EU wants us to pay 89 BILLION divorce charges.

Hear hear Day 6.

German business leaders are begging Merkel to take a softer stance but she is adamant the the block comes before any country. She obviously doesn't want another term after this one because it it goes tits on trade she will be out next time.

You're absolutely right Day6, there is no way that we can be blackmailed for 60 billion as in any case no doubt it wouldn't end there. Once you give into these blackmailers more projects that we curiously have to contribute to will pop out of the woodwork. I think we and the EU should calculate in detail exactly what we owe and agree that final figure. If we can't, then negotiations can run out of time, we'll leave and not pay a penny piece.

Nigglynellie. I agree.

I believe we should pay our dues, the reasonable amount we had promised in the run up to breaking away from the EU.

It's like changing your gas suppliers. You pay what you owe before moving on and there may even be an admin charge, but the process does not involve the practice of them obtaining money, through force or threats.

Well done for standing firm Theresa May!

Anybody tell me what happened to the Beginning of the End of the EU thread? Was watching that but it seems to have vanished.

It was deleted by Admin, Chewbacca.

I am betting Remainers will not contribute to this thread.

They will want it to fall away off the front page into GN obscurity...

I'm a remainer as are the majority of my countrymen/women .I think if we are liable for that amount them we must pay it.If its things we had already AGREED to before Brexit then we cant walk away without paying.How would THAT effect our chances of any trade agreements with ANY other countries if we refuse to honour our agreements.Frankly Brexit will destroy the UK so I'd be happier if she walked away or at least had a revote ...there must be many people who voted without the full facts or did it because they had no idea of the consequences.As my friend calls them the bigotted and the braindead ...or simply misinformed and misguided

Bambam, who suggested it was the beginning of the end of the EU made some very pertinent points about the way political discussion happens here and elsewhere....how if you support leaving the EU nine times out ten you are branded thick, a Nazi or a racist. Fair point, because that's what happens.

She had been subjected to incredible abuse. I mentioned it last night. Thread pulled Lo and behold..no Remainers shamed.

She was told to 'run away and leave the grown ups to talk' and that was one of the mild suggestions.

I have deliberately said very little here.

It was there this morning Chewbacca and has since been pulled! I don't think it was due to my post, but who knows!!!!
I think the EU have always despised this country, used us as a cash cow with barely disguised contempt and it arrogantly never ever occurred to them that one day, given the opportunity the general public might just have had enough and have the bottle to tell them to take a hike! Well we had the opportunity, and we've done just that, and I think it astonishes them, that despite there being 27 of them + the Commissioners + our own 'has been' politicians equally determined to wreck negotiations, that we are standing our ground and not being intimidated by bullyboy tactics on all fronts. Fingers crossed Mrs May and those around her don't lose their nerve!

Speaking as a 'remainer' - surely this reinforces the idea that we should remain?

humpty, do you mean that the idea of the EU demanding 89billion reinforces the idea that we should remain? To me it is blackmail, pure and simple. The sooner we get away from that sort of shenanigans the better imho.

Definitely, we wouldn't be paying any of this dosh if it wasn't for the ridulous waste of money that is Brexit.

there must be many people who voted without the full facts or did it because they had no idea of the consequences.As my friend calls them the bigotted and the braindead ...or simply misinformed and misguided

We had exactly the same amount of information and opportunity as you did. Everyone was given the vote and quite rightly no one was asked to EXPLAIN why they voted as they did.

Why should they?

Are you suggesting only the most expert of political commentators should have been allowed to take part in the voting process and they might have given you the result YOU wanted?

Can you not see how elitist you are being? We live in a democracy.

If Mrs Bloggs didn't like the faceless bureaucrats of the EU and decided she wanted to know who held the power....why on earth shouldn't she have the chance to say "I don't like that" when the whole country was given a vote?

It's led to us having to renegotiate trade agreements but many felt dealing through the EU as limited, and involved tariffs and regulations which were restrictive and costly.

Many of us considered that too but no one said "You must explain why your vote is the right one" when we went to the poll booths.

Democracy is the foundation of a civilised society.

Bambam was also asked if she was mentally unstable!!! No wonder the thread was pulled!!! Paddyann, not all leavers are misguided, homophobic, Nazis, mentally unstable, uneducated, ill informed, low achievers, in other words, dregs of society, any more than all remainers are the exact opposite. Leavers on here have been as thoughtful and careful in weighing up the pro's and cons of our country's position as remainers, ditto friends, family and colleagues from all walks of life.

Paddyann, is that name-calling by proxy?

Ignoring all past/present/future insults, surely the point is that NONE of us knew what we were voting for/against last June - time for a second and binding referendum (the previous one was actually only advisory) with the accompanying requiements in terms of % of population voting and minimum % majority.

Have been away for a few days so didn’t see that thread.
However, for any thread talking about the EU and Brexit,
In the end some ( note the ‘some’) posters who voted Remain, will be spitting feathers and unpleasant comments against anybody who voted Leave.On GN, it doesn’t work the other way round,and I haven’t seen any accusations of being,thick/racist/ill educated/ misguided etc etc.No......Leavers assume that those who voted Remain did so after much thought, it would be nice to have that compliment returned.

Lawyers working for our government should be able to work out what we owe to the EU, what we had agreed to and so on.It is highly unlikely to be 89 billion.?

paddyann your friend sounds pretty bigoted herself.

The only problem with another binding referendum humptydumpty is that David Cameron, with the consent of all sides of the H of C, said quite categorically, that he/they would 'abide by the referendum, whatever the result, under a first past the post system. Foolish I agree, but impossible to row back on. He said lots of other foolish things too!!

The Prime Minister has said that this government will honour commitments the UK has made during the period of our membership.

The figures being bandied about come from a range of different sources and many are speculative. Full Fact give a rundown here.

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainers/brexit-and-financial-services

Worth reading.

The bill the HoC voted on was for an ADVISORY referendum - it morphed into a binding one because Cameron said he would abide by the result.
This figure has been talked about before as it is the money the UK agreed to pay the last time the 7 year plan was done by the EU. It is not any sort of fine or extra payment for us to leave. It will take the two years as we know and some of that figure will be that money and some will be the figure to the end of the 7 year agreement - (2020 or 2021 - maybe someone knows the exact date).
There is also an agreement to be made for the payment of pensions to UK MEPs and Civil Servants who have been working in Brussels on behalf of the U.K. Is anyone suggesting that we should not pay our contracts or the pension payments for these people? How would we react if it was a company doing this - there was a huge uproar about Maxwell and his raiding of the pension pot!
No one knew exactly what the outcome would be but we had a better idea of what the Remain vote meant - the status Quo - whereas the leave result was and is still a complete unknown - except that now some of the movement of companies has started to happen and also the decision of many Eu nationals to leave important jobs in the Uk and return to the Continent. There were insufficient people to pick the fruit in Kent this summer and much was left to rot.

The position we gave up some forty years ago is ready for us to reclaim - the sick man of Europe!