Rayvin

Had that exact sentiment myself.

This is a bit of a worry since she's been the last adult in the room for some time, as far as international politics goes

The left should have ridden this wave of anti-establishment sentiment. Unfortunately the left sucks and spends all of its time being bogged down in non-issues.

Here's my prediction: The government will achieve hard Brexit with a couple of minor deviations from the Canada model which will be hailed as a great success because the Tories' future depends on people believing this. The EU will regard the negotiations as a success for them because they probably will be, and CT will state that he was right because all sides are claiming victory and asserting that they have achieved their desired aims. All will be lying, even the EU probably, but it will allow CT to say he was right.

Well yeah but there's a constant backlash there anyway. Agree on your final sentence.

There won't be.

What the fuck, CT. That was less than two months before the vote. What in fuck changed in the 6 weeks between that comment and the vote?

Well i voted remain on the basis that people who did understand such things said that leaving would be a disaster. I accepted my ignorance and made an informed opinion based on the words of experts. As wise a choice as I feel i could have made. It should never have been put to a vote of course.

Has it made any visible difference so far?

False flag. /Parky Actually, there's an outside chance it is Parky...

Nice, thanks for this. Worth reading @Christmas Tree

No but, if we agree a customs union with the EU and agree to their regulatory requirements, why does that prevent us from agreeing to different regulatory requirements with anyone else. I get the point if you're building a car and some components come from non-EU sources - if that car is going to be sold into the EU then all parts need to comply. So car manufacturers continue abiding by the same regulatory requirements when sourcing parts. But industries that don't export into the EU, do they really have a headache here? What's stopping the government from just applying a liberal regulatory framework giving companies the option of continuing to abide by EU regulations or opting not to do so. I get the point about JIT manufacturing, but only for companies that make components for EU factories, surely? Our product manufacturers will have the more liberal framework of customs options, so we won't need to be border checking anything coming from the EU. So importing for JIT should be fine, no? Exporting is where the problem is. That's the only place you would need border checks, surely? And it would be the EU carrying that out, as they're the ones with the more stringent regulatory requirements. Granted, it would be a fatal blow to UK based JIT exporters into Europe. I'm not saying all of this is a good idea btw, it's clearly fucking stupid, but I can't quite get my head around why the customs union actively stops us from just agreeing to the EU line and then agreeing different terms elsewhere. I do accept that it would mean companies bear the cost of compliance with EU regulation themselves though, but likely as not they'd pass this on to their suppliers anyway. And again, it's only going to affect companies supplying into Europe, and they'll already be sourcing compliant parts, surely?

Because of Northern Ireland specifically I guess. I mean I can't see much of a problem with having the border checks (they'd be an EU problem more than a UK one anyway I suspect) apart from the consequence for NI. Is that the issue?

Presumably CT's argument is that we wouldn't have to match the EU's trade deals with other countries. And I'm curious on this too, why in your view would we be compelled to? Is it an underpinning agreement of the customs union? I'm just trying to accelerate the conversation.

Indeed. To think they're an ally...

The losing face comes from losing the referendum I think...

I think what might stand against us in a re-run is the pride issue many leavers will feel about being on the wrong side of this decision. Many (CT) will know that it's stupid and will be going along with it so as not to lose face. Those people are militant about their delusions (CT).

I was done. Fully disillusioned and resigned to apathy. So, where you are now really. I'm much the same except it's more Brexit that has caused it. I still back the majority of Labour's domestic policies.

I still don't think it would have gone any better with anyone else in charge tbh. Not from the centrist camp anyway. I know I was done with them, and I'd imagine I wasn't the only one.

What?

Why did i just watch a baby giraffe being killed? I accept that it happens but ffs Hardly worthy pray for a 'lions rule' sentiment!

He won't care about the boycott beyond the fact that it's a financial hit. And it isn't a big one even at that. I honestly think the stadium could be completely empty and he wouldn't give a shit beyond missing the revenues. We make something like £25m in matchday revenue - so he's not going to spend more than that trying to keep fans happy. I really do think he's that cynical. I suspect he has valued Rafa as an asset to the club in the same way, and won't exceed that cost.

But Northern Ireland is saved, presumably. So it's the absolute bare minimum.

If it does happen, is that good for us? On the spectrum of catastrophic outcomes, is it Canada?

There is no way a British fanbase would be creative enough to do what those Milan fans have done. That's inspired I'd fully support a boycott if we got something like that going, it'd definitely get coverage.