They'll be gone because they'll be "regions" not countries (in your words not mine). And have you noticed how much effort Scotland, Wales and Ireland have put into being independent from the UK of GB & Ireland? I'm not playing guessing games Vlad, but (and no offence meant), but I figure from somewhere with less to lose than other EU members...
Still better than colonies which Scotland/N Ireland/Wales are now. Why did they need to do that in the first place? Because Westminster are freaks. UK is a union of too few states!! Four states makes one tend to impose on the others and the others feel like they always are marginalized and need to compete and affirm themselves from the shadow of irrelevance economicwise and whatever else you want. But the weight of over 30 member states, however, will balance everything between themselves. Before you ask me that question you should tell me what do you have to lose? Even if UK did become part of the Federal State and then exited after some years you've lost nothing... What will you have lost? England is a barren land in term of resources. So you would just pick business as usual from where you left. It's not like the case with Scotland whose great oil resource you've been straw sucking since the 70s.
Your wit reminds me of that of a moth, at night. [video=youtube;WDswiT87oo8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDswiT87oo8[/video]
... WTF? In my absence a lot has changed on PF.com -- we always got along fine. What happened guys? Anyways... Regarding the EU, all I can say is that something has to change -- in the institutional sense. There has to be democratic accountability, e.g. now every party, in every country/region/state, has his own electoral list. That doesn't make sense as far as I'm concerned. A social-democrat in the European parliament, who happens to have German citizenship, should not only sit there in the name of the part of the German population that elected him. He should sit there with the support of folks across the EU. He should be hold accountable in the name of all Europeans, across national borders. In practice, we could host a big European broadcast, that all public TV channels should ait. The broadcast would consist of a recorded debate between presidents of all recognized groups that sit in EU parliament (I'm not sure about the actual set-up, I'm tired now and I don't feel like thinking to hard for the moment). It should be recorded, and broadcasted a day later so everyone can get subtitled (not dubbed, because that would hamper emotion -- which is important in politics).
The UK invaded France (I know I know it's normally Germany but we mixed it up this time), France got all upperty that it's European view wasn't being appreciated and took a hard line: France "we refuse to talk sense - "non" The UK followed its national interested in Europe... France: "non!" UK: "Oui" France "non" UK "Oui"... Of course Eastern Europe become involved (Poland potentially I'm not sure where Vlad is from)... France "Non" UK "oui" Poland (I suspect, but I'm not entirely sure) "Grrrrrrrrr" Ireland decided to participate... Ireland: "anyting other de Black and Tabs (ye langers)" UK: "I'm sorry about the potato famine, I wan't born then" France "non" UK: "oui!" Things were heating up, and I'm not just talking about the delicious French cookery! I'm talking about British food also (thank fook we invaded India and they came over to make our dour cuisine tasty). Ireland produced a delicious Chowder, Poland (I think) a spicy soup/stew. Now, Belgium at the heart of the EU became the pacifier (think of a baby needing a dummy): Belgium: "Lads lads, I was only away a few hours and it's like Waterloo all over again" Only this time Poland (I think, I'm not sure where Vlad is from) is becomes inexplicitly involved. UK: *Summarises the whole thing in a way thay hopefully makes people laugh, but actually suspects may potentially make things worse* I was going to comment on this but a bottle of red has killed my memory.... Vlad, this would have been easier if you'd told me where you're from.
PS, thankfully this coming WE marks the start of a resolution process between 6 our our nations.... Jan, I'm afraid you cannot participate in the process... Rugby nations only in this one buddy... (Perhaps this is where the French angst is coming from).
Poland? No. I said where I'm from in dozens of places. Even had the flag up for some time. C'm on how hard can it be... There aren't that many ex-communist countries out there. I'll give hints: Population: 20 million. Size: The ninth largest in the EU. Think I already said too much.
ryanm34 speaks a lot of sense, and I highly appreciate her inputs here. Plus she's far from being your typically caricatural Irish nationalist. As to me, eventhough I am pro EU, I do not find the UK's independence offensive. I would rather have the UK stay, to be honest, but it's not that big of a deal otherwise. For a pro EU poster, as you have identified yourself here, you seem to be at odds with a lot of other pro EU members.
