growstuff
escaped
I can't remember which French official it was,
but he later stated, WithBritainout of Europe, who is to be our partner? Germany is not the same.
I think this is why we are now seeing more rapprochement occurring, but the French need to be careful not to make it all take and little give in return. Where all the other 25, or is it 26, members fit in, I have no idea.
I would have voted yes to a federal Europe where every country had the same health service, the same retirement age, and contributed similarly, but that was never going to happen. Perfect harmony and compliance isn't possible with so many different countries, so to me it made sense for Britain to be independent and to be able to make its own decisions. For me, it had nothing, nothing to do with immigration or foreigners taking jobs, though many votes were primarily driven by this desire I agree.
But the UK lives in the real world. It depends on other countries diplomatically and for trade. We can't (and never have been) totally independent and able to make our own decisions. That's why we've always had alliances and trade agreements. In the "olden days" our sovereigns married off their offspring to the children of foreign sovereigns for political reason to strengthen alliances. You're kidding yourself if you think any modern state can stand on its own (unless you want to be North Korean).
Exactly, it is just common sense. If the UK wants to sell anything to the EU, it has to fit in with their system. Just take measurements- if standards in Europe are in metric, it is not commercial to insist on selling in Imperial measures. And it is perfectly fair for the EU to insist that safety, bio and other standards match their own. For all sorts of reasons, economic and safety, etc, etc, they should be totally stupid to accept lower or unchecked standards, as it would be unfair competition as well as real safety concerns. And yet Brexiter call their insistance on checking said standards as 'punishing' us unfairly, which is absolute nonsense.