Re: The Aftermath of the referendum

Not at the time but who knows now

Re: The Aftermath of the referendum

No point, they ignore public concerns and grievances and obey the party line not those who voted them in in the first place.

Re: The Aftermath of the referendum

You don't understand the European Parliament processes I fear nor understand Qualifying Majority Voting

But then you are not alone. Millions of people who voted Remain also have no idea.

Your Westminster MPs have NO SAY in the EP. It is the UK MEPs that vote in the EU and to achieve any change they have to achieve a "Qualifying Majority".

To do that they must have 260 votes of the total 352 votes.

However, UK MEPs only have a total of 29 votes themselves.

Yes, just 29 !!!

So they have to find 231 other sympathetic votes from the other EU member states to ever win any vote off. Consequently it rarely happens and that's why we have never been able to get the EU to reform in the 40 years we have been in it. It is a law unto itself and had we stayed we would have lost Westminster, our political parties (Lib-Lab-Con) and we would never have needed any further General Elections as MPs become redundant and are replaced by MEPs.

Re: The Aftermath of the referendum

Hooray! Does this mean HS2 will be shelved as it depended a lot on EU funding?

Re: The Aftermath of the referendum

I would think so

Re: The Aftermath of the referendum

Don't get your hopes up just yet. There was a news item on today's Radio Leeds programme about doing away with the HS2 link at Sheffield in favour of the line going straight to Leeds.

Taken from Beeb News Yorkshire

"Here's a quick rundown of the key facts about the proposed new route:

It won't now stop at Meadowhall station
It's been shifted east through the Dearne Valley
There'll be a new station at Thurnscoe
Some HS2 trains will divert off the track to go to Sheffield and Chesterfield
HS2 Ltd says the new route saves £1bn
A new housing estate in Mexborough will have to demolished to build the line; the developer was only told yesterday afternoon
South Yorkshire MPs have demanded a meeting with the Transport Secretary over the plans
Trains won't be running on the route until 2033 at the earliest "

Re: The Aftermath of the referendum

I'd normally agree with you but in this question there were no party lines and my conservative mp voted leave.

Re: The Aftermath of the referendum

Stupidity of this HS2 is if they had said they were spending the money to improve the existing lines a lot of us may have dug in our pockets to help, some northern lines are dreadful and need investment, some down here need more trains as they are jam packed.

Improving the servvice I think could have got the country behind it.

Re: The Aftermath of the referendum

Yes. I've recently been to Germany and experienced their transport infrastructure. The trains run smoothly and, although sometimes quite full, I have not seen any packed out like our Underground and surface trains in rush hour. The buses are similar, and the roads seem to be wider and less busy. There are also cycle lanes all over the place.

Why isn't it the same here? Well, a simple answer is that we have, over the decades, failed to spend money in improving our road and rail links. Lack of foresight, in my opinion.

An example is the M60 around Manchester. I remember several years ago, the south-west portion was two lanes wide, suffering frequent traffic jams, so they decided to spend three or four lanes adding another lane. For a few years things were better but now we are back to the slow traffic especially at junctions, so they are at present converting the hard shoulder to a 'smart motorway' and the 50mph speed limits have been causing even more problems for a couple of years now. I never see any workmen, though. When it is finished, I can see what's going to happen next! And so it goes on.

Compare road maps of Britain and Germany. There lies the problem.

Re: The Aftermath of the referendum

WOW I thought the EU was supposed to be inefficient and couldn't get anything right and we in Tory UK were better without them. Don't tell me you think Germany has done something better than us! Perhaps it's because they think maintaining their country's infrastructure is an important part of the job of Government, rather than asset stripping and selling it off to enrich politicians and other parasites.