Any decision needs to be unanimous, so…
Sorry, who is making it sound like that?
Side question: Why is France such a pain in the ass to the UK? I mean, they didn’t want the UK in the EU to begin with and now they seem to be the only holdout to an extension.
It would seem to me like they owe the UK a bit more gratitude than that seeing how many young British men died in WWII so that there would even be a France today to screw the UK over.
I know that was 75 years ago, but damn.
So is it fair to said that everyone has Macron in a side room waterboarding him to get him to sign on to something?
Pretty much, but here we are. The parliamentary option that has come closest to a majority during the indicative votes is the customs union option. But being in a customs union without also being in the single market is still pretty shit.
Over 1000 years of on/off war and disputed sovreignty. Both sides think they are more important than the other. The same reasons as most rivalries between neighbouring countries, assuming those countries are actually old enough to have history.
Nah, don’t do that. Domestically, only the colossally-idiotic fringe of the generally-idiotic ERG have come out with that sort of talk.
Oh Lord, how blessed we have been in recent days with the media posturings of the previously-unheard-of Tory MP Mark Francois - an ambulatory dung-heap of a man.
It has been rather noticeable that some of the more prominent Brexiteers have been taking a lower media profile recently, leaving the floor open to some of the ahem lesser lights. I wonder why.
Totally a love/hate relationship.
Obviously I am not in tune with the political correctness in the UK or the EU, but it seems a damn fine point to bring up.
I’m not saying that France should always and forever be obedient and subservient to the UK in all matters, but when it is an important issue and the UK needs some help, even help because of their own dysfunction, then France should be the first in line to extend a helping hand, not one with a knife in it.
Is that really an improper or insensitive thing to say in this debate?
Greg Charles, in the post above mine.
It is not really insensitive, so much as trite. Britain has a long history with all of the nations on the continent, with lots of reasons for friendship and enmity with every one of them. It doesn’t mean that current decisions aren’t being made based on the pragmatics of the current situation.
Hard deadlines are good for Britain as well. The persistent belief that the deadline will always be extended makes it easy for parliament to avoid compromise. The thing you don’t want to happen really, certainly, for sure coming about if you don’t come to a decision is a real incentive to stop bickering.
Invoking the blood of those who died on the green fields of France as any kind of supporting argument for contemporary political issues strikes me as wildly distasteful.
The only people who get to do that are those that were involved and survived. As an example, here’s Marie Scott, now aged 92, who has just been awarded the Legion d’honneur by France, for her role on D-Day.
(Sorry for the twitter link, but the embedded video won’t be geo-blocked this way)
Yup. But of course, only one of the two is right. And knows what food should taste like (i.e. something, anything !)
Brexit will be extended to October 31:
France does the food basics extremely well. Bread, wine and cheese - the main food groups, imo. And yet, despite having had a medium-sized empire for a short while, France doesn’t seem to have embraced the cuisines of their conquests in the way that the UK has. A certain unadventurousness of the national palate, perhaps? 
We need to see what the conditions are on that. EU elections for sure though
Right on Halloween for those scared of looking under their bed and finding the EUUUUU
This means elections. How competently British elections will happen, what kind of debates/candidates the UK will have and what kind of representatives they’ll be are all going to be interesting.
I think the EU made a mistake. It would have been best to let the UK crash out with no deal so it could hit bottom and do the equivalent of that first Alcoholics Anonymous step where they admit they have a problem and the way they’re going about it is not going to work out.
On the contrary ! There was a bit of pantsonheadery from the Front National some years back when a nation-wide poll showed that France’s “national dish”, in terms of how often people eat it throughout the year or reported it as their favourite was… couscous ! Oh, the righteous indignation from these self-described patriots. Good people on both sides, of course, of course. In fact, the brain trust even canned* their own vice-president* in large part because he’d tweeted a selfie while seated at an Algerian restaurant, eating a plate of couscous. I swear I shit you not. You can’t make up that kind of petty malignancy - but it is extremely French, of course ;).
Quelle surprise.
The EU election prep has been underway at the nuts and bolts level for a while - polling station venues provisionally booked, letters out to the regular bank of vote tellers etc. The main parties will likely have most of their existing MEPs stand again, but fuck alone knows who the fringier and newer parties will have to dig up.
It’ll be the first EU Parly election that’s raised any sort of wider interest though