Thought I'd start a new thread as this is going to be a major talking point this year...have not made up my mind yet...(unlike bucksfizz)....but thinking of voting for an exit as Europe is not doing Britain any good at all it seems....

I fear you're right about the high cost of living for expats in Europe, Martini. So many of them rely upon their UK pensions to provide a decent standard of living, and the weaker pound in their pocket, coupled with their resentment of being used as pawns and ineptitude of your useless government in negotiating a deal, now means that they're having to reconsider their position and return to the UK.

I do hope that your government can afford to support them upon their return once the tax income from legitimate immigrants diminishes now they're no longer wanted.

But hey, if you can still afford to visit Europe post-Brexit, you'll always be welcome chez moi. Seriously, there's so much more to life here than an early evening game of petanque over a pastis. Why don't you visit before the spring, and I'll enjoy taking you on a short afternoon trip down La Chavanette? I promise it won't take me long, but I suggest you make sure your insurance is up to date.

Hilary.

Sadly they won't even give me a quote for insurance, so I have to rely on my own reserves and hope if anything goes wrong it is either minor or fatal.

We are off to Cyprus for a couple of weeks in March returning on the 16th.

What shocked me was not the price of the hotel which is about the same as last year but the flight which is double what I was expecting. Are they profiteering on a run on flights to the UK at that time?

But we have been thinking about doing another European Road trip 4/5000 miles later in the year. So assuming the £ is worth anything by then I may take you up on your offer.

M

Mansfield ?????£

Lol no wonder you left and to think of the crap I've put up off you for living in Wales !!!

At least Stan supports his local team even though they are crap !

Ffs Mansfield , lol.

Well done , Hils they'll probably put a statue up in your honour.

And don't try telling me your name is Jane ... Tarzan said he's never heard of you.

7 weeks tonight .... freedom.

Calling all Moggy fans:

https://www.facebook.com/365076723656400/posts/1364202060410523/

boules to you hilary :-)

48 days ago was Christmas Eve and in 48 days time we leave.

Really isn't long now , maybe the EU will get its act together this week and come up with a decent compromise (unlike Corby).

What will be will be.

the only thing i know about brexit, and indeed most deals that one does or tries to do, is that they never turn out quite as expected or even hoped for

I expected nothing and Mays deal is probably worse than nothing although I'd agree it just to move on if she can change the back stop so your right cynic.

Stan , video was good :-)

Dil,

I've got no idea where Mansfield even is, but their electorate fit the target demographic and are clearly impressionable.

You're always going to support Cardiff and vote leave. 25% of the UK population think similarly, and there's no point spending time or money in getting you to change your mind.

In exactly the same way, Stan's always going to support Burnley and vote to remain. He's indicative of another 25% of the population who will never change their views.

Then there's the other 50%. 25% won't vote and 25% show the potential to be turned. Mansfield was the 7th heaviest Brexit voting area in the UK. The top 10 Brexit areas were all in that same East Midlands, East of England region. They all fit the target demographic for turning.

'Thousands of Tory party members' to defect to Nigel Farage's Brexit Party as it gets official approval




By Christopher Hope, Chief Political Correspondent
8 February 2019 • 4:00pm


Thousands of Conservative members are likely to defect to a new Brexit party which was officially recognised on Friday by the electoral regulator, its backers claim.

The Electoral Commission on Friday formally recognised the Brexit Party as an official organisation which will allow it to field candidates at elections.

Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader who is supporting the party, said "the engine is running" and he stood "ready for battle" to fight the Tories and Labour if European Parliament elections are held on May 23.



More: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/02/08/thousands-tory-party-members-defect-nigel-farages-brexit-party/

Hils , I agree but there doesn't seem to be any appetite for another vote either in Parliament or the country as a whole and if there were one with the same question asked I reckon Leave would win again but on a smaller turn out thus solving nothing.

Farage might actually pull the Conservatives together to get the deal passed with this latest stunt.

Good luck to him but Labour voters will back him too just as they did in Wales at the last assembly election.

Dil, It, Manuel, Marty, and George

You rejoicing in the possible destruction of the UK's relationship with the EU reminds me of this:


“would not be the least bit surprised if suddenly, out of the blue, amid the universal future reasonableness, some gentleman of ignoble or, better, of retrograde and jeering physiognomy, should emerge, set his arms akimbo, and say to us all: ‘Well, gentlemen, why don’t we reduce all this reasonableness to dust with one good kick, for the sole purpose of sending all these logarithms to the devil and living once more according to our own stupid will!’ That would still be nothing, but what is offensive is that he’d be sure to find followers: that’s how man is arranged.”

Similarities to the wish of the destruction of Paris on the German retreat from France in the 1940s.

when the (protestant) huguenots were hounded out of france at the end of 17th century, they brought silk spinning and weaving skills to spitalfields (london)

i haven't studied quite how and why, but many of them subsequently migrated to mansfield in nottinghamshire, and that town became and i think still remains the uk centre for silk production

somehow or other, i discovered (was told) that the very first rugby international was between the mill workers of mansfield of those of paris

You mistake the breaking of ties with the EU project, conceived without any sovereign consent, with that of Europe. I have good friends in Europe, none in the tower of Babel. Nor do I wish.

good to see fred harking back to a novelist of the mid 19th century (dostoyesky)

#LedByDonkeys

I was wrong in initially thinking this was Soros' money. Apparently it's crowdfunded - raised £125k of a £150k target with 5 days to go. Each billboard costs about £1k a month.

Fred keeps demonstrating the relevance of Godwin’s Law and falling in to the trap of association fallacy.

Dil,

I'm not a big fan of a second referendum myself, although it may prove to be the only way out of the deadlock assuming that Brexit gets delayed.

I've heard the argument about older Brexiters dying and younger remainers now being old enough to vote, but everybody is now two or three years older and fallen into the next age band up where the leavers have a higher share of the vote.

Then there's the matter of the question asked. I very much doubt it would be the same question as before (the public wouldn't appreciate being asked the same question twice, and just tick the same box as before), but what question would be asked that would get the right result? And if it were a three question referendum, research has shown that the second preference counting method could produce different outcomes.

The biggest issue as I see it though, is who would head up the remain camp in a second referendum? You'd normally expect it to be the PM backed by the government, but having spent 2 years negotiating an exit, she can't do it now. Corbyn probably wouldn't want to do it, and who knows how he'd side??!!??

So what other high profile figures are there who could lead it? Blair? Cameron? They've got too much baggage. You'd be left with the likes of Yvette Cooper and Vince Cable to head up the remain camp - nice people, but not the figureheads that would be needed imo.