Posted: Mon May 29, 2017 2:13pm
> ... the blame will lie firmly with Farage, Johnson, The Sun, The Mail and the Express peddling lies and distortions.
I feel there were lies on both sides. I therefore agree with you to some extent, but anyone who believed the £350 million per week and did not bother to do their own sums was probably already on the leave side anyway, and nothing would have mattered.
My experience was that people (on both sides) decided on gut feel and did not want to look at the arguments in depth about trade, economics, immigration and so on. When I was on Facebook I invited friends to put one (just one) argument against their own view of leave or remain. I just got more about their existing views.
In regard to hard Brexit, we should distinguish between hard negotiation and hard Brexit. I wrote a fairly detailed piece about trade with Gerrmany and the EU as a whole and the net deficit. A reduction in exports to the UK will be at the cost of EU jobs and EU company profits, so the UK does have some bargaining power. If I were negotiating I would start from a very hard position. This seems normal to me - leaves room to change. If you start from where you mean to end you have nowhere to go.
As I pointed out very early in this thread, none of us is any wiser than any other in regard to what will happen. We are all guessing. Some guesses may be better informed than others. Being well-informed does not mean the guesses will be correct :>)
I also noted earlier in this thread that the agreement will be between the EU and the UK not between Spain and the UK. On an anecdotal note, I have met non-EU nationals living in Spain. Aside from the horrendous administration they face that EU nationals do not face, they appear to be treated no differently. We are all foreigners, whether EU or not :>) My experience was very good and being from outside of Spain was not an issue. The fact that I was learning Spanish and trying hard (at the age of 63) seemed to go a long way.
In regard to the OP, I would suggest it might be even more important now to try to learn the language and assimilate. I suggest this because the ease of travel across borders looks likely to change, and whilst many of the various officials speak English, I think it would help any UK person to show they have made some effort at Spanish. This is just a personal aside and a view as to how I think people behave. It is an opinion with nothing other than my experience to support it.
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The future should be all about shared values and co-operation not insularity and isolation.That would be very nice. I think that even so, hard bargaining will still be the norm - even amongst those who share values and co-operate :>) For example, how much should each put into defence, aid and so on. These are issues amongst co-operating countries now.