UK PM Triggers Article 50 to Leave the EU - Why I'm Positive About It
Introduction
Today I listened to the live UK Parliamentary feed as Prime Minister Theresa May formally declared the triggering of Article 50.
Article 50 is the part of the European Union Treaty that allows member states to leave the EU.
The UK's EU ambassador has handed over a letter to the EU (which you can read here) on behalf of the Prime Minister.
"Today, therefore, I am writing to give effect to the democratic decision of the people of the United Kingdom. I hereby notify the European Council in accordance with Article 50(2) of the Treaty on European Union of the United Kingdom's intention to withdraw from the European Union."
No matter what side of the Brexit argument you are on, this is a momentous day.
My Thoughts on Brexit
I have resisted sharing my thoughts on Brexit in the past because I think this has been an issue that has polarised people to a great extent and caused good friends to fall out.
The thing is Brexit is happening, people need to accept it and we need to work together to make the best of things moving forward.
When the issue of Brexit originally came around I was quite neutral on it. I could see both sides of the argument.
In the end neither the remain nor leave sides made a convincing case to me and so I opted to abstain from voting.
As time has passed my view on Brexit has become more positive.
Right now the biggest problem with regards to us leaving the EU is uncertainty. World economies don't like anything which they can't predict.
It is hard to say exactly how they will respond to the triggering of Article 50 though, since it removes one form of uncertainty and replaces it with another.
We now know that there is no possibility of any kind of rejection or reversal of Brexit so that has now become certain.
The uncertainty remains on exactly how it will be implemented and what the long term effects will be.
My personal belief is that we will actually be stronger in the long term.
Why?
Well because the UK is very much a unique case in the EU.
We have a strong cultural identity which is more distinct from the rest of Europe - I think this comes in part from being an island nation.
This extends to being more independent minded and libertarian.
We have staunchly resisted joining the Euro experiment as a result of this.
There will be tough times ahead and uncertainty in the near future but long term being outside of Europe will also allow us to adapt to change more rapidly than if we were inside.
This century is going to see the most rapid changes we have ever seen in human history, from both a technological standpoint and a social one.
More and more jobs are being replaced by automation. The pace of progress is increasing to a level where it is easy to get left behind.
Economic and social turmoil will likely become the norm.
I believe the economies that will survive in this situation are those which are flexible and adaptable.
That is just not possible when you are part of a giant superstate like the EU which needs to serve the requirements of multiple member states with vastly different economies.
As a member state of the EU the best we could have hoped for was poorly optimised legislation that did the "least harm".
Think of it like buying a set of clothes for 28 different people - it is highly unlikely that the same size would look good or work for all of them.
Whilst I am positive on the long term prospects there are certain things which I think need to resolved as soon as possible.
To save time I won't go into all of them (they are likely to be argued ad nauseam all over the media anyway).
The main issue which has personally affected friends of mine is the issue of EU nationals working in the UK and UK nationals within the EU.
These people are having a difficult time as they are unsure what their final occupational and residential status will be.
I think it would actually have been a very powerful act of good faith if the UK had unilaterally guaranteed the rights of EU nationals working in the UK (as was voted for in the House of Lords a few weeks ago).
The refusal of Parliament to do this has been a major PR blunder.
I don't agree with the reasoning that it would potentially be risky to do it without similar reciprocation for UK nationals in the EU.
Indeed, had it been done - I think it would have made it virtually impossible for the EU not to.
Since that has not happened I hope that the government will get this issue resolved as one of their first priorities in the negotiations.
Anyway, I wanted to keep this as brief as possible.
Let me know what you think.
Are you positive or negative on Brexit? How do you see the future?
Thank you for reading
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Brexit/Remain are a two sided arguement over an old coin.
Though the "economic union" is not in the economic interests of any particular populace, vs a centralised cabal of bankers, it has been a fairly open bordered arrangement for the free movement of people within that expanded "union" - I therefore lament the multicultural communities that have grown in cosmopolitan regions and are being assfucked right now.
For better or for worse, this is what I think of the whole Brexit affair
Lol!
