MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Berlin and Paris in “full agreement”; Merkel aide says politicians in London should take time to reconsider Brexit
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande said on Sunday they are in “full agreement” on how to handle the fallout from the UK's decision to leave the European Union. Hollande warned that “separated, we run the risk of divisions, dissension and quarrels”. Read full article
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Jun 27th, 2016 - 08:37 am - Link - Report abuse 0Juncker was pissed when he heard about UK vote to leave EU.
Jun 27th, 2016 - 09:07 am - Link - Report abuse 0But then being an alcoholic he usually is.
Wouldn't it be ironic, that in view of the Brexit, the EU had to drastically reform itself and bring about the changes that the UK wanted and we are on the outside looking in !
Jun 27th, 2016 - 11:55 am - Link - Report abuse 0@1 Did you see that Argentina are calling for Messxit?
Jun 27th, 2016 - 12:24 pm - Link - Report abuse 03
Jun 27th, 2016 - 01:02 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Yes it would but the Great British public have now made their decision.
Merkel has now said there will be absolutely no discussions until we trigger article 50.
Jun 27th, 2016 - 01:39 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I predict we'll stay sat in the EU like a cuckoo until that changes. They claim to want us to leave but choose to place as many obstacles as possible.
With the likes of Islamic state hacking their way through the middle east and Kim Jong Un throwing regular missile parties you'd think the UK choosing to leave a union as it's perfectly entitled to do would only be a footnote on the day's news.
Anyone would think we'd set fire to a lorry full of live French sheep the way they're behaving.
It is all hurt feelings talking - it will settle down.
Jun 27th, 2016 - 02:16 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Cameron has already said he will not trigger article 50 until the new P.M. is in place to start negotiations. (There will already be some pre-trigger talks going on). The rules are clear, it is down to the U.K. to start the clock on the two years of negotiation, all the other stuff is just noise.
I am in the U.S. at the moment and it has been all over the news here. Why? Because of the damage to the currencies and stock markets worldwide. This is not a small matter. In a global financial world it matters. The world has fought out of a major recession and we have potentially triggered another one. People here are stunned by the decision.
It's only causing damage because of political choices. The UK is entitled to leave the EU. The EU is choosing to exacerbate this issue by making things difficult.
Jun 27th, 2016 - 02:28 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The EU is a servant of the member states but is acting like a federal government. If it needs to threaten its members to maintain its existence then it doesn't really deserve to survive.
@7 & @8
Jun 27th, 2016 - 03:16 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I'm not an economist nor do I pretend to be nor am I an officianado on world politics but the US reaction to this (if ElaineB is correct and I don't doubt she is) surprises me. Surely the UK and EU are the only ones who may be seriously affected if indeed after the dust has settled whether they are affected at all so why are the US markets getting so excited? Nor do I see how trade between the EU and UK which is what we are basically talking about shrinking by up to 5% (according to the doomsayers like the BBC) which amounts to less that 1o billion euroes per year could cause a worldwide recession - but hey what do I know.
Please somebody tell me something that makes sense because I'm starting to get a strong feeling that it's all a load of hooey that someone is going to make a fast buck out of.
6 - oh yes that's right Merkel is standing in the way by waiting for GB to do what it said it would in its own time.
Jun 27th, 2016 - 03:24 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I'm going to the shop after I finish my book.
- OK then, finish your book and off you go.
Ooooh you and your obstacles.
8 - like with the UK and Scotland.
This attitude is why sterling is dropping like a stone.
In uncertain times currency speculators look for a “safe haven”. They don't like uncertainty. The next rush may be for gold. It will all settle down in time.
Jun 27th, 2016 - 04:03 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The U.K. has been seen as a safe haven for investment and now it isn't. In the long-run it may be but for now money is going elsewhere. The financial services are our biggest industry. We could lose up to 100B per year. Now it is all about convincing people we are still a good bet.
Jun 27th, 2016 - 05:17 pm - Link - Report abuse 0There are no markets in isolation anymore, it is a global economy; something CFK could never understand.
So far everyone has mentioned it here. Even the bell staff. No one can believe we did it and the consequences will be far reaching. And even here they are saying it was the elderly vote that took us out - we all know that, because the world has moved on and they haven't. It is like voting for a life before the internet because back then letter-writing was an art and weren't they the good old days.
But all that said, I think as nothing much happens for a while markets will adjust and settle. This situation with the Labour Party does not help.
