Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Valmy]

There was this show a few years ago I enjoyed on the BBC where British people would buy these really ancient rundown shitholes and try to restore them to their former glory. As somebody who enjoys history and architecture it was very enjoyable.

But the prices they were paying for these ruins and wrecks of buildings was unbelievable. 'Buy this barely livable 15th century ruin for 1.2 million pounds' 

Then you get to restore them for another million pounds.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

No, the EU is not akin to our alliance or our Free Tarde Agreement.

Of course not. The EU is one of those bizarre European confederations that have existed throughout history. But they are not really a thing outside of Europe. So of course there is not going to be any direct parallels.

Ironically these confederations are created to attempt the very thing you love: local identities while trying to gain the rational advantages of fewer political conflicts and more cooperation. Their failure seems to underline the fundamental irrationality and weakness of local identity. Not something you should be cheering on.

local identities are preferable to a world with nothing but similar drones, Chairman Yang.

[Grallon]

Who knew Brits were separatists!

So is this the beginning of the end for the banksters' EU?  One thing though, this will bolster Marine Le Pen's chances for the next French presidential elections.



G.

[Valmy]

local identities are preferable to a world with nothing but similar drones, Chairman Yang.

You can be unique just like everybody else

I love local identities but they are a pretty weak base to base a political structure on Stonewall Jackson.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

local identities are preferable to a world with nothing but similar drones, Chairman Yang.

You can be unique just like everybody else

I love local identities but they are a pretty weak base to base a political structure on Stonewall Jackson.

let it brew for a 1000 years and you'll see how strong a local identity can be. We'll revisit the many political entities of North-America during the second semester of 3016.

[Legbiter]

local identities are preferable to a world with nothing but similar drones, Chairman Yang.

[garbon]

So your constitutional crisis is not just that you have a severely limited freedom of action for the government and parliament but also that all of a sudden your regions claim to have a say in foreign policy? What is this nonsense?

The Kingdom of Scotland, the Principality of Wales and the remnant portion of the Kingdom of Ireland are hardly regions. Scotland in particular needs to be in the position almost of a co-negotiator given the political situation.

London, however...that's really stretching it.

The power centre of the UK which is clearly at odds with the majority opinion of the UK shouldn't have a say?

[Zanza]

EU Referendum: Cornwall plea to replace EU millions

The government must replace the millions of pounds of EU support Cornwall may lose from Brexit with investment, its council leader says.

The county has received £1bn of aid over the past 15 years with more than £400m in the pipeline until 2020 because of its relatively weak economy.

Cornwall Council leader John Pollard said he wanted "investment equal to that provided by the EU programme".

Cornwall voted Leave

Suckers.

[OttoVonBismarck]

Coming from a federal state I have a different perspective I guess. Our current states all used to be Kingdoms, Duchies etc. as well with histories going back to the dark ages. I would never grant them a say in foreign policy though. That's clearly the task of the federal government.

Yeah Britain is a weird animal. It is not exactly a federal state with clear separation of powers like certain enlightened nations.

I'm in a weird place because in light of 6 years of congressional/executive deadlock in the United States I've been extolling the virtues of a Westminster style system for ages and praising Britain's example of functional democracy. Britain gets how to actually run a national government more right than America does, but it fails on federalism (in that it has none.) In a country made up of entities which have varying degrees of historical attachment to sovereignty I think some form of federalism, be it more the American model or the German, would have made the UK a far stronger union.

The founder's prime goal when they wrote the constitution was to build a union in which members leaving wasn't a serious problem, and it essentially worked. For the US to do something like join or leave the EU you need so much State-level support that there'd be no risk of us ending up in a situation like the Brits have with Scotland now wanting to leave the UK since they didn't want to leave the EU. The U.S.'s often maligned grant of power to "land not people" (as those who wish to abolish state sovereignty say it) has made the union of those parcels of land rock-solid.

I guess the British were just positioned much worse, because their union was essentially formed by differing forms of conquest by England of its neighbors (true military conquest for Ireland/N. Ireland and Wales, and essentially a form of "political conquest" of Scotland to unify the dual monarchy into a single country.)

[OttoVonBismarck]

Thinking about it I've met some of them, down south of course. The house they paid £100k for is now valued at £1.2m and they tend to go on about it a lot.

Not sure about Britain but in America your property tax assessments go up with increasing assessed value, so if you didn't realize a consequent increase in actual income as your home's price went from 100k-1.2m, you might be priced out of being able to keep the home due to your property tax bill.

Here in Virginia a house assessed at $145,000, you pay about $1250/yr in property tax. One that is assessed at $2.5m you pay about $20,000/yr in tax.

[Richard Hakluyt]

We have the Council Tax which is actually regressive, favouring those with valuable properties :

http://www.preston.gov.uk/yourservices/council-tax/council-tax-bands/

I give local rates because the tax is set locally, but the difference between the bands is consistent throughout the country.

Essentially highly valued residential properties are barely taxed at all.

[Duque de Bragança]

Who knew Brits were separatists!

So is this the beginning of the end for the banksters' EU?  One thing though, this will bolster Marine Le Pen's chances for the next French presidential elections.



G.

Thing is, the only way for Flanby to be reelected is to face Marine in the run-off. Can he pull the Mitterrand trick?

[The Larch]

Any news from the Leave camp on how to proceed? Or are they leaving it for the government to deal with?

Funny depiction of Brexit to make this slightly less bleak:

[Richard Hakluyt]

I was thinking of serving the family boiled beef and overcooked vegetables this evening 




But decided that was too cruel so we'll have pizza instead.

[Zanza]

Any news from the Leave camp on how to proceed? Or are they leaving it for the government to deal with?

Is there even a single Leave camp? Are Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage on speaking terms?