I know, right? I can't help coming back and watching it over and over like a moron, but it gets me every time - sad really!
That is a tricky topic - I personally was shocked when the poll results have been announced, my colleagues too - my company is HQed in London with offices around the world - not easy for us. I do think England will suffer from it as of various points - as hard as it sounds - even living on the Island England as more in common with us Germans and French folks for example as they would ever accept. The staff problematic is hopefully not a major issue here for EU and UK workers.
What I see problematic for the world is the effect #Brexit had on other movements in Europe (France, Germany, NL etc) where right wing parties grow and grow - the US election proved a new "protecting our frontier and focus on our country only" mentality which is dangerous - not only for the EU or England - no dangerous for mankind.
We will see why happens next.
Yes hopefully the workers issues get resolved quickly. I hope this was not for reasons of nationalism and bigotry but we will have to see.
I'm positive about Brexit because I want the UK to fall apart. I didn't vote because I knew I would have voted remain despite wanting the resulting effects of leave.
This is a figment.
A North and South divide of England. Forgotten Wales. Forgotten Northern Ireland, with Scotland only being a talking point when it is about leaving the UK.
The UK is an abhorrent uncivilised place in my opinion. Despite our massive GDP we sacrifice citizens to the streets, in growing numbers, while ignoring this issue, and we are committing genocide against the disabled as well as a host of other atrocities. Being an "Island nation" we live in a bubble hiding behind our imagined exceptionalism.
"Genocide only happens in foreign countries" we tell ourselves.
Brexit is a good thing because it will provide the nation with what it needs, a shocking surprise that British exceptionalism is a figment. Anyway ‘Britain’ is a piece of fiction invented by the English to disguise their oppressive colonial relationship to the other nations. British means English, and this is often shown in our media. One example of a million, Eddie Irvine a formula 1 driver, when he is doing well he is a British driver, when he is doing bad he is an Irish driver.
During one of the question times on Brexit, an audience member asked about the Northern Ireland/Republic of Ireland border. The rest of the audience booed and laughed because that has nothing to do with Brexit/Britain/England. If a hard border is put in place that voids the good friday agreement, ending the Northern Ireland peace process, but that means nothing to Britain(England). I'm back in Northern Ireland after 7 years making plans incase of a hard border. I'm from a border town, so if the hard border is put in place I am well within my remit to do whatever I want 😊
I agree we will be stronger in the long term after having to face the reality of what the UK is with our constanly diminishing rights (and no more EU rights (which we wrote) to protect us), such a dissociated place that often uses "punching above its weight" as a positive gimmick on the international stage, as if to accept the fact that it is weak while safely dissociating the fact.
I feel bad for the people who think we are going to take back control of our borders, when they find out we already have control but have been failed by our own government policies and not the EU.
Anyway it is all very exciting stuff 😊
While a lot of what you are saying is true, you seem to be overlooking a key component. It is the tyrannical nature of the EU and the limited autonomy of the UK's subservient leaders that prevents the UK from possessing the necessary power to change all of the problems you speak of. British law, is EU law. The austerity inflicted genocide you speak of is a direct result of EU regulations and therefore, under a national law, rather than a European one, perhaps we will be able to address many of these problems that the EU has perpetuated.
Though, for that to happen, we would need leaders that are not corrupt, and actually care about the common people rather than the 0.1% This is something that I have difficulty finding optimism towards.
I agree. I am not in favour of being part of the EU except for the idealistic aspect of it. Although I don't agree fully with the austerity inflicted genocide being a direct result of EU regulations. The UK could have chosen to cut a number of things like corporate benefits for example, or just not went for Austerity at all. It wasn't like in the case of Greece were they could just strong arm us into doing whatever they wanted.
You could be right, but it is my understanding that politicians in the UK have literally no authority. There is a piece of legislation that a nation must sign when entering the EU which essentially states that EU law supersedes any national law. This would not have been a problem if the EU had a limited amount of laws to impose upon its member nations. But, in the last decade enough laws have been implemented to effectively negate any national laws that stood prior to new EU legislation.
