RC, Think of what would happen to Ireland if we left the EU. Now apply that to England, over a slightly longer time frame. Bad things happen to economically vulnerable people when the economy grows by less than 1%, no imagine what happens then your export industries disappears.
As for leaving the customs union.... well we're about to learn to what happens when you have to apply customs inspections to a flow of 10-15,000 trucks a day.
Now I can't stand Tony Blair, and I came across an article I wrote for a college magazine back in 1998 where I essentially accused Tony Blair of being a Tory, and got incredibly vexed about the Pledge to keep the Tory's spending plans for the first three years of his govt, when even the tories weren't going to do that. But it was always fairly obvious exactly what he was.
There is something that I find a bit offputting about all of the rows and the rage surrounding the Iraq war. It kind of exposes the unreality of the British political bubble. Everyone is very angry about the iraq war, but it seems to ultimately miss the point that this is the UK we're talking about, and once a decade, the UK govt and military establishment embarks on a fairly major imperialist military adventure in support of the post empire status Quo. That's just what the UK govt does. Pretty much regardless of whether it is Tories or Labour that are in power.
These Adventures are invariably badly thought through, and cause untold misery for whatever poor bastards are caught up in it. But a lot of the rage about the Iraq war seems to be rooted in the lack of awareness that the UK govt are by definition bastards, and this is what bastards do. Instead of tackling the root problems it focuses all the rage against individuals, and doesn't address the underlying problems. it also distracts from the important issues at hand, and gets in the way of solving future problems.
As for leaving the customs union.... well we're about to learn to what happens when you have to apply customs inspections to a flow of 10-15,000 trucks a day.
Now I can't stand Tony Blair, and I came across an article I wrote for a college magazine back in 1998 where I essentially accused Tony Blair of being a Tory, and got incredibly vexed about the Pledge to keep the Tory's spending plans for the first three years of his govt, when even the tories weren't going to do that. But it was always fairly obvious exactly what he was.
There is something that I find a bit offputting about all of the rows and the rage surrounding the Iraq war. It kind of exposes the unreality of the British political bubble. Everyone is very angry about the iraq war, but it seems to ultimately miss the point that this is the UK we're talking about, and once a decade, the UK govt and military establishment embarks on a fairly major imperialist military adventure in support of the post empire status Quo. That's just what the UK govt does. Pretty much regardless of whether it is Tories or Labour that are in power.
These Adventures are invariably badly thought through, and cause untold misery for whatever poor bastards are caught up in it. But a lot of the rage about the Iraq war seems to be rooted in the lack of awareness that the UK govt are by definition bastards, and this is what bastards do. Instead of tackling the root problems it focuses all the rage against individuals, and doesn't address the underlying problems. it also distracts from the important issues at hand, and gets in the way of solving future problems.
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