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when I was a young child, I had a series of books called (from memory) What, Where, Why, Who, How (I think!). Each book answered a series of questions beginning with the word.
They were very, very loved. Can anyone else remember them; ISTR several friends had them, so they might have been a late-1970s thing?
This is not a repeat of your first answer but a simple practical point.
What the EU (and we) want is to reach a new settlement without a fundamental rewriting of the treaties - and of the Maastricht and Lisbon Treaties in particular. If those cans of worms were to be reopened, and they would have to be to allow for membership of the single market without freedom of movement, then there are lots of countries that would also like to see other bits re-written or simply expunged. There is really no way the EU can afford to have that happen.
So what they will want is a solution which allows for a limited new treaty on the UK:EU relationship which deals with trade etc but which does not reopen the basic questions about how the EU is constructed and run.
I would challenge that assumption. In fact I don't think there is a mass rejection of freedom of movement in principle. The issue in the EU is migration from outside.
On a visit to Germany, he said: "I don't know which party my wife belongs to, but she belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other room."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-37659863
The Nigerian Godfrey Bloom...
Clinton 45 .. Trump 36
https://luc.id/2016-presidential-tracker/
Clinton 41 .. Trump 45
http://www.monmouth.edu/polling-institute/reports/MonmouthPoll_IN_101416/
https://twitter.com/andrealeadsom/status/747346925586784256
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/woman-says-trump-reached-under-her-skirt-and-groped-her-in-early-1990s/2016/10/14/67e8ff5e-917d-11e6-a6a3-d50061aa9fae_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_no-name:homepage/story
But no policy of any kind should be left standing for any length of time without those questions being asked, whether or not it is enshrined in a treaty or a constitution. Why? What is the impact? Who benefits and loses? What are the alternatives? Is this still the best option?
The more frequently these questions are asked, the smoother evolution can be, the fewer seismic readjustments required.
PS The corollary of this is that, by making the four freedoms sacrosanct and unquestionable, the EU keeps on adding weights to the pressure cooker.
But the whole political narrative of the last 10-15 years would have been very different as well.
The time to have negotiated an associate membership with the EU - or a special deal for the UK - was at the time of the Maastricht Treaty, but that ship sailed a long time ago.
I also think a strong strand of the UK civil service and some politicians, including Clarke and Heseltine, were very much in favour of political union because they thought the UK would be running it and it could parry, on that basis, on an equal status with the US, Russia and China.
And the Ladybird books https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=ZuqOCgAAQBAJ&source=productsearch&utm_source=HA_Desktop_US&utm_medium=SEM&utm_campaign=PLA&pcampaignid=MKTAD0930BO1&gclid=CKHtjOHt2s8CFdcPGQodtWUKOw&gclsrc=ds
"This delightful book is the latest in the series of Ladybird books which have been specially planned to help grown-ups with the world about them.
The large clear script, the careful choice of words, the frequent repetition and the thoughtful matching of text with pictures all enable grown-ups to think they have taught themselves to cope. Featuring original Ladybird artwork alongside brilliantly funny, brand new text. "
I am often struck by how easily we try and project our UK-attitudes onto the other nations of the EU. I suggest things look rather different on the other side of the Channel.
The EU27 will do their best to pull together, and the heads of the EU institutions and at least some of the heads of government have made it quite clear that they want something akin to a hard/clean Brexit, pour decourager les autres. Regardless of the fact that it may not be working all that well, the integrity of the bloc and the uniformity of its rules have to be defended, because without them the political project of ever closer union - the sole, overarching aim and entire raison d'etre of the organisation - is a dead duck. Or, to put it more precisely, it might still apply to maybe 8, 10 or 12 states, but that isn't good enough for its proponents. Taking a charitable view you could say that they don't want some of the peripheral member states, who lack long-established democratic cultures, from lapsing back into old ways (although the EU seems gradually to be failing on that front anyway,) or looking at it more cynically you could accuse them of wanting to hold on to every scrap of "their" remaining territory at almost any price.
Such pig-headedness may prove ultimately self-defeating - they risk ending up with no EU at all, rather than a smaller but still very substantial (and more unified and harmonious) Eurocore - but it must nonetheless be recognised. It's no use complaining that the rules are dogmatic and inflexible, because nobody is listening. The federalist elites will continue to carry on regardless.