UK politicians have no power. Everything you see on TV is all just an act to disguise the unfathomable omnipotence of the EU. Because Brexit would have happened a fucking long time ago if people really knew who was running their country. Some unelected aristocracy hiding away in a castle in Brussels, and fuck knows who they are subservient to.
The EU have had control over our agriculture, fisheries, external trade, and the environment law. Our beaches were a mess before the EU forced us to clean them up.
But the EUs influence is limited over welfare and social security, education, criminal law, family law and the NHS.
Based on data from the UK Statute Law database, from 1980 to the end of 2009, out of 1,302 UK Acts between 1980 and 2009 (excluding those later repealed), 186 Acts or 14.3% incorporated a degree of EU influence. The breakdown was as follows:
55 made passing reference to EU obligations.
96 implemented one or more EU laws but not as the main elements of the law.
17 implemented three or more EU measures.
18 implemented EU obligations as the main purpose of the Act
Although the house of commons library has claimed there is no rational or accurate way to measure how many of our laws come from the EU due to the complicated nature of it all.
All I know is I don't really know 😊
Part of Glasgow, as well as many other locations in the UK, were flooded over recent years because the EU had decided to ban the dredging of rivers. Mainstream media will defend these accusations and tell you that it was actually climate change that caused this, but when you know that climate change is a load of shite, the true cause becomes rather evident. So, these regulations are not all good in terms of the environment.
Also, I think you are misunderstanding the point I am making. I'm alleging that UK laws enacted by parliament are a dog and pony show, for they are invalid if the EU has a law that negates it. They just keep doing this shit because it gives the appearance of the UK parliament having any level of authority over what happens in the UK, but they do not.
There is something called "The Supremacy of EU Law." If you look it up you will see that a number of cases, decided by the European Court of Justice, have established that EU law rules over national law.
EU law also rules over any member state's national constitution. This means that any EU treaty laws take direct effect in the UK, as well as all other EU nations, and if there is a conflicting law in place in any country, the EU law is given precedent.
Now add the fact that the EU have been implementing so many laws in recent years that the UK does not even have the man power to keep up with the processing and adding it to UK legislation, and we find, or at least, I find, that the UK is not operating under UK law at all. It is under EU law.
I hope I explained that well enough, because you know, law is intentionally fucking difficult to explain.
Yeah it is very complicated. Thanks for explaining. Although what I said before about EUs influence over UK law doesn't include soft law, and the "supremacy law" you talk of, and much more other ways they influence us.
I like the idealism of the EU, but they have shown their true colours in recent times.
Wow you are very pessimistic. I hope you are wrong but none of us know for sure.
I consider it optimistic. Accelerating destruction for creation. We can keep things going as they are with a slow decline killing more people (which we pretend not to know about) over these long drawn out years, or we can decline faster killing less people overall.
I lived in the NorthWest of England for 7 years, I have a brother who lives in London working for a big city of London company. I've seen what it's like across the country. I've literally walked from Glasgow to Edinburgh and then to Newcastle investigating. I've been to the Westminster treasury building and its corruption office. I've been to political conferences as press.
I know how people live in the UK, from those who live safely in a bubble able to feed themselves and afford heating to those who live in 3rd world underfunded ghetto areas living hand to mouth, unable to afford heating, and of course the growing homeless. At one point I was investigating into foodbanks, one of the most shocking things I found was that the majority of people using them had a job, but could not afford both rent and food. I know how politics and media work in this country. It is a joke. We have more and more people freezing to death in their own homes every year, and the next (behemothly bigger than the last) financial crisis looming.
With such a large GDP we should be able to look after every citizen, but as long as people have the "it's not affecting me" "As long as I'm getting mine" or "they are undeserving" attitude things will continue to deterioate. We need to throw everyone out onto the streets to grow their empathy so to speak.
I've always found that the places with the nicest kindest people are the ones who have been through immense suffering.
The UK has goose-stepped itself into misery through comfortable armchair nazis. People willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both. This is just history repeating itself with different names and different places. The outcome will always be the same.
