Scandinavia and the World
Scandinavia and the World

Comments #9759812:


Lazy Lady 10 5, 3:14am

@stevep59

Well, we agree on the main cause of the NHS's problem and the ineptitude of the currant British government.
We also seem to agree on many of your country's previous governments policies have been detrimental to the majority of Britons as well.

I'd also like to point to your mention of the Tories "playing a simplistic 'nationalist'/racist card to divert attention from the results of their policies" - because that exactly what they have been doing for decades regarding the EU.

Blame the "bloody foreigner" for any domestic problem, then travel to Brussels and demand ever increasing concession based on the British publics distrust of the EU, then back to Britain to wrap themselves in the Union Jack and portray themselves as staunch defenders of Britain against the evils of the continent.

The rinse and repeat as soon as they're down in the polls.

And your gutter press has lived in not a small part off printing lies and smears against the rest of Europe in just the same way.

But the thing is of course it's just all been lies.

The EU doesn't rule over Britain, nor any other country in it and Britain has thus never been anything but "free".
You where free to whine incessantly about how badly you where treated while you where a member, you where free to block any number of measures (just like any other country is - only you did so more then most), you where free to throw tantrums and demand special concessions (which you did repeatedly), and despite the baseless claims about some evil EU-tyranny you where always free to leave.

Well now you've elected to do so, and the consequences are becoming clear.

They should have been clear long before of course - because EVERYONE told you EXACTLY what to expect if you did leave - but a small majority of Britons instead chose to believe the Brexiters who promised everything under the sun if people just voted to leave.

Well that won't happen - and you have no one to blame but yourself for believing the lies you where told.

The basic fact is that no matter how unfair some Brexiters may think the EU's stance is, the EU simply CAN'T just let Britain decide her own terms.
That would undermine the entire union - just like you can't decide to stop paying membership fees to the local gym but demand that you still get to decide what part of the service you want to keep using.
NOTHING in the world works like that, so it's obviously ridiculous for millions of Britons to believe it suddenly should, just because the likes of Farage, Gove and Johnson promised them so.

Norway, Switzerland and Canada have all spent years negotiating separate and bespoke deals for themselves where they still have to pay for access to much of the same things EU members are automatically given - and obviously Britain can't be given any preferential treatment compared to them once it leaves.

Why on earth should she? And how on earth could the EU ever defend such a stance against other nations, who would obviously all want to renegotiate their own deals as a result?

I'm sure neither you nor any other Brexiter care one jot about that - but it's always been completely unrealistic from the start to expect the EU to simply roll over and hand Britain everything she ever wanted.
Britain had a much better chance of gaining special consideration while she was an EU-member - and she got it, time and time again!

The problem was that that trick worked so well that expectations only rose in Britain, with the Tories and the gutter press blaming the EU whenever they needed a scapegoat or to sell more copy.

A larger and larger amount of Britons began to believe you where horribly mistreated and where entitled to demand anything from the rest of the continent - just because they'd heard that load of bollocks for decades.
Just like a large amount of Britons believe you will win every World Cup - because obviously the English team is always the best according to the tabloids.

Then Cameron felt lucky after the Scottish referendum and decided to gamble Britain's place in the EU to quiet his own eurosceptic back-benchers and Ukip - expecting remain to win because obviously all sensible Tories knew EU-bashing was good for getting votes, but not actually a sensible policy - right?

Well wrong, because Johnson and Gove decided to break ranks and turn Brexiters.

Still not actually expecting leave to win, but hoping to portray themselves as the gallant fighters for the lost cause when it failed - thus upping their chances in the cut-throat struggle to replace Cameron as Tory leader once he was gone.
You could see it on their chocked faces as the results came in on election night, and how they completely disappeared from public view for 48 hours after the vote.

There was no celebration from them - they just snuck away in the night to figure out what the hell just happened, and how to best deal with the unexpected fall out.
Unlike Farage of course, who was happy as a pig in muck on election night obviously - but then fled the field some days later to ingratiate himself with Trump instead.

But, realizing that the die was cast, Johnson and Gove soon enough got back to their usual backstabbing and scheming - realizing that however bad this would be for Britain, it could still offer their own careers opportunities if they played their cards right.
And none of them will ever pay the price for what they convinced the British public to vote for of course - they'll just keep blaming the EU for not fulfilling all the empty promises they made.

Regarding the EU-representatives you pour so much scorn on - save your breath, because they don't actually decide anything.

It's one of the basic misconceptions of the Brexiters. You may dislike them all you want, but the real power in the EU resides in the national governments representatives as each nation has an effective veto on any major issue.
Barnier and Tusk are only employees carrying out the collective decisions of the member states - they can't decide policy.

Barnier seems to be a bit of a dick in person, as far as I've seen, while Tusk seems perfectly professional to me - but you and other Brexiters still dislike them just because they express the position of the rest of the EU members.
Which are the exact same positions that where made clear to you before the referendum, but you refused to listen to them then.
Because they're still based on the same basic fact that the EU simply CAN'T give Britain everything you where promised by the Brexiters - it's always been a pipe dream.

But it's easier to sell newspapers when you have a familiar face to direct your hate at. Oh if only that evil Barnier would stop being so mean to poor Britain everything could be as wonderful as Farage and the others promised!
Sorry, but it doesn't work like that. If you'd switch Barnier for a Brexiter body-double the EU would still not give you what you want, because it's simply not in the best interest of the other member states to give Britain the preferential treatment she seeks.

I understand full well you won't like reading this and you won't agree of course. But arguing about this now is pointless anyway.

Britain voted to leave and leave she will - but it seems in the most shambolic way possible, unfortunately.

It will be bad for both Britain and the EU, but them are the consequences of democratic elections and once Britain voted they way she did it couldn't end much differently.