The 'I told you so' EU referendum - Officially the Worst Thread Ever

[Charity10k]

If you do leave it's going to make things dangerous around the Oirish / Norn Oirish border once again.

The effects will be minimal. There may be a coupe of marches with some fighting but nothing like the old days.

[nut flush gooner]

I have voted conservative pretty much all of my adult life, and voted for Boris to be mayor of london.

Quite a funny character, his "bungling idiot" approach is quite endearing. BUT, if he is responsible for us leaving the EU, the loss of thousands of jobs a weaker currency (sterling has fallen through the floor today because of the Boris effect) and he makes it to be the next leader of the Conservatives, I will abstain at the next General Election.

There are arguments for leaving the EU but our relationship with India, China and the US is crucial for the future of this country. If the consequence of leaving the EU is losing investment from all these nations then IMO it just isn't worth it. I have worked for companies that offer services to inward investing overseas firms, and have seen all of these countries set up satellite operations in the UK creating hundreds if not thousands of skilled well paid jobs over the last decade. One US firm alone went from employing 3 employees in 2004 to 200 plus today. That's just my personal experience and it's before you even start looking at large ftse 100 companies who have said they will relocate jobs if we leave the EU.

[Bradywasking]

If you do leave it's going to make things dangerous around the Oirish / Norn Oirish border once again.

I think a UK exit would be a disaster for Ireland.. Although I heard an economist or some such person saying on TV that in the event of a UK exit many multinationals have a contingency plan to move their operations to Dublin.
I appreciate the benefits of membership of the EU but I cannot forget the way our dear island was strangled by the European heavyweights (Germany) when the Irish Government of 2009/10 era sold the country to bail out their banking friends. We would have loved the chance to tell them to do one then.
The Irish General election is on Friday, the most sensible comment I heard in all the talk about permutations to form the next Government came from a former Government minister not renowned for his sharpness. He ,Ivan Yates, believes that if the numbers add up the pressure on FF and FG to go into coalition from big business and IBEC in order to keep Sinn Fein and lefties out will be too much for the conservative parties to resist.. After all big business is what has kept these parties afloat...Sorry I have digressed from topic there.

[DB10GOONER]

If you do leave it's going to make things dangerous around the Oirish / Norn Oirish border once again.

The effects will be minimal. There may be a coupe of marches with some fighting but nothing like the old days.

Maybe not to the extent of the "old days", but I didn't say that, did I. The point you're missing is that with restrictions on movement the border would have to be repopulated with greater numbers of NI Police and (possibly) British Army checkpoints. And they would become a target for any dissident republicans with an axe to grind or looking to make a name for himself in his organisation. Also, read this article to get an idea of what the economic effect might be on border areas/towns like Newry;

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/ ... -1.2476474

High unemployment and economic poverty lead to disenfranchised, disgruntled people - and plays right into the hands of terrorist recruiters.

[northbank123]

I have voted conservative pretty much all of my adult life, and voted for Boris to be mayor of london.

Quite a funny character, his "bungling idiot" approach is quite endearing. BUT, if he is responsible for us leaving the EU, the loss of thousands of jobs a weaker currency (sterling has fallen through the floor today because of the Boris effect) and he makes it to be the next leader of the Conservatives, I will abstain at the next General Election.

There are arguments for leaving the EU but our relationship with India, China and the US is crucial for the future of this country. If the consequence of leaving the EU is losing investment from all these nations then IMO it just isn't worth it. I have worked for companies that offer services to inward investing overseas firms, and have seen all of these countries set up satellite operations in the UK creating hundreds if not thousands of skilled well paid jobs over the last decade. One US firm alone went from employing 3 employees in 2004 to 200 plus today. That's just my personal experience and it's before you even start looking at large ftse 100 companies who have said they will relocate jobs if we leave the EU.

The big issue (and my only point of uncertainty) is the economic impact/risk of leaving. The Remain campaign will wildly scaremonger whilst the Leave campaign will brashly deny any sort of risk - we won't get any sort of sensible information or debate on the point.

