European Union: In or Out ?

Well the time has just about come when we leave the European Union which was created on 1 November 1993 after the controversial Maastricht Treaty and with it Citizenship of this “United States of Europe.” Of course we joined the EEC on 1 January 1973 and then morphed into the EC with the Single Market Act in the 1980s prior to this.

Many challenges lie ahead and no one can predict with certainty how this will pan out but I hope as a nation that we pull together and successfully find our place in the world.

If Bernie Saunders gets the Democrat nomination then Trump is home and dry.

I'm not so sure he won't. Looking at some previous US elections I've noticed that the challenger to an incumbent President often looks rather half hearted. Think Mondale v Reagan in 84, Dole v Clinton in 96, Kerry v Bush in 2004, Romney v Obama in 2012.
That's because serious challengers would rather wait for a better chance than blow their money against a strong incumbent president.
None of the Democrats on show particularly impress me and Biden looks like he is heading for the pasting that Mondale (also a former VP) got against Reagan. If Saunders gets the nomination than it will be a re-run of 1972 when McGovern on a liberal anti-war ticket was heavily defeated by the conservative Republican incumbent Nixon. Yanks dislike lefties more than we do, and just as Corbyn's preaching to the converted gives the illusion of popularity so it is with Saunder's groupies. Don't get me wrong Rob I'm no Tory right winger but the reality is in much of the western world the centre-right is the natural party of government and if the centre-left shifts too far from the centre it is virtually asking for an electoral kicking.

Also Rob, since WW2 only three incumbent presidents have been defeated; Carter in 1980 and Bush in 1992 on the back of weak economies, and Ford who was a essentially a lame duck in 1976.

I'll beat Stewart to it by suggesting that back in 2016, Boris didn't sufficiently understand, or take account of the character of the French and Germans. As rulers of Europe a 'Little Hitler' and 'Little Napoleon' mindset seems very much in evidence, as exemplified by Merkel not being willing to pick up the telephone yesterday.

Boris, now surely blessed with greater insight, has grasped that once our gunboats have blasted a couple French trawlers out of the water, he will find that European leaders will actually be phoning him, rather than disdainfully refusing his calls as is the case currently.

So the talks continue with more stumbling blocks encountered than in Robs bedsit with all his pots of glue! 

To be honest, I don’t give a monkeys about the outcome because the damage has already been done, and this once ‘Green and Pleasant Land’ is now a ‘Shit Coloured Unpleasant Land!’

It would be nice if Boris did manage to flop the country over the line though,  even if he has to do a Blair (lie a lot), because after all, the majority of people in this country did vote to leave.