Article 50 trigger 29th March

About time too. I didn't vote for it, but we need to crack on, there's a lot of work to be done. The sooner it's started, the sooner we'll know what the future holds, for good or ill.

Spain have indicated that they are open to a reciprocal agreement Re expats in Spain and Spanish workers here.

NfK dumpling we're waiting and we most surely will see.

You write: All this talk about losing grants? Grants we paid for in the first place? For heaven's sake tell me the exact details of what you're referring to. What DO you mean?

What is ridiculous is mature adults treating the whole thing as if it's a joke. Balloonists, drones and pigeons? Shame on you Ana, this is not a comic. You almost made me swear and I don't as a rule.

Oh, did I get it wrong? I thought we were one of the few net contributors to the EU? We pay money in along with Germany, France, et al and then it gets shared back out among all the members? I can't give examples as I live in Norfolk. Oh wait, I think I did see a sign outside Great Yarmough of EU grant money being given to a scheme there.

Oh for goodness sake, Ginny42 - I didn't 'almost make you swear', your lack of a sense of humour did!

Ginny42 Where do you think the eu gets the money to distribute in grants?
I don't know if your still a tax payer, but that tax goes to our government* and then our government give a big wadge to the eu for them to 'share' as in: first the cronies pension pot then 1 for you, 2 for me.

To those who think our esteemed government will suddenly have lots of extra dosh to spend on deprived regions, education, health and social care- don't hold your breath.

Well the first argument seems to be over how much we have to pay to get out - our contribution to project we have already signed off. Junker and co say around €60bn! Bill Cash has said we ought to argue that we cancelled Germany's WWII debt so they ought to cancel this. I hope we have something better than that to say or next we'll be looking for reparations for the Saxon invasions and 1066.

Of course we won't 'suddenly' have 'extra dosh' to spend. That will take a least two years and, I expect, a fine from the EU on top of the contributions we will still be giving for the two years.

Nobody 'lied' about how huge our contribution is. But that money will eventually be available for projects within the UK.

It would seem we pay £19billion into the EU annually and then get a £5billion rebate. As far as I can work out that's £14 billion. We certainly don't get all that back in project funding as we are one of the biggest contributors.

If we are definitely coming out then we need to look at the positives )and there are positives) and just get on with it. No one thinks it's a joke or going to be easy.

We can look at the positives when there are some to look at. Meanwhile we have to scrutinise the negatives as well.

And even if the government do have extra dosh in 20 years time or whenever that golden day comes, whose to say they are going to spend it on the public good and not vanity projects such as HS2? It's pie in the sky time.

FFS why 'scrutinise' negatives? What a way to deal with life.

What's the point of getting upset about Brexit now, its going to happen. Always focusing on the negatives will only make you depressed, nothing we say or do will make any difference to the outcome its out of our hands. I voted Leave just want the government to get on with it now.

Nobody 'lied' about how huge our contribution is
Well, actually Anya, they did. That £350 million on the side of the big red bus? It was a lie; the Leave campaign have openly admitted it was.

The amount of our annual 'national' income that we pay to the EU is about 1%. It's about the same as we pay out in overseas aid. The Leave campaign of course focussed on what went out and got everyone indignant about their simplistic sums (quoted on here, I see) which make it look as though we're being in some way cheated by the EU. Including all that stupid guff about EU pensions. What they omitted to mention, of course, was the financial benefits of membership; trading profits (EU is 44% of our export market), shared costs for regulatory agencies, such as Euratom, reduced costs of customs personnel. Not to mention costs for the individual. I'm sure that others can provide more examples.

'Cancelling debts' is just more Leavers' rubbish. We're not talking about postwar reparations, we're talking about committments made on future spending which we should honour. Like Nigel Farage's pension...

Much of what we will lose has yet to surface - the thing about the open skies agreement is that fares are likely to go up and UK based airlines have greatly restricted number of flights and also routes. It is to be hoped that an agreement can be reached about that but as it is an EU agreement the UK will no longer be part of it. This will impact BA and also Easyjet etc although Stavros is looking at getting a European base for Easyjet - Ryanair is likely to cut back on UK flights - it is a complicated issue and as much as I dislike O'Leary he warned about this before the vote.
Everyone will have a decreased standard of living if you count things such as holidays etc as well - they will all be more expensive as the EHIC card is likely to stop functioning in the EU and this will cause insurance to rise as at the moment much of the health costs are paid by the country visited and then reimbursed by the NHS.
So many things which were never mentioned before the voting - this will all cancel out the payment to the EU - which is in fact a small percentage of the National Budget.
I hope that it will work out well but I think it is a great worry for the young. Michael Helseltine received a lot of messages after his speech and many from worried and disillusioned young people. He had some negative messages too - some of which have been referred to the police.
Older people will I think notice the impact on the NHS quicker than many things as many EU nationals are returning home and many less applying to work on UK. Even with their wonderful input at the moment the service is finding it hard to function. Recruitment of both hospital staff and GP surgeries has been difficult for a while. DD worked for an agency recruiting locums and permanent medical staff and she said apart from the shortage she had never come across such greedy people as the doctors when it came to pay - wanting far more than the scales the NHS could pay.
I fear that it has -as they say - yet to hit the fan.

So we should just overlook the negatives then?

Well said magpie, that's exactly how I feel! Constantly going on about potential negatives is dreary and depressing. No one denies that its going to take a lot of sorting out, but I for one am positive that at the end of the day we will be a stronger more robust country and well able to face the challenges that the future will inevitably bring.

I rarely switch on the TV, so might have missed something, but do have the radio on all day - has anyone seen or heard anything from Liam Fox?

That's the way I feel too niggly in fact, it's quite exciting. if one is allowed to use that expression on GN on a politics thread these days.

Re the £350 million. That was just one way of guesstimating how much we'll be better off. Work it out a different way it comes more - or less. It depends on how much our contributions will be to those projects we co-signed for, how many EU civil servants pensions we have to continue to pay .... And so on. We don't know and didn't know. It was just an educated guess.

MazieD. The Remainers constantly harp on about the £350million, but there were gross exaggerations on both sides. Have you built your bunker yet in preparation for WW3?

Woo hoo! I'm so happy! Latest CPI has just been announced - increased from 1.8% in January to 2.3%. I'm going to be so happy, handing over my cash.

No Nfk. The big red bus implied very clearly that the money would go to the NHS and it was stated explicitly by the Brexiteers that it was accurate - and people believed it. They even repeated it on here.

We know there were exaggerations and lies told on both sides.Where is the 'emergency budget' that would immediately come in if we were to vote Leave?

As a Scot having been born and brought up here I voted to stay in the European Union. However, democracy is democracy and I believe we have to venture into the unknown now. I would like everyone to know that not all of us Scots want independence. More than ever I think we all have to stick together. I hope Ms Sturgeon does not get her referendum and if she does I hope and think she will get a mighty poke in the eye just as Alex Salmond did.