Brexit, victory for the Mobility Scooters over skateboards.
Jun 27th, 2016 - 06:57 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Pounds fall makes our exports of goods and services cheaper, it was overvalued anyway. And, £1 is still worth over 20 Argie arsewipes.
I Think Voices of disappointment can be heard. My Scotch friends tell me that Wonder Woman has to grumble to keep the Nationalist nutters happy.
$2 trillion wiped from global capital markets and our credit rating has been downgraded. Only day two of trading after Brexit.
Jun 27th, 2016 - 07:17 pm - Link - Report abuse 0We're in stock buying mode. In a few months we'll be laughing all the way to the bank.
Jun 27th, 2016 - 07:49 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@12. Being one the “elderly” that you mention, I'll tell you my attitude.
Jun 27th, 2016 - 07:53 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I saw the EEC start in Britain in 1973. When it came to 1975, I learned that we should all be scared of the Soviet tank armies that could soon be flooding across Europe and needed to group together, that it was just a bigger version of EFTA, that there would be no loss of sovereignty. And I knew they were all lies. I voted against staying part of the EEC. I lost.
The years went past. The EEC changed into the EC. Later it changed to the EU. I watched all three bodies grabbing more and more power.
The European Parliament didn't change anything. France and Germany were top dogs. From being an association of eight equal partners in a trade bloc, more and more countries were persuaded to join. It was becoming a power bloc. The European Parliament doesn't instigate policies or legislation, it just debates things the European Commission says it can. It gets to rubber stamp things that the Commission has already decided.
More than 75% of British legislation is decided in Brussels and we are told by means of directives and similar instruments.
By this year, I decided that enough was enough. Britain isn't made to be a junior partner. A thousand years of history proves that. It was time to try to put things right.
Time for Britain, once again, to show how it's done. Globalisation is one thing. European domination is completely different. So I voted to leave. I hope that the scaredy-cat British Remainders can see the opportunities. At the heart of the United Kingdom is England. Now, we're often PC and call ourselves British. Maybe the Danes, the Dutch, the Spanish, the French and the Germans will remember that the English don't like being pushed around. And, as a final thought, we did without the Scots for 700 years as well. We let them join a union because they begged. They tried to compete with England and failed. And went bankrupt.
@5 The strange looking bloke says there should be another referendum.
Jun 27th, 2016 - 08:02 pm - Link - Report abuse 0http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/nigel-farage-eu-referendum_uk_576e6585e4b08d2c56393f12
well...he did a month ago...
You can have your say here... if you are a British citizen...like me.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/nigel-farage-eu-referendum_uk_576e6585e4b08d2c56393f12
@16 Well judging by your posting history nothing about your post surprises me. You see the world as negative and want to hang anyone you don't agree with.
Jun 27th, 2016 - 08:23 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The fact is 500million were richer and safer in the EU. You may have perceived us as a 'Junior Partner' but now we are out of a job. You see we never fully committed to the EU and they saw us as 'always getting the extra sausage”. And despite people thinking everything was dictated by the EU, it wasn't. They would issue a directive designed to create an equal trading floor and it was up to individual governments to fine tune it.
The very real problem is that successive governments have chosen to blame all the ill of their country on the EU. It was a convenient scapegoat. So people generally have an entirely false opinion of what it is there for.
That said, it was and is flawed. The problem is we can't do a thing about it now we are out of the club. We are definitely weaker outside than we were inside. That is a fact. The countries making up the EU are our friends, allies and have been our enemies. The EU bound us together in peace. We now no longer have that vehicle of compromise so the only way we can resolve disputes is conflict. Oh, I know how you love a war but it will be the young people fighting it, not you.
That is the alternative argument to Leave.
#16
Jun 27th, 2016 - 09:59 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Here is another one you did not win. Iceland 2 England 1. O dear , What a pity . Never mind.
Keep up with the C. alternative view of history !
#18
He is just a miserable old git with delusions of grandeur. He likes to boast of how mighty England put Scotland in its place - a country 1/10th of it's size.
He is desperate to get in his tank and start WW3 against all these foreign Johnnies . Basically he is trying to cover up a feeling of inferiority and should be pitied .
@19 I can see both sides of the debate have merit but what irks me is this false nationalism and the idea that trying the impossible and turning back the clock will 'make us great again'. We are already smaller, poorer and weaker.
