Which country will be next to follow us out of the EU ?

@nannajanie, we have a second home in France and our neighbours rolled their eyes and said only the stubborn Brits would do this. Other neighbours in Brittany told us they just hate Macron. I will stick my neck out and day I think the Netherlands or Sweden will be wanting a referendum next or Ireland as they will now be asked to contribute significantly more.

I think it will be interesting. Which other European countries are not in the EU? I think Monaco, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway...? Lots more! What gets me, working in the airline industry, is that despite an EU directive banning Air Traffic Control strikes, every summer the French went on strike yet never seemed to get fined by the EU.

I put this in the ‘chat’ section deliberately.

I have noticed quite a number of comments on other threads from posters who say that they never join in discussions on the politics threads as they can get so heated and unpleasant at times.

So far with one or two notable exceptions this has been fine with calm comments and opinions from both sides.

Petra I hope you come back to tell us about your experience in Eastern Europe. It’s a chat thread and a few of us would be interested.

I don't think any country will want to follow our example. Total madness!

Casdon

I don’t like the behaviour of the playground lemongrove - as you know I am happy to stand up for my point of view when I think it matters, but there’s some schoolgirl level posting on here, and I don’t want to join in with that.

Where????

I didn't realise that all the different states of Russia were counted as European.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_countries_by_population

I don’t like the behaviour of the playground lemongrove - as you know I am happy to stand up for my point of view when I think it matters, but there’s some schoolgirl level posting on here, and I don’t want to join in with that.

Just to clarify, the racial tensions are nothing to do with being in the EU.

The Brussels effect has certainly been good for Belgium, although they are experiencing some racial tensions from what I have heard.It’s no wonder that poorer countries like the EU.

We lived in Lot et Garonne, SW France during the referendum of 2016. Most of our French friends expressed envy at the result however our friend in and around Paris thought we were crazy.
Our Dutch friends of many years say that they and their neighbours would like to be next ones out.
We only have one Belgian friend who tells us that Belgium was a very poor country before all the bureaucrats moved in to Brussels and they would be worried if the EU began to break up.

Try it Casdon....join in!

I think not petra, a chat involves a level of respect for alternative views that is absent. I find it embarrassing.

That’s a great question Lemon and as it’s a chat thread it would be interesting to hear about Petra’s experience.

I didn’t realise that there were so many!

Me neither, lemongrove. I’m now racking my brain trying to name them all. No doubt I’ll be googling to get the last few.

Petra what an interesting life you’ve led, in countries that we don’t hear much about.
Which was your favourite one?

Jane10

We are chatting. We are chatting about differing attitudes to the EU.
Info item: there are 23 European countries not in the EU. Interesting.

I didn’t realise that there were so many!

I like chatting generally like this. It’s not about a topic in the news. It’s exchanging viewpoints. Interesting actually.

vegansrock

All the anecdotes seem to confirm that people hear what they want. I have close family members in both Italy and Ireland, their jobs range from university professor to bus driver.All more than happy to be part of a cooperative organisation which crosses national barriers. Not perfect, and scope for reform from within as with any other organisation, supportive and giving protection in many areas.

Including your own contribution of anecdotes....?

we chat about politics.

And if you don’t want to chat, shoo.

it matters because it is clearly a political thread- so what it the point of having categories otherwise.

If you want to avoid politics like the plague - avoid politics.

biba70

why is this in 'chat' - it is purely political and nothing to do with 'chatting'.

Does it matter?

I actually think it’s good that some of us who avoid the Politics thread like the plague are chatting about something other than COVID and personal problems.

We are chatting. We are chatting about differing attitudes to the EU.
Info item: there are 23 European countries not in the EU. Interesting.

why is this in 'chat' - it is purely political and nothing to do with 'chatting'.