On 1/1/2026 at 2:01 PM, JonnyF said:

The EU doesnt care what the citizens think.

So long Bulgaria. You are now part of the "united" states of Europe.

When you had ANY knowlewdge about the EU, you should know, that the EU has NOTHING to say over when an EU member state is joining the Euro. This amoung MANY items the EU has no jurisdiction at all.

23 minutes ago, Harry Vibhavadi said:

When you had ANY knowlewdge about the EU, you should know, that the EU has NOTHING to say over when an EU member state is joining the Euro. This amoung MANY items the EU has no jurisdiction at all.

Do some research.

Of course the EU has a say about member states joining the euro.

Are you even serious? 😆

9 hours ago, BLMFem said:

Oh, you're doing Trump math, are you? So the Euro has lost ALL its value PLUS 10%??🤣

I f.cking hate Trump!

Does inflation ring a bell?! 110% divided by 25 years equals 4.4% per year!

Oh, and the keywords are buying power!

Again, there's inflation calculators available online. You might wanna try one yourself, if you don't want to believe me.

To finalise this fruitless discussion:

Ex-soviet satellite states see only one advantage of joining any form of "western ways".

The "flesh-pods" of European financial capabilities. Billions.

That is the only thing that is of interst of countries that were very proud of being part of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union provided "homeland". Now the EU provides endless streams of money. Money always wins. Who in "western Europe" will pay for it?

@JonnyF

An incorrect name was used for another member. Please use the correct board name when referring to members directly.

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14 hours ago, swissie said:

To finalise this fruitless discussion:

Ex-soviet satellite states see only one advantage of joining any form of "western ways".

The "flesh-pods" of European financial capabilities. Billions.

That is the only thing that is of interst of countries that were very proud of being part of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union provided "homeland". Now the EU provides endless streams of money. Money always wins. Who in "western Europe" will pay for it?

No doubt that the pursuit of economic growth and an improvement in their citizens' standard of living and quality of life were all major factors in former Warsaw Bloc countries' seeking EU membership and that is exactly what membership has given these nations in most (all?) cases.

I don't think many Czechs, Hungarians, Poles, Slovaks, etc. were ever "proud" to call themselves citizens of the USSR.

On 1/2/2026 at 5:23 PM, RayC said:

Did you even watch the video?

Where exactly does it attempt to rewrite history? Due to its length, It does not attempt to go into in depth detail but it does give a good overview of the issues facing the EU. Again, what exactly do you object to?

Yes. Unfortunately i was sucked in again.

At about 01:50 a "Western Union" is mentioned. Never heard of any such thing in Europe.

The rest of it is just directionless commentary on stuff most people already know anyway.

On 1/2/2026 at 5:27 PM, RayC said:

Where is the disinformation in either Webster's post or The Economist's article?

It's in all of her x posts. She blames everything on Brexit from her comfy Cotswolds hidey-hole.

She even uses this veteran's painful thoughts to try to support her agenda:

https://x.com/i/status/1986798631144587507

The reality is that the UK, with the US and Allies rescued and reunited Europe, when there was no EU.

She is a disgusting hag.

On 1/2/2026 at 2:38 PM, BLMFem said:

Of course the EU is "not ideal". There are lots of things the EU needs to do better. But the alternative is for European states to stand alone, and if we do that, we lose.

Look at the mess the UK is in now. Absolute shambles. Many voted for Brexit to reduce immigration. What happened? European immigration to the UK dropped off a cliff while immigration from outside Europe shot up. And the number of illegal boat immigrants has gone through the roof since the UK can no longer send them back to the mainland.

But most importantly, the economy took such a systemic hit it has not, and will not, recover.

The UK must reverse the idiotic Brexit decision ASAP. Europe needs the UK, but not nearly as much as the UK needs Europe.

How many incoming and outgoing transfers are there under Dublin III?

According to Home Office figures, between 2015 and 2018, 7,365 incoming requests were made to transfer people into the UK under the Dublin regulation, from which 2,365 people were transferred to the UK (some requests may still be pending).  

This means that the UK accepted around 33% of requests. During the same period, the UK made 18,953 outgoing requests to transfer people to other Member States, from which 1,395 people were transferred abroad. This amounts to around 7% of outgoing requests by the UK resulting in a transfer.  

In 2018, the UK received a total of 37,453 asylum applications, and made 5,510 outgoing transfer requests under Dublin III. Of these 5,510 requests, 209 migrants were transferred out of the UK under Dublin III, whilst 1,215 came in, making the UK a net recipient in 2018.  

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/what-is-the-dublin-iii-regulation-will-it-be-affected-by-brexit/

Returns were very low when the UK was in the EU

Sending people back didn't work when the UK was in the EU

The Bulgarian populace were never asked in a vote if they wanted to join the Euro. It'll end up like Greece, now unable to control its exchange rate and to devalue its currency when necessary.

It's like the Hotel California. You can check in but never leave!

"The phrase "Western Union" emerged from post-WWII discussions, notably championed by British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin, who advocated for a united Western Europe in 1948, contrasting it with the Soviet bloc and federalist dreams, with the term solidifying after the March 1948 Brussels Treaty (Treaty of Brussels) uniting UK, France, Benelux for defense, forming the Western Union alliance." (Source: Google AI)

A 10-minute video summarizing 70+ years of European cooperation and offering an overview on the potential obstacles to EU federalism is, by definition, going to be superficial in its analysis but the video itself is well-structured and ordered.

