Sadly,it looks like Mr.Hindley hasn't learned,even after 15y as an MEP,that Britons (or the English?) (many,not all) are a unique case of viewing everything in purely monetary/financial terms. As O.Wilde (even though he was English) said:"People know the price of everything and the value of nothing"

I advocated for a more gradual integration at the time. I even argued it in an essay in a Commission concours de titularisation ‐ and got the job, so clearly i wasn't the only person in the Commission thinking along those lines! 😀

It is my conviction that England (yes England) left the EU because England couldn't dominate the EU like it dominates the UK, where the other three members count for nothing. They wanted the EU to be similar, or at the very least to dominate it with France and Germany. It didn't work so they left.

“Correspondence is closed” isn’t a rebuttal, it’s a retreat. If the argument can’t withstand scrutiny, say so and don’t hide behind editorial theatre. Logic isn’t “chopping”; it’s what exposes weak claims.

The pitiful amounts the UK paid in in the past was never worth all the conflicts you caused, your obstruction, lies and insults. Keep your money We set up a huge Covid Recovery Fund and SAFE without you. Stay out with that insufferable arrogance.

The Mafia run economy of Italy lol. Self-awareness is completely absent in arrogant Blighty. Who was it that laundered billions of Putin's criminal money in Londongrad no questions asked? Whose "king" was it that took millions of Qatari cash in Fortnum & Mason bags?

The way he speaks about Italy shows you the "respect" he has for other European nations, and shows the complete lack of self-awareness about the rampant, institutional corruption in his own country. It shows you why Britain is not ready to be an EU member, and won't be in my lifetime at least.

Yep. A Labour one it seems. Says it all really. That is the mentality. "We are bad, but you need our money". I would have expected something like "we must help build a better Europe along with our partners and to strengthen European cooperation". Instead it is "but our money"! So glad they left.

Jesus wept.... according to his bio he is a former MEP

One of the underlying ideas behind the EU is solidarity. Britain does not understand that, as in that country they steal from the poor to help the rich. They cannot grasp that if you help less well off countries develop you too benefit from that in the longer run.

It wasn't an easy choice, and letting the eastern countries wait would have had downsides. But now we are stuck with an EU that can't move on because one corrupt individual like Orban can block us.

He tells us about Orban, when it is the UK that strongly pushed for a swift expansion east without first strengthening the EU. The UK wanted it this way in order to weaken the EU and we were stupid enough to go along with it. We are left with Orban and our British "friends" are gone.

Citing a league table and listing your relatives isn’t an argument, it’s deflection. No one claimed you were “Anglo-Saxon.” The point was about frameworks: how societies weigh price vs value. If all you’ve got is CPI rankings, you’ve missed it.

I actually wrote about this today in a reply. I agree with you. If Europe were less dependent on the US and better armed, it could have taken a more radical stance. As it is, European leaders have to “shut up and swallow” until November, hoping that maybe something will change.

This bit right here is the crux of it. Believe in the project for what it really represents beyond naked profiteering. The EU was founded on essential rights, values, and principles. The economic benefits are there to aid those, not the other way around.

We *can't* put up with Orban, and adding more self-centeredness from notorious disrupters wouldn't help that one bit. This isn't a great sales pitch.

“Mafia-run banana republic” is lazy caricature, not analysis. Yes, Italy has corruption, so do others, but it’s still a G7 economy with real institutions. The real tell here is the instinct to reduce everything to money. Different flaws, same error: price ≠ value.

To the Anglo-Saxon mind, everything reduces to price: a ledger where value equals money and nothing more. “They need us more” is just economics masquerading as worldview. What’s missing isn’t intelligence—it’s the acuity to grasp that not all value is monetisable.

Anyhow, do you really imagine that we're only interested in your money?

Every country is a net recipient from membership, as Brexit UK is discovering

Except, a majority of “us” put him in power, & put in power the people enabling his destruction, & who allow the systems that perpetuate the problems to continue. Our allies should absolutely lump us together until we grow up & prove to the world that we are a mature country that can be trusted.

Dear Americans, Please don’t pretend you’re each doing everything you can to oppose this illegal government. Most of you are M.I.A.— nowhere to be seen at public demonstrations. You outnumber the regime by several hundred million people. The world doesn’t accept your lazy excuses. @nytimes.com

It IS us! Too many of us didn’t vote, voted third candidate or gave the current occupant of the White House another chance. It breaks my heart, but it seems there are a great many people who bought into the meanness, the racism, the corruption and the fear of the other.

Ironically, Brexit’s greatest contribution to Europe may be its absence. A member in name only: opt-outs, red lines, perpetual exceptionalism have been replaced by a Union able to move without British obstruction dressed up as pragmatism. Probably best to let sleeping dogs lie.

