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Leaked Letter shows David Cameron plotting against leave campaign (EU)

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amanset

Member
Eh? I'm guessing by this you just mean you're not a British national?

Edit: or, wait, you are a British national but you've been living abroad for 15+ years?

I'm a British Citizen that has lived in another EU country for sixteen years.

As my only citizenship is British I am officially disenfranchised. I am unable to vote in a General Election anywhere.
 

Jisgsaw

Member
I'm in the remain camp but I still feel the EU needs a complete reform in the way it works. Unfortunately that option isn't on the agenda.

The only ggod thing that could come from a possible Brexit is I hope the EU will finally see that there's a need for reforms (especially concerning EU-Border control). It'd be a shame for the work of 50 years to go to waste because they wanted to keep the (not well working) status quo.
 
This. He had no idea how easily the uneducated could be whipped into a frenzy by these racist groups. Now it's biting him in the ass and could jeapodise the country's future.

Another thing Cameron clearly wasn't ready for was the backstabbing by members of his own party, who are using this soley as way to grab power before a leadership challenge. Johnson especially springs to mind.

If someone is "uneducated," then chances are that they will live in the poorer parts of the UK who will be seeing first hand the problems that can arise on their doorsteps.

The reason they get whipped into a frenzy is because their problems get hand waved away because they are "stupid."
 

Footos22

Member
Uk will stay in, as with all these voting things the press purely focuses on leave so the masses believe that is what will happen. its always the opposite.

Neither side is putting any decent reasons across so I'm just voting stay.

Grass is always greener on the other side. Mainly because its fertilized with bullshit.
 

Kabouter

Member
You mean those unelected MEPs that we elect every five years?

And have no real power, because the European Council effectively decides everything. That's my main problem with the way the EU works right now.

What has the UK got to offer Europe and/or the world nowadays that would put it in such a position?

It has a growing population, Germany has the opposite.
 
If someone is "uneducated," then chances are that they will live in the poorer parts of the UK who will be seeing first hand the problems that can arise on their doorsteps.

The reason they get whipped into a frenzy is because their problems get hand waved away because they are "stupid."

No, their problems get handwaved away because they are problems with individuals, not a system.

Having a problem with Romanian immigrants literally shitting on your doorstep is not a problem with immigration, it's a problem with nasty fuckers shitting on your doorstep.

And living in the poorer parts of the country is no excuse to fall for racist properganda and rheotoric. The actual facts are out there for anyone who wants to research them.

The fact is, the leave campaign prides itself on providing simplified answers to complex socioeconomic problems that confirm people's own beliefs and prejudices. It's calling back to a state that never existed and giving people false hope things will change for them. It's a dangerous game and it is going to hurt those same poorer people the hardest if it wins.
 

nib95

Banned
As an American, why exactly do some in the UK want to leave the EU?

Immigrants and more control. They just don't realise it means mostly more control for big business, government and private interests to fuck us over. Of course I'm being sensationalist, but that's a loose gist.
 

Koriandrr

Member
As an American, why exactly do some in the UK want to leave the EU?

Older generation's illusions. Also media brainwash, which seems to be influencing younger people as well, sadly. As an immigrant in the UK, this makes me sad.

Someone needs to make a very realistic overview of what exactly will happen if the UK leaves EU, as most people seem to have the completely wrong idea, thinking nothing will change. Everything will change. What % of the people working in healthcare do you think are British? What about all highly specialized people brought from abroad to work here because of the lack of talent. Everything will crumble.
 

MilkyJoe

Member
As an American, why exactly do some in the UK want to leave the EU?

For a laugh, see what happens.

Older generation's illusions. Also media brainwash, which seems to be influencing younger people as well, sadly. As an immigrant in the UK, this makes me sad.

Someone needs to make a very realistic overview of what exactly will happen if the UK leaves EU, as most people seem to have the completely wrong idea, thinking nothing will change. Everything will change. What % of the people working in healthcare do you think are British? What about all highly specialized people brought from abroad to work here because of the lack of talent. Everything will crumble.

No it won't don't be so daft.



