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Comment by alias_neo | Hacker News Reader

You may be right, but, the more Brexit news I hear, and the more I read, the more I get the feeling that parts of Europe and the EC are making efforts to make an example of Britain.

It may be that the news is following a certain rhetoric, but, it seems clear that the likes of Merkel intend to do this, she's all but said as much.

My point here is that when one person is telling you they want to do harm, people will take to believing it when it's presented elsewhere.

My problem with news like this, is that I see people interpreting it as "look, EC is evil and trying to screw us, we really should leave". Really, I think we should see it as, "we're leaving the EU, they're afraid others will do the same and want to use us as a deterrent".

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> You may be right, but, the more Brexit news I hear, and the more I read, the more I get the feeling that parts of Europe and the EC are making efforts to make an example of Britain.

If a member leaves the EU they're not getting the benefits anymore of being part of the EU. It's mainly the UK who has no idea at all at what they want.

Various statements made by the EU 2 years ago still hold true. If you read UK press it seems everything is negotiable. The difference in attitude and the bad coverage by both UK press as well as UK government is pretty bad.

The issue, I think, irrespective of the press, is that May is not fit to negotiate a suitable deal, the people want a people's vote, because there is currently no suitable replacement.

What kind of person would be more suited to negotiate a deal? And what did the people vote for? Wasn't it just "Remain" or "Leave"? There was zero intellectual thought put into any of this. It's on the UK that this realization comes when it's inconvenient.

Would the EU bend the rules if a different person was at the table? Or would they simply say the same? There is no incentive for the EU to give back / bend their rules. I don't know why people expected that.

I see it more as "UK is leaving the EU, so they're losing all their benefits, unless specifically negotiated for".

That's what it should be, but it seems the EU are intentionally being difficult in negotiations.

They want to make life hard for Britain so others that have been considering leaving, think again.

> That's what it should be, but it seems the EU are intentionally being difficult in negotiations.

The biggest cause is that EU with 500 representing million people has a way better negotiating position. Further, UK really needs to have a deal or they'll be really bad off. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_alternative_to_a_negotiat.... UK has almost no leverage, EU does.

In a negotiation you're not entitled to anything. If the cost is 1 MUSD and the seller knows you're so desperate you'll buy it for 150 MUSD then that's what the price will be (or higher).

More in detail, one of the issues is the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. Meaning the Good Friday Agreement. UK wants to ignore the problem. This while Ireland has veto rights on any deal offered by the EU.

The Ireland problem is certainly an issue, our government also doesn't seem to be aiming for a deal that suits many of us.

I'm a European, British born and bread and the Union is a good thing.

I'm angry that the vote went the way it did, because my generation and our children will be picking up this mess.

But I don't blame the British people, I blame our government for not educating us on what the vote meant, what the consequences were, and less forgivable, for using FUD and propoganda to sway the vote in favour of leaving.

What would you consider "not making it difficult"?

Full membership rights, with zero membership duties, it seems; and the right to reenter and reexit any damn number of times. Anything less is "punishing the UK". HMG seems to be under the impression that the whole thing is some kind of cat door.

I'm honestly not sure, but the problem is compounded by a government that hasn't got the skills to negotiate the right deal, May's deal does not suit us, and ~50% of us didn't want to leave in the first place.

I voted for remain, I've never sides with a need to divide and build "walls". I have my opinion on the kind of people that voted to leave, but I'm a filthy millennial, so what do I know.

I should shut up and do what I'm told by the boomers and the Xers before they pop it and leave this mess to me and my children.

A lot of them have complaints about what EU is doing to this country with its laws etc, but the unveiling to listen when I tell them about the laws EU has passed that have been good for us, even protected is as a people from our own government.

I understand you are frustrated, but I just dont understand the opinion that says that the EU is somehow punishing or making it hard for the UK during Brexit. I would really want to know what you would expect.

Generally if you(as a country) decide to leave a club, you cannot keep drinking the mojitos that are available inside.