None of this would be happening right now if Trump had gone to prison for January 6th like he should have

Yes. As soon as I hit the "Reply" button, the word that came to my mind and which I regretted not having mentioned was "solidarity", which presumably resonates with what you are saying 🙂 I didn't have enough characters anyway, and I'm adding it to my list now. But there was an "etc." 🙂

What gets on my nerves is when Labour stress time and again "no freedom of movement" while claiming wanting to get closer. If one of our finest achievements is touted as something bad it only serves to confirm the prejudices of a large part of the UK public. It'll only go downhill with such attitude

Yet again,🇬🇧's contribution reduced to £££.Next step:"W/ all the £££ we're giving🇪🇺,we are entitled".And the next:"We are a net contributor,giving more than receiving,we are out".Thks,but no thks.*This* is a royal flush. Anyway,given the recent exp w/ SAFE,🇬🇧doesn't even want to contribute financially.

We "need" your "contributions" so much that since you left our budget is larger than it was when you pretended to be members, and on top of that we set up huge funds like SAFE and Covid Recovery. And it is very telling that the first thing you start talking about is money. It's so short-sighted.

I would be happy to be proven wrong, but the UK will always be a nation of short-sighted bean counters obsessed with money who have no idea of what the EU is and why its predecessor was created in the fifties. If we had waited for the UK, we'd still be queuing at every border.

I'm a just a staunchly pro-EU European. Building 🇪🇺 together for us Europeans means the pursuit of an ideal - peace,freedom,democracy,etc. You take your pick (or not).None of this is about money (which as said 🇬🇧 doesn't even want to part with anyway).If this means being quixotic to you,then so be it.

Everyone who doesn't agree with you is quixotic then? The UK wasn't needed when we started the European project, it was more than useless during its "membership" and now the UK left some things in the EU have improved. I don't want the UK unless if it is committed to European ideals. Won't happen.

I personally think this is the real, fundamental problem, and always has been. Most people in the UK might like the trading advantages of CU/SM/EU, but they do not want the associated obligations and they definitely do not want to be be part of a community with supranational goals and ideals.

Yes 🙂 It's not just UKGov (current, or any hypothetical alternative version of it), it's also the general population/electorate at large, which does not understand,let alone adheres to,Europe's goals and still views what we are trying to achieve (apart from free trade) contrary to their interests.

If you're an American leader, and you’ve done something incredibly stupid and vicious, like a war for no reason... And your voters are beginning to squeak like pips about rising oil prices. ....Not sure bombing ANOTHER oil field is exactly the right approach 💩 uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/gas-pri...

America's foreign policy is whatever Putin and Netanyahu want. Never forget: 77 million Americans elected Trump. Don't ever let Trump voters say they didn't vote for this. This is "exactly" what they voted for.

As far as I understand, the territories are roughly comparable to the US states. They are autonomous and answer to the federal government. In contrast to the United States, the First Nations have extensive legal participation. The provinces are also autonomous in this sense, but also sovereign,

Yes... It's a nice thought but it's not going to work. Picture for example Alberta questioning why they can't trade with the US as they please... Why is their trade policy decided in Brussels? It'd be the Northern Ireland Backstop all over again, except on a different continent.

It’s an act of war.

Congress is impotent and civil society is paralysed.

2/2 Labour tricked pro European voters twice before. They are trying the trick once more as they know many voters are gullible.

I once was scolded by a Cypriot for having used terms that are not exactly the finely-calibrated, official ones. Which reflect the very sensitive political and actual legal situation. I learned my lesson!

The hypocrisy of the Hungarian government has no equal.

PS. Don’t forget fisheries, which are a very difficult point between Scotland and several EU-MSs…

While England is far from apply to Art.49, the best and quickest way for Scotland to apply is independence first, with the formal promise of quickly becoming a legal applicant. Scotland-EU negotiations are far better than three-parties ones, for Scotland mainly. 2/2

Starmer/Reeves EU policy: 2024 - reset, but within the red lines 2025 - strategic partnership, but within the red lines 2026 - dynamic alignment, but within the red lines And yet such slow progress, negligible economic dividend. I wonder why. What could the obstacle be?

I know. It's almost like the members designed membership as the best possible solution.

My head is spinning (and not just from the 🔥 🧨) as it always is when seeing the knots they continue to tie themselves in trying to find a perfect bespoke solution The only perfect solution is full membership with acceptance of all the associated obligations

Alignment conifers zero obligation on Europe to recognise it; Recognition only happens where it suits Europe's interests; That's not just short-term profit, but long-term unity. Please, try build trust and get on board with the relationships Europe is talking about. Ends

It does feel a little like we're all going round in circles, from PM May's "associate customs union membership" to David Davis's "we'll choose where nor to align standards" to the current UKG's exceptionalist cherry picking. So let's get something straight. 2