Good things we could lose

Life’s too short for could, might and maybe.

Youll get a lot of negatives on here but I was pleased to read yesterday about an EU ban on single use plastics from 2021.

This is why I voted Remain.

Tax Avoidance Directive?

urmstongran well said

?

For anyone who doesn't need 101 reasons to remain, here's 24

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Your response brings to mind the film Men in Black.
I visualuse us all having our brains zapped on EU leaving day so that we are unable to think for ourselves and unable to make our own decisions about wether to ban plastic spoons etc.
If we are left with intact brains I would imagine as a bright, intellegent (well some), generally environmentally aware country we may be able to make decisions quicker and unilaterally about environmental issues without trying to reach agreement from 27 other EU member states.

Mmmn. Don't think we'll be doing much of that Joelsnan.

NotSpaghetti
I get sad when I feel that some in our community have such little faith in our people. Who brought the plastics plight to world attention? A Brit, David Attenborough and his Britis team.
All around me I see bright young people, our universities spearheading innovation and all I seem to see on here is pessimism, gloom and cant do it without the EU as though we have become an EU parasite or siamese twin unable to think or survive on our own.
So sad that some have so little faith in our society (parliament excepted).

tax avoidance directive
Oh the irony ? when the man who advised and and gave the biggest tax breaks ever to some of the worlds largest companies is head of the eu.

joelsnan
Do you remember how Wallonia ( 3.6 million people) nearly collapsed the Canada trade deal which had taken 7 years to negotiate.

Joelsnan says "Who brought the plastics plight to world attention? A Brit, David Attenborough and his Britis team."

I am sure publicity from David Attenburgh has helped but in fact the problem of plastics especially in our seas was first addressed by Dutchman Boyan Slat. In 2011, at age 16, Slat came across more plastic than fish while diving in Greece. He decided to devote a high school project for deeper investigation into ocean plastic pollution and why it was considered impossible to clean up. He later came up with the idea to build a passive system, using the circulating ocean currents to his advantage, which he presented at a TEDx talk in Delft in 2012. He then went on to found Ocean Cleanup, of which he is CEO.

The Ocean Cleanup is non-government engineering environmental organization based in Netherlands, that develops technology to extract plastic pollution from the oceans. After a couple of years of various system tests, its real-world collection system failed after two months and was towed to Hawaii for inspection and repair, with plans to return in summer 2019.

The organization conducts scientific research into oceanic plastic pollution. It was founded in 2013 by Boyan Slat, a Dutch-born inventor-entrepreneur of Croatian origin who serves as its CEO. It has conducted two expeditions to the North Pacific Gyre, and publicized scientific papers. The clean-up approach uses barriers in ocean gyres to scoop up marine debris as the barrier is pushed by wind and current. The project aims to launch a total of 60 such systems in the patch by 2021. They predict this capability could clean up 50% of the debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in five years.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ocean_Cleanup

I'm sad about the loss of the Erasmus scheme, truly. I was much involved in a group that did the welcoming/settling in/keeping in touch of the Erasmus students that our institution was hosting, and it was really lovely to meet so many good folk I wouldn't have met otherwise, and see the really good bonds that both our visiting students and the ones being hosted elsewhere formed. Indeed a number of small families I know owe their existence to a chance encounter on the Erasmus scheme.

I feel sad about this because it's a really great scheme and whatever my own children decide to do at university, it's something that they won't be able to participate in, or even meet other participants visiting their home institution.

It might not seem like a big thing but honestly, leaving Erasmus makes me feel really sad.

We do not need the EU to tell the UK how to behave, we can decide that for ourselves. Does anyone on here give a proportion of their income to their neighbours and then allow them to make the rules they have to follow!

quizqueen Yes, I pay council tax.

www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/plastic-bans-around-the-world/

The UK is on the list, as is France, as a country making a start and there is no reason why this will not continue post-Brexit. The UK and France appear to be the only countries on this list so far; however it is from April 2018.

appear to be the only countries on this list so far European countries

who is this “we” that is deciding things? As part of the EU we can decide to ban single use plastics, don’t see much chance of our government doing that unless prodded. Hopefully our government will be so paralysed it will just copy whatever the EU does rather than try to reinvent the wheel at vast cost.

don’t see much chance of our government doing that unless prodded.
France and the UK are the only European countries, according to my link, who have made an effort so far. Nowhere else in the EU is named, nor is the EU as a whole.
I see no reason why we should not continue with this post-Brexit.

joelsnan I wasn’t thinking of plastic with my “Mmmm”.
It was in response to making decisions quicker and unilaterally about environmental issues.

You are so right, crystaltipps . It is, or at least should be about "we". The "we" is the 28 countries of the European Union acting together for the good of all and our voice is so much stronger than the voice of any one nation. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. We are stronger together.

muffinthemoo
There is little reason why UK cannot fully participate in Erasmus past 2020. Currently non EU countys i.e. Macedonia, Iceland, Norway, Lichtenstein, Turkey and Serbia articipate fully with a further 21 Near neighbour EU partners including Russia who can take part in certain actions.

Joelsnan But no arrangements have been made, and the kids who are supposed to be doing Erasmus this year are having to withdraw because no saving arrangement re funding and healthcare has been made, and there is no sign of one happening any time soon.

Which is a huge disappointment for them.