Germany wants to offer Britain associated partnership with EU: paper
Source: Reuters
June 24, 2016
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany wants to offer Britain associated partnership status with other European Union countries after its vote to leave the bloc, business daily Handelsblatt reported on Friday, citing a finance ministry strategy paper.
In the eight-page document entitled 'The German strategy regarding a Brexit', the ministry said it wanted "to offer constructive exit negotiations" with other EU members, adding Berlin expected "difficult" talks between Brussels and London.
Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/germany-wants-offer-britain-associated-partnership-eu-paper-115537153--business.html
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swhisper1
(851 posts)Betty Karlson
(7,231 posts)The UK called Germany on its bluff: really, is there no alternative? Love it or leave it? Guess what: we are leaving.
Yep, and Denmark and the Netherlands are eyeing the exit too. So much for the lie that there is no alternative to the status quo.
cosmicone
(11,014 posts)It destroys the ability to walk but hey, the pain is gone!
bemildred
(90,061 posts)
Betty Karlson
(7,231 posts)And the British just told the doctor that actually, they'd like their leg to be left alone, thanks very much.
But is is telling and typical that you, a great proponent of the status quo, are mocking the plight of the poor and their desire to rid themselves of the status quo.
cosmicone
(11,014 posts)and will cost thousands of jobs. Status quo and stability are better for poor people than a momentary tantrum of burning the whole thing down to build it back up.
Already, thousands of people are coming out saying they made a mistake with a protest vote.
Betty Karlson
(7,231 posts)The status quo is full of INstability: economic movement is highly volatile with abusrd levels of income disparity. And the entire EU, save for Germany and a few special areas like Greater London, are in state of constant recession.
So the leave vote doesn't cause anything that isn't already there. It may drag Greater London into the state that the rest of the country has been in since 2004 or so, but guess what? That may only help to get Greater London to stop supporting politicians who keep a constant recession in place (like the chancellor George Osborne).
Instead of a state of constant recession, the UK now has a chance to debase its currency, and that way fund a temporary deficit that can be used to invest and guarantee incomes to the poor. (The USA have had a deficit running while winning the Cold War, so it can't be all bad.) Keynesianism is not dead. It's just that the EU (or rather: Juncker and Schäuble) wish it were dead. And that is why their arogance has led to the UK saying: we don't love this, so we will leave this.
cosmicone
(11,014 posts)Betty Karlson
(7,231 posts)
sendero
(28,552 posts).... is about as good as those of the legions of economists who claimed in 2005 that there was no housing bubble and then in 2009 that we'd have a normal recession.
They were wrong, like you are.
former9thward
(31,961 posts)cosmicone
(11,014 posts)Betty Karlson
(7,231 posts)cosmicone
(11,014 posts)to everything UK rejected in Brexit -- immigration policy, labor policy, environmental policy. It is actually worse than being a member of EU because one gets less benefits and gives up far more.
"Leave" people were stupid and motivated by anger and hatred -- not sound analysis of personal interest.
Betty Karlson
(7,231 posts)the EU can't set the immigration policies for non-European immigrants to an EEC country.
It is very telling that once more, you resort to slurs ("stupid"
and dismissive intimations (anger and hatred) instead of offering arguments.
By the way: how would you know what the UK has rejected in Brexit? There is no precedent for any country invoking article 50, there is no blueprint for what happens next. You seem unbelievably prescient. Care to share your wisdom with the lawmakes in London and Brussels?
cosmicone
(11,014 posts)Having lived in Rome, Paris, Heidelberg and London, I have a fair understanding of the underlying psyche of the four nations.
The English, subconsciously or overtly, think they are superior to mainland Europe. Even people who voted to remain have that attitude. It may not manifest itself overtly but it is there. It is quite similar to how Boston natives believe that they are superior to people from South Carolina or West Virginia. These attitudes disappear when an external threat presents itself but without such an external threat, the divisions germinate.
The French and Italians think of the Brits as uncivilized -- some French and Italians even carry portable bidets while travelling to the UK which they think are an epitome of hygiene. They also think that in arts and culture they are better whilst being jealous of the brits for their political stability.
I am fairly certain that people who voted to leave did so viscerally rather than by analyzing the pros and cons of a membership in the EU. It was more of a tantrum of "Nosirreee .. we won't let them europeans tell us what to do."
Spacedog1973
(221 posts)Of the situation. There is also a sense of impotence mixed into this; the solution of 'doing something', anything, that might somehow work.
'Work' as in halting the progressive march of essentially multiculturalism which of course a Brexit cannot do. Its an illusion, it means different things to different people; the Brexit campaign was almost devoid of meaning - the perfect presentation for those to 'paint' what they will upon that blank canvas, not unlike the 'Trump Wall', the 'Getting our country back' mantras.