What we need to see is an honest and impartial for and against on each topic.

Then people can make a decision, the problem is that arseholes like Cameron have been making up nonsense.

See this shit? "Brexit could lead to war"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...-increase-risk-of-europe-descending-into-war/

Fuck off you twat.
 
Older generation's illusions. Also media brainwash, which seems to be influencing younger people as well, sadly. As an immigrant in the UK, this makes me sad.

Someone needs to make a very realistic overview of what exactly will happen if the UK leaves EU, as most people seem to have the completely wrong idea, thinking nothing will change. Everything will change. What % of the people working in healthcare do you think are British? What about all highly specialized people brought from abroad to work here because of the lack of talent.

I think it's about 80%.

The idea that we need to be in the EU for the NHS to work is a bit of a red herring - we've got more non-EU nationals than EU nationals working there right now, mainly from India and the Phillipines.

Everything will crumble.

Don't you think this is just a tad sensationalist?
 

SteveWD40

Member
Prime Minister Boris though. Not sure what's worse, Cameron's slimy round face still being in charge, or that fucking eejit. Or Theresa May, or George Osborne... the mind fucking boggles. Who the fuck votes for these pricks..?! Oh sorry, the mass of rich twats in southern England living in Vicar of Dibley land. FML.

Osbournes constituency is Tatton, in the North.

it's full of rich folk, footballers and deer.
 

amanset

Member
You could apply for citizenship of the country you live in, right?

Which has no bearing at all on my status as a British Citizen.

As I said, I am now a second class of citizen. The UK is not alone in acting this way, but also there are many countries where you do not lose the right to vote.
 
Anyone else received the Voting Guide from the Electoral Commission? It highlights both sides' arguments.

I'm not sure which one to vote, though. I want to vote to leave for more funds for things like the NHS, etc. but I don't know if that's just an excuse.
 
I want to vote to leave for more funds for things like the NHS, etc. but I don't know if that's just an excuse.

Precisely zero extra money is going to make it into public services if we leave. If anything even more will disappear into the costs of making the changes required.

It's like the argument that immigration is putting stress on the NHS etc. It is, but then if some of that extra £2.5bn in tax revenue these migrants bring in was used for public services... it wouldn't be a particularly big problem.
 

faridmon

Member
As an American, why exactly do some in the UK want to leave the EU?

I have friends who actually thinks that that higher European regulation on many things such as immigration, construction, Law, Privacy, etc.. laws have a detrimental effect on the UK being active on the international scenes.
 
As an American, why exactly do some in the UK want to leave the EU?

Think of the EU as American Federal Government,
think of each member state (in this case the UK) as a US State

In such a scenario its like Texas wanting to secede from the union and shun 'Big Government'


On personal levels a lot of people see the amount of money the Uk pays the EU on a regular basis (is it £50million a day/week/year - the figure changes depending on their agenda) and think the savings would be better spend on X Y & Z in the Uk

Others think it will stop all immigration

Others think it will over night make our policing and legal systems amazing

Others simply don't like another tier of government who are less democratically elected

Others don't like how some countries have disproportionate influence over the whole union

Others are just xenophobic

Realistically however;
There are questions over the EU, several facets of the governance are unelected (by the public) and are chosen by EU ministers - The European courts are an example of this.

There are issues with vaguely worded sections of the human rights bills that allow criminals to avoid deportation, people bring up unnecessary legal challenges etc

There are questions over efficient use of public (EU wide) funding within the governance

and There really is an issue with immigration and the desire for open boarders, which is at odds with security of the union and a strange belief that border checks some how infringe on freedoms and prevent immigration, when simple checks are just that and still allow people in.

But all of that is not a reason to leave the union, its a reason to embrace it and seek to move further into it and improve it!
Its a silly stance to want to leave, to me its like owning a car and getting a puncture, then deciding the best course of action is to abandon the car. What you should do is get your fingers dirty and fix it, or bring in something that can fix it


As for Cameron being deceitful to stay in the union as a whole? on this the ends justifies the means to me
 
Precisely zero extra money is going to make it into public services if we leave. If anything even more will disappear into the costs of making the changes required.