Not from me, as I'm not really invested emotionally with Rugby. Football is another matter I must say, and I hope to see PSG do well in the Champions League.
I wasn't trying to be insulting Vlad, however, I rarely read your posts as I find them too long to read. There tends to be far to much EU-rahhhhh! content in them and not enough fact and opinion. I'd love to read your posts and will, once the "EU-woooot it's so great" is removed and you write more clearly and to the point.
Well trying to make fun of this pissing contest of a thread (as it has become) was always going to involve making a caracature of the posters... Especially after some wine last night. This post BTW Paris is the most sensible you've offered in my direction in days, thanks for quiting the one liners. - - - Updated - - - I'd be the opposite I'm afraid; can't stand football whatsoever. Love that rugby though - France have a real and genuine chance at the 6N title this year....
It takes two to Tango. I write one-liners because I find them economically satisfying. Vlad on the other hand takes the time to write long posts, but you are still not satisfied with them. So let me just say that I also find some of your replies to be somewhat offensive: it shouldn't matter which country he is from, his voice is as good as yours.
It doesn't matter to me where he's from, I just wanted to understand the context of his posts and I had asked and he was being very coy about the answer. I rarely read his posts as I've explained to him, because they are like Ware and Peace and rarely contain any meaninigful information. But your one liners "just leave [the EU]" are counter productive to any form of meaningful debate, they serve only to provoke. Some of us come here to debate and discuss.
And I came here to tell you that I don't really give a feck if you leave. So sorry if it blows your thread premise out of the water.
Well it doesn't as you've clearly indicated what I suspected; that you are sleep walking forward, without any thought of the outcome. Then, you get angry with people who simply want to know what the intended outcome will be. Vlad sees the outcome as the end of the country of France (and all other countries in the EU). IMO it is naive beyond thought that this model would work. It didn't work in smaller incarnations within Europe, it isn't working well for the Belgians at present. But no no, lets continue this policy, which has a history of failure. It's insane! The integration process needs end points putting in place, you've illustrated this nicely - thankyou.
Not at all. And we already had the same argument in another thread. There is no stated end goal for the UK. So why ask one for the EU? It's dishonest to say the least.
No it's not, because the UK is not on a never ending path to integration. The EU is. And I'm proposing that nation states put in place these restrictions, to protect themselves against losing their status as a "country". I cannot think of one country in the EU which would actually want to lose this. France would be up in arms about this!
So would Scotland but it didn't stop them from joining the UK. Besides I believe we can do a better job than England at accommodating all our neighbours.
Well comparing a centuries old union, from an era of swords and Kings and Queens is a little different to say the least. Also, by accomodating your neighbours, do you mean the rest of the EU giving the French farming industry a free ride in terms of competition? That CAP really works out well for France!
So would you rather we had a Constitution, with the stated end goal of being independent from the rest of the world? The CAP should probably be scrapped, but not as long as other countries subsidize their own farming industry. We need to be able to feed ourselves on our own. And by accommodating our neighbours, I mean we, Europeans, trying to live in harmony with each others.
Isn't Vlad from Romania? (No wonder he likes the EU -- those Romanians sneak into our countries and steal our homes empty when we're at work, or they get enormous amount of money, that is channeled to dodgy projects.)
Regarding the constitution, the year before it was supposed to be signed, the leader of each member state met to agree on a distilled version, understandable by the citizens of Europe. They disagreed as to what the constitution mean to such a degree that the abandoned the plan and decided to tell us nothing. This is the EU for you. And your plan for the CAP is to keep France's vastly disproportionate share, until some other countries stop domestically subsidising their farming industry.... What about the other countries who do not receive the same share as France and who do not subsidise their farming industry? What happens to them in the mean time?