We will see. I'm not pretending it is all rosy but the problems you address have always been around. Being in or out of the EU is nothing to do with it.
I know I've danced around with lots of topics, but I'm just trying to give background to why the accelerated fall of the UK is a positive thing.
Although the genocide of the disabled is relatively new (less than 10 years old), as is the funneling of people onto the streets in such massive numbers.
I know it has nothing to do with the EU (except for the European convention on human rights which we will be free from),
but what I mean is the accelerated fall of the UK is tied to leaving the EU in my own opinion based on how much our economy is dependent on EU migrants among many other EU related things (including London's financial sector).
Many of the poorest regions in Western Europe are in the UK. Without EU funding (even being in the Irish countryside I only have to cycle 10 minutes to find my nearest EU funding sign) many of these underfunded and ignored places will be more prone and malleable towards insurrection, especially Northern Ireland if the Good Friday agreement is voided with a hard border; that would be considered an act of war by the English against the people of Northern and the Republic of Ireland.
It's not a positive thing and I also don't think it will happen.
I have not heard of any "genocide of the disabled". People living on the streets is not new either.
I'm sorry you are so anti-UK. I think this says more about your personal prejudices than anything else.
If I am showing any prejudice it is from anger and frustration. I found out yesterday that I am being denied access to healthcare unless I can prove I am not a foreigner. As well as giving the home office access to my medical records, I have to prove with a silly amount of documentation that I am not a foreigner. Passport, Birth Certificate, Medical card, Proof of Address, National Insurance Number etc is not enough. I don't have everything they want, and have until the 10th of April to prove I am not a foreigner or be charged for seeing the doctor, and for any future times I need to use the health service. Raging 😜
That is crazy and your anger is understandable - there is certainly a negative side to all of this. Hope you get it sorted.
Here is some guy talking about the Disabled Genocide.
Here is a BBC article
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37899305
The genocide is not really mentioned or talked about. Genocides don't happen in places like the UK. And I only call it genocide because it fits the definition but of course Genocides don't happen in places like the UK.
We had almost zero homeless population before Thatchers reforms, and we never had homelessness like we have had in the last six years. Maybe you live somewhere away from the homeless problem. Many of my friends didn't beleive me about how bad it was in the NorthWest until they visited. Being back in the Irish countryside all these things are now out of sight.
I'm not really anti-UK. I just know that Northern Ireland is not considered or treated part of the UK (it was made clear during the discussions on brexit which ignored the impact a hard border would have on the good friday agreement), and I would prefer for everyone in the UK to have self-rule than Westminster rule.
I despise Westminster rule with their genocidal policies and their attacks on human rights. I want the UK to collapse solely because I believe that is the only way to free ourselves from Westinster rule, as they will not give up their gravy train.
Thanks I will check the video out. I certainly agree we have a lot of problems. Northern Ireland is not treated well for sure but also consider that we in the North East are totally forgotten. My hope is that things will improve but they could just get worse.
he has reason. globalization is a force that can't be stopped, considering that one main factor is the advancement of technology. you can close the borders, but you can't stop the flow of information, exchange of cultural identities, ideas etc. Uk decided to go out of EU, mostly because they wanted to make direct deal with USA (everything started before the US elections) but now that Trump is isolating the country, UK is all alone. and remember, EU will make Britain suffer. there are already division between the UK countries and there is nothing that can stop Scotland to have a 2nd referendum.
I actually feel this is a possibility. Allow Brexit to go through and then make things so awful that in the end the British people are begging to return to the EU. Then no European nation would ever dare dream of a life outside of the European Union again.
It seems cynical, but you don't spend hundreds of years building an empire and then let it fall without putting up a serious a fight, and we must admit to ourselves, that that's exactly what the EU is. One arm of a monolithic, global empire.
they have to set an example. Although, personally, I think creating a federal state of Europe is impossible. Ask anyone from a EU country and they will tell you that they are either greek or french. Ask someone from USA and they will say they are american, not new yorker or michiganer. lol Let's not forget the initial idea of EU was to maintain peace since both global wars started there.