It's like the argument that immigration is putting stress on the NHS etc. It is, but then if some of that extra £2.5bn in tax revenue these migrants bring in was used for public services... it wouldn't be a particularly big problem.

Yeah that's a good point. But I'm confused what to vote for then.
 

Culex

Banned
It's weird because our higher up told us managers and investment reps not to give opinions on the matter to our high net worth clients.

Like it makes a difference?
 

Jezbollah

Member
It's weird because our higher up told us managers and investment reps not to give opinions on the matter to our high net worth clients.

Like it makes a difference?

If you have been told not to give opinions on your clients then obviously it makes a difference to your relationship with them. In addition, such corporate representation is best made through your PR department and not through yourselves.
 

Nicktendo86

Member
More or less. The UK relies on a lot of trade that, due to their special considerations, manage to get mostly freely from the EU proper.

However, even as tenuous as the UK's position is with the EU, them leaving their agreement aside gives a message to the rest that they could leave, especially if they don't immediately do badly.

Thus ends the Liberal International Relations era in Europe.

Privyet.

What does that even mean? We run a massive trade deficit with the EU, it was £8.1 billion last October. The EU sells far more to us than we sell to the EU.

Kabouter said:
And have no real power, because the European Council effectively decides everything. That's my main problem with the way the EU works right now

Bingo. It is an allusion of democracy, in effect MEPs are vastly overpaid wastes of space. The EU is a fantastic gravy train fro useless politicians who were voted out in their home countries for being shit.
 
I think you missed the point, this letter was whilst negotiations were ongoing with the EU, so in effect he lied to parliament, as on Feb 3rd he made a statement saying he would not be campaigning for staying if he did not get the reforms, where behind closed doors the campaigning was all ready underway

lying to parliament is very serious for a politician
How has he lied?

You can both begin talks with FTSE companies about including comments in their reports highlighting risks, as they see it, about leaving and also consider leaving yourself if future events dictated you would change your position.
 
Not saying all of these are true or that this covers everything (it really really doesn't) but fundamentally the divide between the EU and the UK is as wide as the Channel and noone in the UK signed up for what the EU is in it's present state. Also most Brits don't even consider themselves European (from 55% to 75% depending on which poll).

To be fair, a lot of other EU countries populations don't identify as "European", but rather see themselves as French, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish etc. Europe is potentially a superstate made up of individual countries, and its members merely already identify themselves under those banners.

Its not the same as say, someone from America not identifying as American (despite that also being a continent made up of multiple states)
 

Nicktendo86

Member
How has he lied?

You can both begin talks with FTSE companies about including comments in their reports highlighting risks, as they see it, about leaving and also consider leaving yourself if future events dictated you would change your position.

He was telling EU leaders he would campaign to stay in back in June, before the supposed renegotiation even happened

David Cameron will persuade the British public to vote in favour of the UK remaining in the European Union by highlighting the “risky” implications of leaving, according to leaked notes of a meeting between the Prime Minister and one of his 27 EU counterparts.

It is his “firm aim” to remain in the EU, Mr Cameron is reported to have said, and he has told fellow EU leaders that he believes British voters will “ultimately vote for the status quo” in the in-out referendum that he has pledged to hold before the end of 2017.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...y-consequences-of-brexit-leaked-10348826.html
 
He was telling EU leaders he would campaign to stay in back in June, before the supposed renegotiation even happened



http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...y-consequences-of-brexit-leaked-10348826.html
Which is exactly the reason why it was not a lie.

We knew from day dot he wanted to remain in the EU having negotiated a 'better deal'.

Going on to then say you will recommend leaving if you don't get that agreement does not invalidate that.

And by talking with FTSE leaders before any deal is done is just good planning because you're fully expecting to reach an agreement and means you get to them before those wanting to leave do.

He got an agreement, however flimsy it was, meaning we never got to find out if he actually would recommend leaving, so how can he have lied if the scenario never occurred?
 

Dambrosi

Banned
Anyone else received the Voting Guide from the Electoral Commission? It highlights both sides' arguments.

