Reply to: Donald Tusk dreams UK will stay in the EU

[original PM]

Oi Fritz, we have been doing laws since way before you were born.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/...als-May-Brexit

[Lost It]

Yes, as Darmy says it was probably a complete coincidence. The real question is why the EU should lend a US company the cash to build a factory in a non-EU country? It goes against all of their protectionist agenda. Unless there's another agenda...

I don't believe in coincidences, I do know the staff at the Transit plant were well paid, I also know that at one time the Transit was the most popular van sold in the UK. Not so much now. Bit of a Home goal in that respect.

I mean, they were never a "quality" vehicle, the new ones I hear from trades of daft things going wrong, door panels coming off, gearboxes failing, door locks failing, which might be a consequence of them stopping being a box with a steering wheel that has some handy storage in the back, but they certainly don't hold as much kit as they used to.

[Lost It]

There's been talk of Jaguar opening a plant in the East for years now...

[AtW]

Or pissing off the Russians. All coins have two sides...

Win win in this case

[darmstadt]

Yes, as Darmy says it was probably a complete coincidence. The real question is why the EU should lend a US company the cash to build a factory in a non-EU country? It goes against all of their protectionist agenda. Unless there's another agenda...

Oooh, snowflake conspiracy theories, any more?

You know it was actually the EIB (albeit an EU institution of which the major shareholders are the EU countries, including the UK which along with 3 others are the largest shareholders) and the fact it was a loan which has to be repaid and was for Ford to enlarge the factory making Transits which they done in Turkey since 2003. Maybe other banks in the UK shouldn't make loans to foreign companies...

More on that Ford loan (note: not a grant as the eurosceptics would have everyone believe) here: Focus on Ford: The £80m EU loan for Ford's Turkish Transit plant (From Daily Echo)

And then again: European Investment Bank loan of GBP 340 million for Jaguar Land Rover

Which is being hailed as a British success in light of Brexit...and there's quite a few more of these stories out there....

[Mordac]

Raising the standard of Eastern Europe is the way of securing the Cold War legacy.

Or pissing off the Russians. All coins have two sides...

[PurpleGorilla]

Yes, as Darmy says it was probably a complete coincidence. The real question is why the EU should lend a US company the cash to build a factory in a non-EU country? It goes against all of their protectionist agenda. Unless there's another agenda...

Raising the standard of Eastern Europe is the way of securing the Cold War legacy.

[Mordac]

True enough. Until Ford got the loan there was no evidence, only rumours that the factory at Southampton was closing. Consequences. It was making money, supporting a local economy.

Yes, as Darmy says it was probably a complete coincidence. The real question is why the EU should lend a US company the cash to build a factory in a non-EU country? It goes against all of their protectionist agenda. Unless there's another agenda...

[MrMarkyMark]

Translation: He needs our cash, Juncker's just placed another bulk deal with his wine merchant...

Cheers!

[Mordac]

Mordy, mate, as Squarepeg said, he's only being polite, and trying to give you all an opportunity to save face, keep your pride and shift from the hole you are all digging and mistake you're walking in to.

Milan.

Translation: He needs our cash, Juncker's just placed another bulk deal with his wine merchant...

[BlasterBates]

Parliamentary arithmetic doesn't add up for a Hard Brexit. The Tory MPs Anna Soubry, Nicky Morgan, Kenneth Clark and the Scottish Conservatives will vote it down. Kenneth Clark even voted against article 50. Anna Soubry has repeatedly said that she is waiting for an important vote to sabotage it. The GE was the chance for a Hard Brexit and they blew it. The name of the game is delaying tactics, where the House of Lords will play its role as well , i.e. push the UK into a transitional deal and kick the can into the long grass until "Brexit" has blown itself out.



http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...-a7805581.html

[Lost It]

Yep...not quite true...

True enough. Until Ford got the loan there was no evidence, only rumours that the factory at Southampton was closing. Consequences. It was making money, supporting a local economy.

[darmstadt]

They must also be relieved that our funds can't be used to support the building of a factory to make Ford Transits in Turkey instead of Southampton. Ford took a grant from the EU to do that. Just to make this clear.

The UK paid money into a fund to remove a manufacturing plant out of the UK.

Things like this make people like me vote leave.

Yep...not quite true...

A related claim by Pro-Brexit Euro-MP Daniel Hannan that “the EU gave Ford a grant to relocate from Southampton to Turkey” is tendentious. In 2012 Ford did receive a loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB), an EU institution, of around £150 million for a factory in Turkey. The loan was not to relocate, as Hannan says, though it occurred around the same time as Ford chose to close its factory in Southampton.
...
Notably, the bank lent Ford £450 million in 2010 to develop a new generation of greener vehicles in the UK.

[Lost It]

They must also be relieved that our funds can't be used to support the building of a factory to make Ford Transits in Turkey instead of Southampton. Ford took a grant from the EU to do that. Just to make this clear.

The UK paid money into a fund to remove a manufacturing plant out of the UK.

Things like this make people like me vote leave.

[northernladyuk]

I would suggest that the reason 52% voted against the status quo is precisely because they consider the potential upside better than the current down side.

Well they must be relieved that millions of Turks aren't able to migrate to the UK any more. I remember a friend's partner (now ex-partner) laughing at my naivety for rejecting his certain view that Turkey was joining the EU in 2017 and there was nothing France or any other country could do to stop it, and that this would lead to millions of Turks moving tho the UK.