Sorry dek but I listened to a lot of the debate at the time and various figures within the Leave campaign absolutely DID promise that we'd get a great deal. It's one of the things that stuck in my mind. As for project fear I find it ironic that the Leave campaign coined that one as they spread panic about Turkey 's imminent arrival in the EU with the help of inflammatory and targeted ads via Cambridge Analitica. Turkey, certainly in its current guise, never had the least hope of joining.
Because they also announced the closure of their plant in Turkey, that is also in the customs union...the EU Japan trade deal makes it unnecessary to have plants in Europe at all.
The easiest trade deal suggestion was not unfair...it would be the first trade deal anywhere where both sides have a starting point of identical standards etc. The problem is the EU refused ( against article 50 rules) to discuss the future arrangement, leaving us with the current situation where three years on we're still talking about the withdrawal agreement not a long term trade deal.
Even if I accept your point SB, and I don't necessarily, it should have been clear to those making the claims of a great deal that they were spouting hot air. These were supposed to be the people who had it all worked out. They, in fact, had nothing worked out and were making it up as they went along. I don't recall anyone from the EU reassuring us we'd get a great deal.
It was completely unrealistic. Look how long it took the EU took to get a deal with Canada - and that’s without the issues of withdrawing from the EU, controls on movement and the Irish border.
That is true whist Erdogan is in charge, but don't forget Turkey are still on the EU Accession list and are still members of the Customs Union...Osborne gave them hundreds of million to speed up Turkish accession. Once Erdogan has gone it will be back on the cards....although undoubtedly some way ahead. Having said all that, it would seem to me that allowing a Muslim democracy ( as hopefully will be restored sooner rather than later) to join the EU as a full member would be a major step forward for the EU...that is of course if the Turkish people desire it.
Canada had a lot different standards and legislation to begin with...not only that Canada's business priorities are not necessarily similar to those of the EU 28...when two parties are so far apart at the starting point these things do take years of wrangling.
And obviously UK has different priorities - hence the desire for Brexit. And a large faction of the UK wants disengagement from EU rules and standards - that’s part of the reason for Brexit. Plus the factors I mentioned make the work needed triple what was needed with Canada - three things at once. The “easy” assertion was an easy and convenient but transparent fabrication meant to comfort people in a sound byte world.
Thing is, even if they were allowed to join, I fail to see why that is a bad thing. It would mean they had met the requirements and if they had met them, then what’s the issue?
From what I read either at the time of the referendum or before it there were so many hoops set in place by the EU for Turkey to jump through it was virtually an impossible task. I'd say that that currently is still the case, indeed it's dead in the water under Erdogan. It's a good point though that having a muslim country tied into the EU economically may be a step to making us all safer and breaking down some of the barriers (philosophical and religious, not physical) between the West and the Muslim world.
It is though factual that the starting points are identical, that is unique in any deal ever made with the EU... most people I would say, agree a free trade deal solves most of the problems of the future arrangement...Mairead McGuinness has said so on Question Time etc on several occasions...the problem is Parliament ( for the reasons we've discussed at length) will not pass the the first hurdle...the Withdrawal Agreement. I know you're interested in the Irish perspective...an interesting link from this morning's Irish papers. https://www.independent.ie/opinion/...p-has-now-come-back-to-haunt-us-38477446.html
Yep, I take your point. A joint economic goal and interdependence would be good thing if they ever get to the place where they can meet the requirements.
It needs me to sign up to read it I'm afraid SB. I will say that Brexit is a huge worry here. It's going to massively affect Ireland for the worse.
Whilst I agree that politicians these days work on sound bites it doesn't detract from the fact that currently the standards are the same...I'm not sure that there is much of an appetite to scrap the specifications of build quality or animal standards or anything else that we would want to export to the EU...companies do the trading not governments, exporters are aware of what they need to adhere to to export into any market.
That's the last thing the white supremacists in this country want. It's illuminating that some of the highest Leave voting constituencies are ones that were insular for the longest and the last to see a significant number of immigrants.
You do need to sign up Churts...but it's FOC.....no subscription etc....just an email address and username. I'm not arguing that it's right...or a definitive answer, but it certainly presents an alternative Irish viewpoint.
Haha likewise!!...but they are sound and don't ask for anything remotely dodgy....I've spent a lot of time reading the Irish papers and in the main they seem to be a lot less party political than ours, and as such tend to try and get to the heart of things rather than overarching criticisms of policies irrelevant to the matter in hand.