I'm not sure which one to vote, though. I want to vote to leave for more funds for things like the NHS, etc. but I don't know if that's just an excuse.
Hahahahaha

Think about who is making this argument. Remember how they've treated the NHS up to now.

Then decide with your brain, not your heart.
 

Purkake4

Banned
And have no real power, because the European Council effectively decides everything. That's my main problem with the way the EU works right now..
You mean the European Council consisting of ministers appointed by elected national parliaments presenting positions agreed by said parliaments?
 

Dambrosi

Banned
Yeah, that's the best way to go about it.
I'm glad you agree.

Whatever your decision - and I ask this of all of you in this thread - please let it be guided by logic and facts, not feelings and hyperbole. That's what this vitally important decision deserves. Remember: It doesn't just affect you.
 
Which has no bearing at all on my status as a British Citizen.

As I said, I am now a second class of citizen. The UK is not alone in acting this way, but also there are many countries where you do not lose the right to vote.

I thought your problem was being disenfranchised? You said "I'm not allowed to vote in a GE anywhere". Well, there's a solution - become a citizen of where you live and vote in their elections.
 

Kabouter

Member
You mean the European Council consisting of ministers appointed by elected national parliaments presenting positions agreed by said parliaments?

Yes. My main problem with it, and other parts of the structure of the EU (like the way the parliament is elected), is that the whole thing is designed to be a club where people fight for national interests, rather than the good of the whole. The EU will never work as it should (and has to) unless that changes.
 

amanset

Member
I thought your problem was being disenfranchised? You said "I'm not allowed to vote in a GE anywhere". Well, there's a solution - become a citizen of where you live and vote in their elections.

No, that's a symptom of my country deciding I am a lower class of citizen.
 

Purkake4

Banned
Yes. My main problem with it, and other parts of the structure of the EU (like the way the parliament is elected), is that the whole thing is designed to be a club where people fight for national interests, rather than the good of the whole. The EU will never work as it should (and has to) unless that changes.
That's funny, the main myth especially in the British media is that EU just rolls over everyone's national interests with this mysterious "Brussels" dictating laws and justice above the heads of the poor UK Parliament.

EU works exactly the way it's designed to and the Council holds all the power because everyone is deathly afraid to give another inch of it away. Both the Council and the Parliament represent their electorate when that changes so does the spirit of cooperation. The internal market which is managed by the Commission works pretty well.
 
No, their problems get handwaved away because they are problems with individuals, not a system.

Having a problem with Romanian immigrants literally shitting on your doorstep is not a problem with immigration, it's a problem with nasty fuckers shitting on your doorstep.

And living in the poorer parts of the country is no excuse to fall for racist properganda and rheotoric. The actual facts are out there for anyone who wants to research them.

The fact is, the leave campaign prides itself on providing simplified answers to complex socioeconomic problems that confirm people's own beliefs and prejudices. It's calling back to a state that never existed and giving people false hope things will change for them. It's a dangerous game and it is going to hurt those same poorer people the hardest if it wins.

What if there's hundreds of people suddenly arrive in a neighbourhood behaving anti socially with no sign of abating?

Also is door step shitting a thing lol? Nasty.
 
And have no real power, because the European Council effectively decides everything. That's my main problem with the way the EU works right now.

Which is not the fault of the EU but the fault of the national states that refuse to give up power. Also its bullshit to say that the european council is undemocratic too as the people in there are all elected officials
Yes. My main problem with it, and other parts of the structure of the EU (like the way the parliament is elected), is that the whole thing is designed to be a club where people fight for national interests, rather than the good of the whole. The EU will never work as it should (and has to) unless that changes.

Welcome to every parliament ever where political parties and officials fight only for themselves and not for the greater good.
 
No, their problems get handwaved away because they are problems with individuals, not a system.

Having a problem with Romanian immigrants literally shitting on your doorstep is not a problem with immigration, it's a problem with nasty fuckers shitting on your doorstep.

And living in the poorer parts of the country is no excuse to fall for racist properganda and rheotoric. The actual facts are out there for anyone who wants to research them.