The reality is that nobody knows what will happen. Nobody will know whether companies will pull out of the UK, nobody will know what sort of trade agreements we will be able to negotiate (although bank on short-term pettyness from the EU if we do leave) and how they effectively they will work in practice. Foreign-owned companies and big UK companies will exaggerate their views on the benefit of EU membership to try and pressure people.

In my view the UK can undoubtedly compete and hold clout in the global market, particularly in financial services which the EU shafts us over because France will refuse to foster better cross-border trade in this sector because Paris cannot compete with London so benefits greatly from EU inefficiency on this front. Much smaller countries have negotiated a whole raft of free-trade deals with world superpowers and I haven't heard it mentioned how our ability to implement protectionist policies (not least regarding Chinese steel dumping for example) will strengthen our economy. That said, the global economy is still fragile and a lot more cautious than a decade ago, and especially with the short-term uncertainty it's not the best time to be rolling the dice. Then again, when is it?

[StuartL]

Will there be a Wenger Out option ?

[nut flush gooner]

Considering most of our trade is with the UK we don't seem to be too worried from a commercial point of view as bilateral agreements will be made for trade.

Honestly I think the 4 key objectives from the BBC article below will be great for the UK as there seems to be an expectation of a worse slump in the world economy over the next 12-18 months that what happened in 2007/08.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-32695399

Disagree about 2007-2009/10 style recession. We may have a deeper recession if we leave the EU but it will be nothing like the financial crisis and its consequences. The banks are far more capitalised now and regulated in a way that means its hard for there to be loads of toxic debts on their books as was the case nearly 10 years ago.

I'm voting to stay in the EU, I hate the bureaucrats and the way the EU is run but on a pure hard cash basis we are better in than out. With regards to negotiating trade agreements if we do brexit, I am not so sure our European counterparts would be very accommodating. It is said such agreements could take quite a few years to agree.

Also the Financial Services industry for which much of the activity takes place in the UK (not only the square mile) would be under pressure from Frankfurt who would probably receive favour from other EU members over the UK. That ultimately means the loss of a lot of well paid jobs.

[flash gunner]

Im voting out

[northbank123]

Im voting out

Wenger out UK out

[Sean]

We should have had a poll in this thread, shouldn't we?

[A11M11]

That ultimately means the loss of a lot of well paid jobs.

As opposed to the number of jobs already lost in the Farming and fishing industries due to the C.A.P. coupled with the land which traditionally been used to grow the wheat , grain , barley that kept Britain fed now having housing built to house the influx of people , concreting over grassland and cutting down trees reducing oxygen production and increasing flood risk.

This is what is happening outside the well paid square mile.

[casgooner]

We should have had a poll in this thread, shouldn't we?

Would have done one, but guess what? I don't know how to put a poll up.

[DB10GOONER]

We should have had a poll in this thread, shouldn't we?

Would have done one, but guess what? I don't know how to put a poll up.

Can you at least iron?

[LeftfootlegendGooner]

We should have had a poll in this thread, shouldn't we?

Would have done one, but guess what? I don't know how to put a poll up.

How do you keep the washing off the ground then

[barnetgooner]

What I really despise is the fact that the eu feel that they have the right to interfere in the running of each country - each countries laws should be the ONLY laws in play to run that country UNLESS there are blatant human rights violations in play, and the eu should be told to fcuk off when they stick their nose in. I also hate the fact that the eu feels that the have the right to dictate what kind of tax breaks a country is allowed to offer corporations to get them to set up in their country - Ireland is a small country that is largely dependent on "foreign" companies like dell or apple to provide big employment to our people, and the eu feels that it has the right to tell us that we cannot offer these companies any better tax breaks than they can get elsewhere cos it is against the interests of fairness Bollox to that - I don't care if these companies are exempt from paying any tax on their profits cos they are providing employment to our citizens and we are getting taxes from all their wages, so the eu should be told to piss off

Really? Google still managed to flow all of its UK revenues through its Irish office. Definitely lots of big companies route profits through Netherlands (Uber) and Luxembourg (Amazon), which are both EU member states and clearly must be setting much lower corp tax rates.