I listened to more of their stuff on YouTube, it’s pretty cool, I can respect the guy’s anger and pissed off attitude.

Boris made some pro-EU statements in the past, but then he realised that being anti-EU would give him an opportunity to become prime minister. So he took that opportunity to put his career ambitions ahead of the country’s interests.

But tankies told me that Zelenskyy is a dictator?

Yeah true, if Britain joins the EU again the terms will probably be worse, which just makes Britain rejoining even more unlikely for the foreseeable future.

I don’t think it’s just Putin which is why I mentioned the megalomania of other Russian elites. But Putin surely made the final decision to invade.

I didn’t say Russian only lies. I said Russia “has lied about pretty much everything for a long time”. That is not the same thing.

assuming the opposite of whatever Russia says

I’m not just assuming the opposite of Russia’s statements. I’m drawing a best guess conclusion based on two premises:

• Russia has a history of lying about its true intentions and actions
• Russian oligarchs and elites would absolutely be interested in mineral wealth, given their history of megalomania

I think it’s likely that mineral wealth would have been part of the Kremlin’s motivation to invade. Along with general megalomania and irredentism.

Maybe the primary cause was Putin’s megalomania, or indeed megalomania among quite a few Russian elites.

Occam’s razor would dictate that Russia is probably lying if they say they’re not interested in Ukrainian minerals, given that the Kremlin has lied about pretty much everything for a long time.

Putin is even saying he wants to sell minerals from Russian-occupied Ukraine to the US. Clearly he wants to profit from minerals in Ukraine.

It’s hilarious that you accuse the US and Ukraine of wanting to get rich from mineral rights, but you won’t accuse Russia of the same thing. In reality there will be rich people in each of those countries wanting to profit from minerals.

Why do you think that what Russia says is true?

Russia said they didn’t poison Alexei Navalny in 2020, but they did. They said they didn’t kill Alexander Litvinenko, and they said they didn’t poison Sergei Skripal, but they did both of those things.

I didn’t follow the Brexit negotiations closely. But since these decisions were difficult, perhaps they could have held a referendum to clarify what type of Brexit people wanted. But maybe the Tories decided they had already been burnt by a referendum at that point.

I think you’re right about EU countries pooling their sovereignty, that makes sense. Britain was a participant in the EU decision making processes. We were the joint 3rd biggest segment of the European parliament (tied with Italy, which is a bit odd because their population is a few million fewer than the UK’s population, but oh well).

Cameron had already decided to ask the British public how to settle the question of EU membership. Since politicians were bickering about how to implement this referendum result, maybe they could have asked the public to choose a form of Brexit. Whether to stay in the single market and/or the customs union.

Anyway I suppose it’s all a moot point since it’s in the past. I think EU membership will probably be a possibility for the UK again in the future. It might take a decade or two though.

Blame David Cameron I guess. The result was 52-48 by the way although I guess that’s an insignificant difference.

In principle I think a majority should count… but maybe there should have been a second referendum to clarify what type of Brexit people wanted. The UK could have remained in the EU single market and/or customs union while fulfilling the mandate of the first referendum to leave the EU. Norway, Switzerland, and Iceland all participate in the EU single market to some degree, without being EU members.

I think I’d choose firing squad if I had the choice. Lethal injections and electrocutions can go wrong, and I think they sometimes do go wrong, causing a lot of pain and suffering. Firing squad should be a pretty quick death with less suffering.

True to an extent. Also though I guess there are people who felt like Brussels told Britain what to do. I don’t agree with that, because Britain was part of the decision making process, in the EU parliament. But I guess in a democracy the majority view wins out, even if you don’t agree with that view. If we ignore democratic views then voters get very angry and more extreme.

However I’m definitely not someone who thinks democracy ended in 2016 regarding the Brexit question. Democracy obviously continues, so I think it would be completely legitimate if the UK had another EU membership referendum at some point.

Do you think Labour are catering to xenophobes? I don’t think they’re saying much that is xenophobic. I think it’s just that they know many people voted for Brexit and Labour doesn’t want to upset those voters.

I don’t think xenophobia is motivating Labour to stay clear of the EU at the moment… I think it’s just political reality, unfortunately. There are quite a few working class people who traditionally vote for Labour, but they also backed Brexit, and Labour doesn’t want to lose those voters to the Conservatives or Reform.

Maybe I’m wrong but that’s my perception.

Merz has ruled out forming a government with AfD hasn’t he? I think he did on TV last night. So I assume he will try to form a government with SPD.

Anyway, I really am not massively informed on German politics. But I’ve heard a couple of good things from Merz so far (his support for Ukraine, and his desire to make Europe more independent of the USA). I hope he will maintain his commitment to those ideas.

The xenophobes are mostly outside of London. In London, 60% of voters wanted to remain in the EU. But in the UK overall, 52% of voters wanted to leave the EU.

But yes I think the EEA would be too politically risky at the moment. The EU Customs Union might be more realistic (Turkey is part of this) but I think the current UK government don’t even want to do that. They don’t want to lose the votes of people who wanted Brexit.

I don’t know much about Merz but it’s possible to have a politician who is shitty and self-serving, but who still says good things occasionally.

E.g. Boris Johnson. Purely a self-interested politician who has said many stupid things. But one of his views which I liked was his support for Ukraine.