The fact is, the leave campaign prides itself on providing simplified answers to complex socioeconomic problems that confirm people's own beliefs and prejudices. It's calling back to a state that never existed and giving people false hope things will change for them. It's a dangerous game and it is going to hurt those same poorer people the hardest if it wins.

This is dismissive of the ways that the EU and, more specifically,i immigration affects different people differently. It's can be simultaneously true that immigration as a whole is beneficial whilst immigration to specific people or areas has negative affects. It's not all just racists and people with bad person experiences of Romanians shitting on their doorstep. There's a whole group of working class British people who have seen the few routes out of poverty available to them (namely trades) massively devalued by an influx of people from other parts of Europe with these skills. This is great for the middle classes and non-trade working classes who now get cheaper services when it comes to plumbing, electricians etc but you can't expect the person training to be a plumber who sees their potential wages and work fall off a cliff to be happy about it, and that dissatisfaction doesn't make them either racist or ignorant.
 
No, that's a symptom of my country deciding I am a lower class of citizen.
Well you're almost entirely unaffected by the actions of the parliament in Westminster. You *are* a lower class of citizen as long as you're not here, because the coming and goings of the executive and the legislature have so little effect on your life. What MP is supposed to represent your views in parliament?

There are all manner of places where I don't live where I also don't get a vote.
 
Which is not the fault of the EU but the fault of the national states that refuse to give up power. Also its bullshit to say that the european council is undemocratic too as the people in there are all elected officials

A) no they aren't and b) those that are elected were not elected to do *that*. It's like saying I am an elected representative of my work place during contract negotiations because I got voted to organise the Christmas party.

Edit: M-m-m-m-monster killllll
 
I'll preface this by saying I think humanity would be better off under one united government rather than the 200 so nation-states we have now.

That said, either the EU needs to federalize into its own nation or the NATO nations need to join in a perpetual union with the United States of America in sort of a United States of the West. At the very least the Anglosphere should unite as one nation.
 
This is dismissive of the ways that the EU and, more specifically,i immigration affects different people differently. It's can be simultaneously true that immigration as a whole is beneficial whilst immigration to specific people or areas has negative affects. It's not all just racists and people with bad person experiences of Romanians shitting on their doorstep. There's a whole group of working class British people who have seen the few routes out of poverty available to them (namely trades) massively devalued by an influx of people from other parts of Europe with these skills. This is great for the middle classes and non-trade working classes who now get cheaper services when it comes to plumbing, electricians etc but you can't expect the person training to be a plumber who sees their potential wages and work fall off a cliff to be happy about it, and that dissatisfaction doesn't make them either racist or ignorant.

Self employed trades are not part of the national wages calculation. They got hammered in the last decade.
 

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
So you can now view with suspicion all the 'the world is doomed' rhetoric from all the huge businesses.


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...r-plot-conspiracy-remain-brexit-a7033186.html

All of them? It's quite possible many or indeed all of them view this as a sincere risk, irrespective of urgings from either campaign. If there were bribes going on its a different matter but there's nothing in the leak to back that.

I'm sure the leave campaign has been lobbying companies too - if they've been less effective, then all else being equal it may be a reflection of where the weight of sincere concern lies.
 

Kabouter

Member
Which is not the fault of the EU but the fault of the national states that refuse to give up power. Also its bullshit to say that the european council is undemocratic too as the people in there are all elected officials

I don't disagree with that. That said, I think when it comes to European policy, Europeans should be voting for a parliament that determines European policy, not have it be determined indirectly by the heads of government of individual states which people will generally vote for principally for national policies rather than European ones.

Welcome to every parliament ever where political parties and officials fight only for themselves and not for the greater good.

I think that's overly cynical, and also, not nearly every parliament suffers from the degree of regionalism that the EU's governing structure does, and that really shouldn't be the case.

That said, either the EU needs to federalize into its own nation or the NATO nations need to join in a perpetual union with the United States of America in sort of a United States of the West. At the very least the Anglosphere should unite as one nation.

Please no. And I mean, if the UK leaves the EU, isn't the Anglosphere pretty much just one nation governed from Washington? ;)
 
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