There are a lot of things that came through EU membership to the UK, but these things cannot stay if the UK does not want to be inside the EU. The only way to keep some of the benefits is to negotiate with the EU. And some benefits are just not able to be separated from others. Like freedom of movement with the single market.

Im interested in seeing what the UK decides to do in the next two months. What kind of consensus between the MPs is going to be found? (or maybe none at all?)

It's just how I understand what I've been "told". From the news we get, were made to believe that certain EU states are being "hard", harder than necessary for these negotiations. Or at least that was the case a year or two ago, I've lost track of how long this debacle had been ongoing. It doesn't help that we have a government that is incapable of negotiating their way out of a paper bag.

My frustrations are very little about other EU states, who I don't blame, but since our government doesn't have our best interests at heart, it'd be nice if they remembered that 50% of us didn't agree on a vote 0% of us called for in the first place.

I can't see our MPs coming to an agreement, they're divided, they want May out, but there is no suitable replacement. Corbyn couldn't do a better job, his heart is in the right place but he's equally incapable of sorting this out.

At this point I'm jaded by the whole thing and I see no positive outcome, every day we read about major business leeching the country, that's jobs and money leaving with them, and frankly, I don't believe 2019 Britian has a lot to offer in trade.

Next our NHS will be privatised, and the best thing we'll have to offer is our lovely weather.

I mean the EU States very much remember. I dont know of a single state that has less than said that British people that are in the EU currently are still going to be welcome after Brexit. No matter what happens with the British government.

It looks like British people wont be able to freely travel inside the EU anymore after Brexit, but are free to stay indefinitely wherever they are at the point of Brexit.

So the only thing I can say is, you are welcome here. If you want to come and work with us, come.

I got the exact opposite impression over time: so far, the EU's stance has been the more reasonable of both sides. You can't have your cake and eat it, as they say.

I had actually hoped for a tougher approach, to be honest.

But this would just punish the people who are most affected. And in this regard, the EU's side is, again, the more generous. E.g., most member states are putting in effort to make things as painless as they can for British expats. The British government, on the other side, is hanging them out dry.

Britain is leaving, The EU is now acting in its best interests.

I'm not sure you can read any more into it than that. Yes this does seem unreasonable, I can't think of any other examples where they're being unreasonable though?

I suspect that this will be rather damaging for the .eu TLD. If I were in a country that has a rise in Euroscepticism, right-wing parties while in the EU (which is pretty much most of them now); I wouldn't feel confident in getting a .eu domain and building a business on that anymore.

The EU acting in a beligerent way is an admittance of weakness. If they were powerful then they we would let the UK leave with no problems.

Leaving the EU is a problem.

It is not in the EU's interest to let the UK have all the benefits of being a member without actually being a member.

Do you think it's in .eu's benefit to do this? I ask because across Europe Union there is a rise in euroscepticism and right-wing parties right now.

If I was a non-UK but EU business, I may even consider moving off .eu sooner rather than later (assuming they actually did this to the UK)... If I was a new business, I'd probably avoid .eu altogether.

What do you think?

They are letting Britain leave, it's happening on the 29th March. What they are being tough on is what happens after that, because Britain is currently a big economy that EU businesses have a lot of fingers in pies in.

I wonder whether any other trading union in the world would act in such a tyrannical way should one of its members decide it's had enough. Hell hath no fury like the EU spurned. Reminds me of the Soviet union: 'our socialist utopia is so fantastic that we have to shoot anyone that tries to leave'.

Imagine a country leaving a trading block and then acting suprised it doesn't get any of the benefits of being a member of the block.

Really? EU offered deal, British parliament rejected it, on A50 timeout the UK will drop out, as it is apparently trying to. If that is your idea of shooting the leavers...well...I don't think it means what you think it means.

In all, I'm growing increasingly convinced this is a Monty Python sketch: "We want out!" "Ok." "Help, help, we're being oppressed! Come see the violence inherent in the system!!!"

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