I see this as nothing more than the panicked and confused efforts of the self disenfranchised, the newly dispossessed, or rather, those who have enjoyed essentially an inbuilt privilege, sulking because of the growing competitiveness that the EU represented. Its happening in all countries where white privilege is suffering from the simple fact of being outnumbered and consequentially dis-empowered.
In this case, the revolt started in the UK, due to the personality traits contained within the dominate culture as you accurately describe. Being 'better' than everyone else, there is less shame in being outwardly bigoted, after all, who are the Europeans to judge us.
The ironic thing in this is that the 'new Britain', alone and apart from Europe, will exhibit a home truth that will hit harder than ever following this win; absolutely nothing will change in any real sense. Not because it isn't wanted, but because it can't. The EU is a result of factors that make it necessary. We were in it because of those factors. To be outside it, we simply cannot function and maintain the prestige that out culture demands it have.
We will be outside it officially, but for all intents and purposes, the trade, immigration, legislation, corporation, movement of people and the costs incurred and everything that the Brexit campaign claimed were problems, will remain almost the same.
cosmicone
(11,014 posts)of what the country once was.
Right wingers dream of Mayberry from the Andy Griffith show when everyone was white, everyone lived in a peaceful small town, everyone went to church, kids were innocent, adolescents were obedient, women did cooking, cleaning and work around the house and the occasional blacks were doing manual labor or menial tasks. That America doesn't exist anymore and will never exist.
The brexit leave people also dream of a similar Britain - not accepting that "that" Britain is forever gone and will never exist again.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,294 posts)Free movement of labour with the EU is a condition of EEA membership and has helped fill skills shortage in the three small EEA EFTA states. Norway’s evaluation of the agreement concluded that its economy has substantially benefitted from labour migration from the EU because it has contributed to increased efficiency. For the UK, the ‘Norway option’ would mean a continuation of the current arrangements for free movement of people. This would represent a positive for business but not for those people who argue that control over labour movements in the EU is a reason for withdrawal.
http://www.cbi.org.uk/global-future/case_study06_norway.html
People working in some occupations may also be able to have their professional qualifications recognised abroad (see mutual recognition of professional qualifications).
EU social security coordination provides rules to protect the rights of people moving within the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=457
randome
(34,845 posts)Good job with that self-healing move!
Betty Karlson
(7,231 posts)muriel_volestrangler
(101,294 posts)Austerity in the UK was a purely Conservative-driven ideology. Like the austerity policies favoured by Republicans in Congress.
Response to muriel_volestrangler (Reply #8)
cosmicone This message was self-deleted by its author.
JackRiddler
(24,979 posts)And read the article: he'd be among those who want to figure out ways for other countries (such as Greece) to leave the EU and/or Eurozone. (The latter only if still tied perpetually to its odious debt, however.)
Betty Karlson
(7,231 posts)But that means he doesn't want to lose the net exports Germany has to the UK. Hence his twisted panties.
forest444
(5,902 posts)Objection to which may have been the thing that put the Leave option over the top. As much as I would have preferred to see European unity maintained, I can't say I blame them.
I think it's funny that people think that the UK called a bluff. Someone should tell the EU and Germany to stop bluffing as German Schulz tells England to not wait till October but to start the process to leave immediately. That is quite the commitment to a bluff.
Meanwhile, the one making the referendum possible and who in the past used anti-EU sentiment whenever it suited him, will step down. I think it is clear who overplayed his hand. And as a bonus, Scotland and Northern Ireland might very well part ways with England to side with the EU.
The Tories and their cronies have always been shameless in shifting the blame for their own actions in (quite knowingly) creating and maintaining a precariat in the UK. On this occasion Cameron himself fell victim to the blame shift.
If they're under pressure and can't cover their arses by pointing the finger elsewhere, they may resort to other diversionary tactics like legislative fig leaves and bait and switch budgets:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/may/26/conservatives-zero-hours-contracts-small-business-act-david-cameron-toothless
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jul/08/george-osborne-budget-minimum-wage-rise-12bn-welfare-cuts
The Resolution Foundation thinktank estimated that although some middle-earners would be net gainers, the changes would leave low-earners – typically on £9.35 an hour – worse off by between £850 and £1,000 a year.
But the bottom line is that they have no real interest in relieving the plight of the working poor and under/unemployed in the UK - heaven forfend that they take responsibility for that though.
roamer65
(36,745 posts)It fits what the British originally signed up for in 1973...a common market. It will be much MUCH easier since they didn't give up the pound.
Smart move on the part of the Brits to stay out of the Eurozone.
The UK should take associate membership and devalue the pound to near par with the Euro.
Jobs will flow into the UK like crazy.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)more than the UK needs the EU.
Everybody predicted gloom and doom in 1999 when the UK declined to join the monetary union, and continued to use the pound sterling.
The country didn't melt down - they continued to put more in than they were getting out for two decades and a half.
Even Sweden is getting annoyed with the ham handed approach the EU has been boorishly slamming through lately.
I blame none of them, and suspect France will be next.