Yes, we've all heard that, many, many times. Very few people genuinely doubt most EU immigrants seek work. But it's not quite as simple as that. Millions of immigrants in such a short space of time was always going to be a strain, both on our infrastructure and our communities.

The crux of the issue is that we can't control the numbers. If you can't control the numbers, you can't plan effectively. If you can't plan effectively, how do you know how many schools, hospitals, roads and houses to build? How many doctors and nurses do we need? How many police? How many assets do local councils need to invest in?

Some of these projects take years, even decades to bring to fruition and it's no wonder our infrastructure hasn't been able to expand in line with the incoming numbers. Simple as that.

The fact is that too many people from smaller, weaker and failing countries are heading to the UK (and other more successful economies). I don't blame them for that, I blame the EU. Sensible, structured immigration can be a wonderful asset to any country. Uncontrolled freedom of movement is just plain idiotic, especially amongst such uneven economies.

Of course we got by prior to joining the EU.
For many of the centuries that you speak about, the world was somewhat less developed than it is today and it was easy for the British poeple to sail around the world and colonise some of these countries and we were a major player in the world.
Thankfully, the world has moved on and many of the Commonwealth nationa are ridding themselves of our rule, Canada, Australia, New Zealand etc.

The Brexit vote was born out of fear and wanting to put 2 fingers up to the state and Farage in some respects had an easy "sell".

Following the Banking crisis we have had the best part of 7 years of austerity, which was down to the Financial sector running wild and gambling with the futures of most of the population.
Ironically, this sector will become more important as we go it alone as we put our trust in the very people that nearly bankrupt half of the nation.

In difficult times, it's usually wise to stick with your friends and allies but we are doing the opposite.





Foolish

Hard Brexit / Soft Brexit are just woolly phrases made up remainers because of the negative connotations associated with the former.

There is no 'hard' or 'soft' brexit. There is just brexit and everything that comes with that.

I think the hard or soft has more to do with the style of negotiations and just where our "red lines" are.
For instance, we could allow some free movement in return for free access to the single market or we could just say "we're out" and go with the full consequences of this.
Send all the immigrants home, return all of our ex pats, refuse any NHS treatment for "johnny foreigner" so, of course there are many options.
Call them hard, soft or, whatever you like but there are plenty of different ways for this to play out.

There was me thinking a "soft" Brexit would be akin to Norway, not part of the European Union but a member of the European Economic Area.

Whereas a "hard" Brexit would require negotiations similar to the Canadian model in order to trade with Europe, which only took seven years to broker.

Regarding woolly phrases, I would say on that topic Brexiters have the upper hand with quotes like

"It'll all be o.k. - in the long run".

We have a fair bit more influence on the inside than on the outside

Non negotiable laws is certainly mis leading.
We (the UK) still make our own laws through Westminster.
Freedom of Movement needs dealing with and there is little doubt that there will be a change to this ideal, which was ok at the outset of The EU but, is now totally impractical.
28 countries do ratify certain things but, I agree, it's too many voices to make decisions quickly.
The £8.5 billion figure, whilst being a huge figure, will be chicken feed compared to the cost of trading with the EU, when a new agreement is reached to trade with the EU - notice the black picture that is being painted of the UK economic forecasts since Brexit, not to mention the poor value of sterling, which will cost the UK far more than £8.5 billion over the next couple of years.
I'll ignore the economic misery, largely brought about by the banking sector, which affected countries like the US, who are not in the EU.
(having said that, The Greeks would have a different view).
Turkey is an extremely delicate situation and whether or not the EU exists this isnt going to change anytime soon.

There are plenty of faults with the EU and only a fool would try and say it was ideal, however, the timing of the referendum could hardly be worse economically and changes on freedom of movement will have to happen, whether the UK is a member or not.
Equally, the EU has been largely trouble free for the last 40 years and it's ability to work together on issues like the Environment and Peace are critical.

As I said, far from perfect but, which nation is ?

With the UK having voted out, it would suit us for the whole EU situation to fail and then there would be the chance to have free trade agreements etc.
However, if anyone thinks that the UK will be able to import goods tariff free from other countries and use them to gain a competetive edge to sell back into our largest export market, they are clearly deluded.

Btw, I quite like my Bananas bent

Come back when the adults have finished talking.

If the RFL put me in charge of the England team we'd be beating the Aussies in the 4 nations/World cup , but I can't be bothered applying for the job
Regards

King Ste