Jun 27th, 2016 - 10:31 pm - Link - Report abuse 0And, yes, he is a miserable old git.
'Speaking on Sunday, Hollande said there was no going back on the UK's decision, adding: “What was once unthinkable has become irreversible.”
Jun 28th, 2016 - 01:05 am - Link - Report abuse 0The UK ( guvment) has not made a decision ...
As I see it from afar ( luverly dry season down here in Los Lagos) ... the people who took Britain into the EU had been through two wars... precious few of them left now under the age of 90 ( apart from Conqs who, I think, fought in the Zulu wars :) )... they didn't want another.
The people who want out are people of my age , born soon after the war, brought up in the fading light of empire , Biggles, a navy with 13 carriers, military force East of Suez, etc.
Them as want to stay are young realists.. it is what it is... etc
A gross generalisation but there you go.
Pompous Hollande..... so full of air, so bereft of substance. It's no wonder so many might think of him as argentine.
Jun 28th, 2016 - 04:05 am - Link - Report abuse 0Lots of generalisations, lots of guessing.
Jun 28th, 2016 - 06:00 am - Link - Report abuse 0The polls got it wrong again with overwhelming majority predicting a remain victory.
Remember Voting is secret, so conclusion that elderly swung the election relies on sample being representative and people telling the truth on how they voted.
Same on here, Conqueror might be 26 and Elaine could be 55.
Who knows? But to single out a section of society to blame and vilify is surely as wrong as abusing Polish people in West London. The Guardian has an article and numerous comments that are trying to do exactly the same. There is the ridiculous caricature of a 16 year old girl now deciding never to give her seat up on the bus to anybody over 45. As if Society wasn't already full of hate and division.
David Lammy has mentioned one issue about the referendum that I do think merits further discussion and that is the margin for a leave victory should have been wider due to the massive significance of withdrawing from the EU. Its a shame he didn't raise this at the appropriate time. Perhaps he did and was slapped down by 5o something Corbyn who is now rumoured to have voted leave.
The vote to leave was a protest against the professional political class. Many people in the UK were/are very unhappy at the way things were going and a political class that seemed to ignore them.
Jun 28th, 2016 - 10:46 am - Link - Report abuse 0They were seduced by the promise of stopping large scale immigration and the benefit of billions of pounds extra from money not going to Brussels which could fund the NHS.
These promises have already been retracted by the Leave campaigners.
Sterling has dropped against almost ALL world currencies except Turkey, India Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
We are being warned that in the next budget there will be tax increases.
So, the result is that we will be a lot poorer in the immediate future.
Whether or not we will be better of eventually depends on the attitude of countries who will wish to trade with us.
I am sure that many “leave” voters who were expecting a quick fix to prosperity will be sadly disappointed.
24
Jun 28th, 2016 - 12:15 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“Quick fix to prosperity”
Don't think anybody said that or if they did, believed it.
Working people do however perceive rightly or wrongly, that they have been left behind whilst the Bankers, politicians and business elite have enriched themselves.
Scotland will now wish to go for independence so they can apply to rejoin the EU at the appropriate time. I don't have a problem with that and wish Scotland well. Northern Ireland will likely vote to stay with England and Wales but they should be given the opportunity to join Eire. London is not a Nation.
More than 50% of the people voting to Leave believed Farage when he said the NHS would get £350m per week extra. If this really was a protest vote as you describe, that is what General Elections are for. This was a separate - one in a lifetime - vote.
Jun 28th, 2016 - 01:00 pm - Link - Report abuse 0There is a strange perception that working class people are worse off. They are richer than they have ever been in reality but our expectations have grown. We have an enviable welfare system for people needing support. But you are right, perceptions are skewed.
The truth is there have always been the rich elite; nothing has changed there.
“More than 50% of the people voting to Leave believed Farage when he said the NHS would get £350m per week extra”.
Jun 28th, 2016 - 03:06 pm - Link - Report abuse 0What do you base this on?
#25
Jun 28th, 2016 - 04:59 pm - Link - Report abuse 0”Quick fix to prosperity”
I do think that is what many people believed. Foreigners are taking our jobs and undercutting wages. I heard this time and time again in interviews with the public on the TV. They were convinced that the job market and wages would improve on Brexit and they would have a large pot of money to distribute that would otherwise have gone to the EU.
They were also encouraged to believe this by the press - owned by millionaires who won't feel it's effect
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