Dancing Fire|1466911959|4048422 said:IMO, UK was smart not to adopt the euro. I mean, why would they wanted to have financial ties with BK countries like Greece, Italy and Portugal?. Germany will be the next country to exit the EU followed by France.Jambalaya|1466796108|4047679 said:If Britain HAD adopted the euro, would it have made pulling out of the EU impossible? And why? I want to say instinctively that Britain could not have pulled out if it had the euro, but I can't seem to articulate why I feel that way. Does anyone know what the scenario here would have been if Britain had the euro? I know it's only an "if" since Britain certainly isn't getting the euro now, but I just think it's a really interesting hypothetical thing to think about, in the light of what's happened.
Goodness, if that happens, there'll hardly be any EU left, financially speaking, since France, Germany, and the UK are/were by far the three biggest economies paying by far the most (I think).
I was quite shocked about that figure in the Wall Street Journal quoting 61% disapproval rates in France for the EU. Of course, feelings of disapproval are quite different from actually checking out.
It does seem that there are so very many people who want their countries to be independent again. The EU was formed after World War II because countries that trade together are less likely to go to war together. However, those reasons are probably not relevant today. I say the following with caution, because we must always be very careful of the way that history tends to repeat itself, but I can't imagine countries such as France and Germany, or Germany and the UK, going to war together today. Perhaps the reasons the EU was formed no longer hold true. Some people say that EU restrictions and regulations are stifling, and that the EU is getting ever more heavy-handed. I am not familiar with EU legislation for each member state and have even less idea how such legislation affects the laws of a given member. I also don't really know just how much legislative power the EU has over its members and how that power affects the independence of the members. It's all enormously complicated. But it does seem as if there's a lot of discontent with Brussels throughout the union. I wonder if we're just witnessing a moment where people simply want their independence back. Of course, not so many people alive today knew what it was like to live, at least as an adult, in the nightmare of Hitler's Europe.
And then there are the Leavers who aren't so much concerned about the economy but are coming from xenophobia, and perhaps some racism. I've heard phrases such as "taking Britain back." I suppose that means taking it back from immigrants, but if people voted Leave thinking that they would have less immigration, I think they'll be disappointed. I thought immigration issues were governed by Britain, not by the EU.