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....

This stuff came from the Guardian:

Why is Ireland such a difficult issue in Brexit talks?
Barring a few high-profile interventions from two former prime ministers, Sir John Major and Tony Blair, Ireland was not the main issue in the EU referendum campaign. Yet the status of the 310-mile border is now the biggest stumbling block to a Brexit deal.

The EU and UK have pledged to avoid a hard border, including any infrastructure that could become a target for militants, in order to preserve the Good Friday agreement. But there has been little progress on how to avoid a border, since an initial agreement was struck in December 2017. Without an accord on Ireland, the EU has said there can be no Brexit divorce treaty. According to the EU logic of Brexit sequencing, without a withdrawal agreement, there can be no transition period or trade agreement between the UK and its European neighbours.

What is the EU plan?
Brussels wants guarantees it will be able to control goods flowing over the EU-UK border after Brexit. Without any controls, officials fear that it will be impossible to prevent illegal imports, such as American chlorinated chickens, or cheating on VAT rates. As the EU and UK are not expected to conclude an agreement on their future trading relationship until 2020 at the earliest, the EU has come up with a fallback plan, known as the backstop. The backstop means Northern Ireland would remain subject to the EU customs union and many single market rules, creating “a common regulatory area” on the island of Ireland, where goods can move freely. Northern Ireland would have to apply EU tariffs on non-EU goods. It would follow EU rules on product safety, animal welfare and VAT. EU institutions, including the European court of justice, would retain their role in enforcing these rules.

What is the UK plan?
The UK has staunchly rejected the EU plan: no British prime minister “could ever agree” to the backstop, which threatens the constitutional integrity of the UK, Theresa May has said. The proposal is especially fraught for the prime minister, whose minority government is propped up by the Democratic Unionist party, which fiercely opposes separate status for Northern Ireland.

The UK wants to resolve the Irish question through an agreement on the future trading relationship. It argues that any fallback plan should apply to the whole of the UK and be time-limited, two points the EU refuses to accept. The UK has proposed two customs plans. The first, “maximum facilitation”, is based on technology and trusted-trader status for small businesses doing cross-border trade. The second is an unprecedented partnership that would allow the UK to collect tariffs on behalf of the EU. Both ideas have been rejected by the EU, but elements have been reincarnated in May’s Chequers plan.

What happens now?
The EU hopes to convince the UK that its backstop is not trampling on British sovereignty. This is Michel Barnier’s attempt to “dedramatise” the issue, partly by appealing to precedents – existing Northern Ireland-only rules on phytosanitary (plant health) norms, controls between Spain and the Canary Islands. Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, is also said to be looking at allowing British officials to check goods coming to Northern Ireland. Another EU idea is whether checks could be done at ports and airports away from the land border. But British officials are said to be unconvinced. To the British, the EU proposals still look like an “unacceptable” border in the Irish Sea.

EU leaders are likely to signal the importance of solving the Irish question when they discuss Brexit at a summit in Salzburg this week. But a solution remains elusive.

I am a British subject born in the UK as were my parents BUT my passport is endorsed stating I am not allowed to take up residency or employement in the EU.

With BREXIT at least it should be a level playing field for one and all born of british parents in the UK.


No DEAL is the best deal -

is being a subject the same as being being a citizen?
i'ld guess not and thus the nuance

cynic, Also a resident citizen, not only a subject but one that wants the privilaeges removed for all, and the only way is for BREXIT to mean BREXIT.

there must be something more than what you have divulged, as certainly someone born of english parents and in england assuredly has the right to work in eu

Ooooo I think I'm having an erotic spasm Vince.

292 days to go and the only way your getting a second referendum is if the two choices on the paper are deal or no deal.

Dill,

I thought you might have been retained in Sunderland at the weekend.

Must have been some of your mates.

cynic - other than my grandmother was French - I have stated the facts - however - four of my children are in the same position, with the same statement typed in their Passports but one child does not have this in theirs. Work that one out!

However, I did not say I was born in England but I did say I was born in the UK just to clarify, not that it should make any difference, as a British Passport covers anyone born in the whole of the UK not just England.

292 days, Dilbert?

I hope you're not confusing your Brexit countdown with anything sheep-related!

:o)

it was the erotic spasm I was having hils :-)

Don't think I could put up with an extra 100 days of remoaners crying.

Sorry Fred , not seen what happened in Sunderland.

well CT, there's clearly something you aren't telling us to make you non grata as an employee in eu

More fairy tales for Dil and Manual.

https://www.ft.com/content/962ff0b0-b841-11e8-b3ef-799c8613f4a1?segmentId=c841d669-8dab-e460-26f0-30ea79c2a1d0

cynic, there are around 3/4 thousand others like myself - All EU counties seem more than willing to have us but but we have to apply, as it is not a automic right, in fact I would go so far as to say that in general they welcome us with open arms subject to application.

I guess you might be in the same position if Bexit means Brexit, as I would like. Then your in the same boat as all of us. Believe me, they will then welcome you with open arms, if you meet the calibre.

i have long been unemployable as i'm too much of a maverick, and now disqualify myself on age too

Cynic, At least you were employable at some point it seems, I have never been employable, and have never been employed by anyone, as I doubt I could have managed to accept orders but it shows what one good teacher in my last year at school, who gave me a glowing report, unlike all others bar the maths and science teachers, and what that can mean to a 15 year old. The guy in question, was a wise old teacher in his seventies, that most laughed at but I connected mentally with, and his words that he wrote my parents in my last report never left me from the day I walk out of that school on my 15th birthday.

I asked myself where he would have stood on Brexit - and his reply I guess would have been just "Pray for the right result".

Its good to see Viktor Orban and TM are bedmates.

TM is playing a blinder in Salzburg.

Should solve the problems of the Cons.

Still fancy her then .