I agree with everything up until your statement that the EU was built to maintain peace. If you truly believe its development was altruistic in design, I would advise you to look into a little-known aristocrat by the name of Count Coudenhove-Kalergi and his book "Pan Europa."
There is even a Coudenhove-Kalergi award which is presented to the person who does the best of job furthering the EU's agendas each year-- though they word it a little differently.
The EU is merely the first step in globalization. The American Union, African Union and Asian Union are the next goal, until all unions become one union and we have the so called "new world order" that the elites are always wanking over.
This might sound like a conspiracy theory. But, it's nothing that has not been openly stated time and time again by the world's bankers-- the true dominating force in this world.
Well we will have to disagree.
I agree to disagree. Only time will tell. The thing is Uk was not even in Eurozone, it was not even in Schengen zone. As a member of EU it was one of the most spoiled countries. They had demands that all got fulfilled. As much as we want to think EU tries to shatter the cultural identities, it doesn't.
Edit:
Really? LOL. Nothing has happened to italian, french, spanish and other cultures.
Yes.
I like your conclusion very much!
Thanks! ^_^
Thank you my friend for this post !!!!
Leaving the EU does not mean that it is no longer European.
The EU and the euro are condemned as all projects of union or transnational currency.
The most obvious thing is that the Eurozone and the EU is a black hole in the world economy with the weakest growth for 10 years.
As for all the world financial holders who think that the trees are rising to heaven, EU leaders instead of deeply questioning us explains that the EU is going bad because there is not enough Of the EU.
There is a Chinese proverb, which says: you do not have to do irrigation during a flood, and the English have understood it.
Thank you for sharing your perspective.
Exactly.
I have not heard that one before - thank you for sharing it!
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Yes.
Well, I'm a Brit living currently living in mainland Europe. I was surprised by the outcome of the referendum, but I must say that I was not horrified by it. The result showed that (by a slim majority) British people want to be "British" or that they are unhappy with the EU. I don't know why no one seems to understand this. Nationality brings a sense of belonging to many people in many different ways and being a member of the EU is not serving these needs. I believe that the result of the referendum is the EU's fault - transparency and true democracy have never been a true focus.
Is this a "bad" result? Yes and No.
Bad because we may see changes in our Human Rights laws. We may not be able to travel or work abroad in Europe so easily; the "connection" that we have built up with our EU partners will be lost; a collective purpose will, at the very least, be watered down.
Good because Nationality IS important and in so many ways.
I would have accepted the result of the referendum either way. Why can't everyone else?
Great points. I'm not sure why people aren't accepting it!
In my humble opinion, i dont think much will change
Good points:
We kind of are already.
First of all my perspective is that of an outsider I am not from the UK and have never been there. Now I do not think it will be positive, first of all you now have a divided nation polarized by Brexit, you even have the threat of the whole country collapsing into Scotland, Ireland and just leaving England and Wales in the Union.
Then you are leaving the largest trading zone in the world, with whom you will still have to trade but now under less beneficial circumstances, certain businesses will certainly leave or at least reduce operations in the UK, I'm talking about those who use the UK as an entry place to the EU.
You will lose out on some EU talent, people who will now think very hard before taking therir chances in a UK that is polarized and where they might fear they may, rightly or not, expect some type of unwelcomeness (I don't know if that one is a real word).
You will always have trade deficits because you are not self sufficient food wise, so you will have to buy food, and if you get WTO tariffs EU food will be more expensive. Sure you can buy food cheaper in countries outside of Europe, but I think transportation costs will still make them expensive.
It might not be a catastrophe but I don't see where you will be better off, still I wish you come out all right.
Like I said it is likely there will be turmoil in the near future but it may be a positive in the long term. There is no way to be sure though.
But was it worth the risk, I mean you are staking your future on "maybe" well one thing is sure, you are going to find out if it was a good choice, and by the way I really don't think the EU would take the UK back, so this is really a one way street.
Well there is no way of knowing for sure!
Good article. I agree, we will go through some difficult times but long term we make our own decisions without being controlled by Europe
Thanks yes that is what I think too :)