From The Evening Standard:
Mr Verhofstadt, president of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe group, said: "Britain has chosen a hard Brexit. May's clarity is welcome - but the days of UK cherry-picking and Europe à la carte are over.
To which period is he referring? When were we ever allowed to pick and choose?
Also Guy, please note, we Brits don't do cherry picking any more, East European migrants do that, and we don't have "cartes", we have "menus".
UPDATE: PaulC in the comments reminds us that the UK didn't join the Eurozone or sign up to the Schengen* agreement. If that's what Verhofstadt means by "Europe à la carte" then it's a good job we're leaving - by implication, the Euro and Schengen will be forced on us if we stay in.
* In practical terms it makes little difference whether an EU member state is in this or not.
Thursday, 19 January 2017
Remind me, when were those days?
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12 comments:
"To which period is he referring? When were we ever allowed to pick and choose?"
He might be referring to the cherry picking that included the Euro opt out, Shengen, The UK had the right to opt-out of legislation relating to what is known as justice and home affairs. The UK originally had an opt-out from the social chapter of the Maastricht Treaty. Blair gave that up. I suppose that could be it.
The communists aren't liking it.
Is that the Horstwessellied I can hear in the background?
No more mister nice guy! Followed by maniacal high pitched cackling.
PC, we didn't "opt out" of the Euro, nine countries just never joined. Similarly, we didn't "opt out" of Schengen (which in practice makes little difference to all this free movement stuff) we just didn't sign up to a new agreement. The other two possible "opt outs" got given away by previous governments.
JH, no they're not.
H, it;s a tad unfair comparing the EU to the Nazis, the Nazis wanted to eradicate non-Aryans, the EU (more accurately Merkel) want to flood us with them. Neither is a desirable aim, but they are opposite.
Well I think you'll find they are widely considered as opt outs. I mean I lost count of the number of times they were referred to as such by cabinet ministers. In fact there are a good many more opt outs than I stated. As written in the following article, we've long been considered outsiders for just that reason. http://euanalytics.ideasoneurope.eu/2013/08/14/the-size-of-the-british-opt-outs/
@mw @p156
Perhaps de Gaulle was right all along....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/27/newsid_4187000/4187714.stm
I think that mijnheer Verhofstadt's arrogance is quite like that of the Nazis. I accept that there may well be significant policy differences between them.
Shiney. Yes.
Good man, de Gaulle. Albeit irritatingly French.
Shiney, from your linked article: "Among its achievements, the community has been responsible for .... launching a common currency, the Euro, in 2002."
I wonder how long that is going to be considered an "achievement".
@B
Yeah, I thought that was hilarious myself.
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