The travellers' dilemma

[DanceswithUnix]

Of course, this is just my opinion on 'where we are now' vs 'where we could be with a good deal' vs WTO. You have your own opinion. If it really looks like our negotiators are so crap that they can't get a better deal than WTO - a pretty horrendously awful baseline - they should be fired, and we should get more time to renegotiate. I say again: WTO is a baseline, a fallback, a last resort. To do worse than that would take some effort. IMO

That assumes that the EU want to negotiate, or is even capable of negotiation. From the sounds of what happened to the Greeks when trying to talk about their financial troubles with the EU, what I am expecting is stonewalling and misinformation from the EU publicly blaming us for stalling talks whatever the UK does. When 2 years is up, we are out on our backsides.

What I can't work out is whether that is an argument that we should be staying in (because we are better off financially there) or out (because friends don't treat you like that).

[scaryjim]

... What I can't work out is whether that is an argument that we should be staying in (because we are better off financially there) or out (because friends don't treat you like that).

I think you can make a very strong argument that we should never have been in. I also think that for a very small minority of UK citizens leaving is an exceptionally beneficial option. But for the country as a whole, and the vast majority of people in it, I can't see the benefit of leaving at this point.

If you look at the exceptions that the UK has negotiated for itself in the past, it's clear that we always considered ourselves somehow different to the rest of Europe - in modern internet parlance we're very much special snowflakes. So I wouldn't blame the EU for refusing to talk to us at this point - we've never really played the game anyway, and now we want to leave, but still dictate the rules of the game? *sigh*

And of course the whole premise of leaving being a good thing relies very heavily on the EU playing ball. You know, the horrendous, protectionist, autocractic behemoth that we're so desperate to get away from? I'm sure they'll happily roll over and let us tickle their belly....

[Xlucine]

The maddening thing is, we could have had our cake and eaten it. Had we joined at the start, we could have set the rules of the game however we wanted.