Free movement is the cuckoo in the EU nest - and the more the current EU establishment dig in, the more likely it is that either a) the project fails or b) the establishment is replaced. Those waiting in the wings in many countries are not pro free movement.
If the tide turns at the right time, we're looking at an amicable EEA style divorce which does not affect either ours or Europes economies to any great extent.
Oh, and Tories in power for two decades for arranging it.
https://youtu.be/ZYFoUhztDFw
It's much more likely that many europhile MPs simply abstain on the basis they hate the deal, and the alternative of no deal is even worse, but it's not their fight.
But there is no particular reason why the four freedoms need to come as a quantum package, unless you can answer the question why they must, which you haven't. Merely stating it to be true is not an argument as to why it is true.
Steve Kornacki – @SteveKornacki
Arizona (Data Orbital; 10/11-12)
Clinton 43%
Trump 42%
Johnson 5%
I found some of the abuse thrown in her direction during the Tory leadership race disgusting.
Were you disappointed by Cameron's renegotiation? And, if so, why?
And off to dinner shortly, so I'm afraid I won't be able to give Ms Cyclefree's thread the thoughtful response it so richly deserves. Please all do that for me!
I think we're looking at a regular flow of such allegations, some more credible than others. The "Washington Post" story appears to have legs .... so to speak.
Michael McDonald
Michael McDonald – @ElectProject
Situation not improving for Dems in Ohio. As of yesterday, ballot requests down from 2012 17.7% in Cuyahoga, was down 16.1% on Monday
That is a disaster if Dems, that is a big "run up the margin county" for Dems.
In this sense, he is an informative poster on this site in gauging temperature and reaction, even if best not engaged on the subject himself.
There seems to be a sense of inevitability encompassing the choices that the EU makes. It chose to grant an inadequate deal with Cameron and then did not like the consequences. It will probably create a Hard Brexit and then watch the economic turmoil in the EU blow up the Eurozone. Stupid is as stupid does.
He has been hoisted by his own petard. Not 3 days ago Trump surrogates were asking, nay demanding, that all women alleging sexual assault should and must be heard.
Its like they couldn't see the massively obvious trap they themselves were constructing.
https://twitter.com/EuropeElects/status/786989073470746624
And the state of the parties:
https://twitter.com/EuropeElects/status/786990894595579905
Clinton 43 .. Trump 42
http://us12.campaign-archive2.com/?u=5a280d25318f2afe3f311adb6&id=287ad48d38
If the latter approach had led to something like a formalised associate membership status then despite personally being disappointed that we wouldn't be in the central core, I would see this as a welcome clarification and something that could be a model for countries like Norway to join. (The downside is that the FCO would also start saying it could be a model for Turkey which I wouldn't support.)
Of course, that doesn't mean she was the finished article - and she wasn't - but too often the idiot label gets attached to someone you vehemently disagree with when they slip up.
Enjoy your dinner!
Simon Nixon ✔ @Simon_Nixon
Deep gloom about this in Brussels today, a disaster for EU trade policy/credibility, say Commission officials https://twitter.com/wsjeurope/status/786979332795293700 …
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/mike-pence-polls-something-missing-229787
Specifically regarding immigration I think this would also be a show-stopper for membership because it would create permanent, rather than temporary, pressures on the richer countries. When Spain/Portugal and the A8 joined, it was a reasonable assumption that their economies would become more competitive with the existing members over time and therefore freedom of movement would cease to be an issue.
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/301017-new-trump-accuser-to-come-forward-friday
You may not want to leave the EU, and I voted remain, but it is absolutely clear we are leaving, what is not clear are the leaving terms. However sovereignty of Parliament and the UK judiciary and control of free movement will be Theresa May's red lines
In the final analysis would a candidate prefer such allegations to be in the open so that they might possibly engender sympathy. I doubt it.
And this was done because the governments must have been concerned that their own people would not wear it. So I'm not sure that I agree that there aren't some of the same tensions in other EU states.
Second, migration into the EU is clearly an issue. But once in, those migrants can eventually freely move around and in practice already do so. So the two issues are inevitably connected.
Finally, a failure to rethink how the principle of free movement should apply in the world of today has, to an extent many in Britain and the EU never anticipated, resulted in the loss of one of its largest countries. A bit of flexibility would have been warranted I feel, not least because EU leaders and the EU itself are deluded if they think that migration/free movement concerns are not going to cause them political and other problems inside the EU in the years ahead.