Re: Is Democracy Dead?

Hi

Dutch Exports to the UK.

Dutch exports to United Kingdom amounted to
$56.6 billion or 8.7% of its overall exports.

1. Electronic equipment: $10.5 billion
2. Machinery: $6.7 billion
3. Pharmaceuticals: $6.5 billion
4. Mineral fuels including oil: $4 billion
5. Vehicles: $2.7 billion
6. Medical, technical equipment: $2.4 billion
7. Plastics: $1.9 billion
8. Organic chemicals: $1.6 billion
9. Meat: $1.5 billion
10. Live trees and plants: $1.2 billion

You have a lot to lose from Tariffs as well, they work both ways.

The UK is your third biggest export market for agricultural produce, a big hit for you.

Re: Is Democracy Dead?

Had to google it. Clearly an inside joke.

Re: Is Democracy Dead?

Going back over old ground here, but nobody has yet come up with a positive reason for leaving the EU.
They just waffle on about "taking back control and sovereignty etc.".
When we start paying through the nose for our food they will take solace in the fact that they are in control.

Re: Is Democracy Dead?

[QUOTE=Puddle Duck;1546930] Have you any reasons for leaving that haven't been shot down in flames?????

Re: Is Democracy Dead?

Well, that depends. The UK buys our products because:
- they need them, and cannot produce them theirselves for that price, and don't have the facilities to produce them.
The dutch goods are sold to consumers, or used in manufacture and these products are sold to consumers.

What changes after brexit. The dutch governments taxes the goods exported to the UK. The UK taxes the goods imported. Products are sold to consumers for a signicantly higher price.
In other words, your citizens are going to pay the bill.

You can buy the products from other countries, but not EU, because these are obliged to tax with the same tarifs as the netherlands.
Leaves buying from usa or asia, australia, imposing extra transportation costs and custom taxes, making them just as expensive as products from the netherlands.
Consumers in the UK either decide they don't need the products anymore, or pay through their noses. The dutch industries fare the same way. The dutch government receives custom taxes, and the UK government receives custom taxes. Big losers from the brexit are UK citizens.

Re: Is Democracy Dead?

Hi

What you are proposing with France and Germany punishing the UK to prevent others from leaving is basically a Trade War, which benefits no one.

A simple free trade agreement, such as the EU has recently signed with Canada, Japan and South Korea would suit me fine.

I see no reason for all this bitterness and rancour, we have simply decided that the EU, with it's agenda of ever closer integration, is not for us.

Re: Is Democracy Dead?

I’m afraid Democracy is dying, if not already dead in the UK.

I personally believe that Theresa May is betraying the 17.4M voters that voted to leave the EU in 2016. Every concession that she has since given to the EU is tying us evermore to EU rules that ensure we will never escape!
Brexit, as far as I’m concerned, is as dead and buried as much as our democracy.
We may as well forget that we voted to leave, we instructed our politicians to leave and they have ignored our instruction.

I always believed that in Britain, every person, regardless of their background, whether rich or poor, educated or not, had the exact same rights in guiding us all in society. This seems to not be the case anymore. Theresa May and the establishment have made it abundantly clear to us that voted to leave, that they value some voices more than others.
She has simply given in to the Remainers who surround her, as well as the Brussels negotiators who have made it clear from the day we voted to leave, they wish to punish us uppity Brits for having the audacity to do so!.

Instead of leaving as the people decreed, we are being betrayed. The Chequers plan ties us into a legally binding “common rule book” on goods. We will have to adhere to all the EU rules, we will also have to adhere to the rulings of the European Court of Justice in certain areas, whilst losing our vote and vetoes within the EU because we will no longer be a EU member!!
We will also be seriously impaired in making our own independent trade agreements.

The biggest worry is that as Theresa May is tying us tighter into the EU, we as a non-EU member will then be unable to trigger Article 50!

This is NOT what the people voted for. It is the exact opposite. We voted to take back control of our Laws, She’s given that away. We voted to regain our sovereignty, She has handed that back. We voted for our independence, she is making us into a vassal state as a rule taker with no powers to be heard at all. She has decided instead that our future is better decided by them than by us. She has let it be known that she is listening to the remain political elite, the business class and the Brussels bureaucracy than she does to ordinary voters. In her eyes, they matter more than we do. Their wants outweigh ours.
They win, we lose, Democracy is dead.

Re: Is Democracy Dead?

In short, brexit was the wrong choice from the beginning. Now for damage control.

Re: Is Democracy Dead?

A deal must be profitable for both parties involved. What the EU has to offer to any party is a manyfold of what the UK can offer. When the EU and the UK are competing for the same party, you have a winner and a loser. Call it war if you like, perhaps trading is always fighting for the best deal.

Re: Is Democracy Dead?

Why should democracy be dead in the UK. The referendum question was: do you want to leave the EU.
The majority voted yes. No more, no less.
And now you are leaving the EU. Democracy in optima forma, you get what the majority chose for.

Of course you tried to make an informed choice, based on facts, not on what your private wishes were. That is a shared responsibility. The government had the responsibility to inform their citizens, but in this age of information technology each one of you could simply have googled and found an abundance of info.
In other words, the rules concerning the negotiations proces were laid out for everyone to read.

The question you have to answer for yourself is: did I look for enough, objective, facts to make an informed choice. If yes, then the present situation should hold no surprises for you.