hold for now; the UK is planning to leave without any withdrawal agreement and none of the types of agreements that Norway or Switzerland have with the EU - these countries are rule takers, not rule makers - such agreement do not suit how the Brexiters see their countries place in the world. Eastern Europe are poorer because they are still modernising their economies post communism. The UK cannot agree with itself what is best for its people, and instead Brexiters blame the EU for their own shortcomings. Never try to leave the EU without having a plan on how to do it or without a consensus on where you want your country to position itself. Lets hope they can figure something out.
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  3. While the Europe is a continent, the EU is a customs union and a single market of 28 different economies.
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  4. Its a freedom of speech thing. Don't worry, I'm sure it will be undermined post-Brexit.
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