If most people are aware of the issues outlined in the video, then they should also know that there is little chance of the EU becoming a federal state in the near future. However, many - especially Brexit supporting posters on this forum - seem to think otherwise.

12 hours ago, nauseus said:

It's in all of her x posts. She blames everything on Brexit from her comfy Cotswolds hidey-hole.

She even uses this veteran's painful thoughts to try to support her agenda:

https://x.com/i/status/1986798631144587507

The reality is that the UK, with the US and Allies rescued and reunited Europe, when there was no EU.

She is a disgusting hag.

Whether she is "a disgusting hag" or not is besides the point, there is nothing in her original X post - or the Economist article - which is factually incorrect.

The UK and the Allies should be proud that they rid Europe of Nazism in the '40s but, as you correctly state, the EU did not exist then and your comment is therefore irrelevant to this discussion.

7 hours ago, nexus7 said:

The Bulgarian populace were never asked in a vote if they wanted to join the Euro. It'll end up like Greece, now unable to control its exchange rate and to devalue its currency when necessary.

It's like the Hotel California. You can check in but never leave!

Except that it's nothing like 'Hotel California' as Brexit showed.

However, whether swopping a 5* hotel for a backpacker's hostel is a good idea is much more debatable.

2 hours ago, RayC said:

Whether she is "a disgusting hag" or not is besides the point, there is nothing in her original X post - or the Economist article - which is factually incorrect.

The UK and the Allies should be proud that they rid Europe of Nazism in the '40s but, as you correctly state, the EU did not exist then and your comment is therefore irrelevant to this discussion.

As always, I disagree with you. She says "we fought WW2 and united with Europe to make sure it would never happen again". What a load of rubbish! Europe was quite divided after the war but it was Thatcher, Reagan and Gorbachev who enabled the reunification of Germany, and so Europe as a continent. But this fool seems to credit the EC/EU for that. The EU was secondary in importance post war.

In 2016 the British were not sold anything - they were offered a choice - that the exit was handled badly was not the voters' fault but that of poor and vengeful British and EU regimes. This Webster creature wrongly uses Alec's story to try and support hers. Alec didn't mention the EU once.

2 hours ago, RayC said:

Except that it's nothing like 'Hotel California' as Brexit showed.

However, whether swopping a 5* hotel for a backpacker's hostel is a good idea is much more debatable.

Brexit showed that the EU is very similar to Hotel California.

Five star ho ho ho.

10 hours ago, nauseus said:

Brexit showed that the EU is very similar to Hotel California.

Five star ho ho ho.

Brexit showed nothing of the sort. It's the same old story of Brexiters taking no accountability or responsibility for Brexit's failure.

I long ago reached the conclusion that the majority of Brexiters consider facts to be irrelevant irritations but here's a few more: Firstly, if the UK was unhappy with the terms and conditions of the TCA then she should not have signed it. Even now, having done so the UK can give 12 months of her intention to leave the TCA.

In short, the UK can check out now and leave in 12 months time (or even immediately if it doesn't care about any potential reprisals).

You are right about one thing though. My analogy was a poor one: Most hostels where I stayed in my younger days were good value. To compare them to Brexit is being very unfair and insulting to those hostels.

10 hours ago, nauseus said:

As always, I disagree with you. She says "we fought WW2 and united with Europe to make sure it would never happen again". What a load of rubbish! Europe was quite divided after the war but it was Thatcher, Reagan and Gorbachev who enabled the reunification of Germany, and so Europe as a continent. But this fool seems to credit the EC/EU for that. The EU was secondary in importance post war.

In 2016 the British were not sold anything - they were offered a choice - that the exit was handled badly was not the voters' fault but that of poor and vengeful British and EU regimes. This Webster creature wrongly uses Alec's story to try and support hers. Alec didn't mention the EU once.

And as a staunch Brexiter you invariably refuse to accept the overwhelming body of evidence which shows Brexit as being an almost complete disaster and again, as usual, seek to excuse this failure by blaming not the flawed concept itself but poor implementation, without having the faintest idea of how success could be achieved.

Gorbachev and Reagan were instrumental in the disintegration of the USSR and the reunification of Germany; Thatcher was no more than a bit player. Indeed, Thatcher (and Mitterrand) had deep seated concerns and reservations about the wisdom of German reunification and, if anything, could be viewed as obstacles.

To suggest that the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1951 - and the various iterations since then - had - and are having - no effect on maintaining peace in (Western) Europe is ridiculous: Up to the 1940s, France and Germany had been engaged in dust-ups every 20-years or so for well over a century, with the rest of Europe usually lining up alongside one or other of them. (And if the French and Germans weren't at each others' throats, there was almost inevitably a few other European nations having a go at each other). The pooling of coal and steel resources - the most important industrial resources at the time - by France, Germany and the Benelux countries made war between the signatories all but impossible and this helped Western Europe experience its' longest period of peace in centuries.

Wrt Webster herself, I have no comment to make. As I explained previously, I don't subscribe to X and I am not going to judge her one way or the other on the basis of two posts (one of which I support and one of which I have reservations about).

11 hours ago, nauseus said:

Brexit showed that the EU is very similar to Hotel California.

Five star ho ho ho.

Sounds like the USA then.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secession_in_the_United_States

11 hours ago, nauseus said:

In 2016 the British were not sold anything - they were offered a choice - that the exit was handled badly was not the voters' fault but that of poor and vengeful British and EU regimes.

https://www.the-independent.com/news/uk/politics/final-say-brexit-referendum-lies-boris-johnson-leave-campaign-remain-a8466751.html

Final Say: The misinformation that was told about Brexit during and after the referendum