I’ll be strongly biased in this situation, not because I voted (i’m not in or from UK), but because I think leave voters were mostly going with anti-polish sentiment and I was unlucky enough to be born in Poland.
Poland, another place I wish I could visit. The food looks good and I’ve seen some stunning pictures of the land. Unfortunately, the internet, a cookbook and some good friends are about as close I ever get.
I’m sorry you feel like this but while I can’t pretend that there is no racism here in the UK I think the number of people voting to leave from some anti-polish or any other xenophobic reason is a tiny minority. Where I live in Cambridgeshire we have a number of Polish families and I have always found them to be polite and friendly, I think in general Polish people are well liked here.
To be fair however, where I live most people voted to remain, it may be a different story in parts of the country that had a high percentage of exit voters. If anyone has any evidence that racism was a significant factor I would like to hear it but it is certainly not my experience.
I guess it might be an OK place to visit. If you ever and for any reason decide to come to Cracow, drop me a line. I was raised here, and my actual education was archaeology so should be able to show you a lot of historical sites.
It’s a good thing you feel that way about your neighborhood. I do not intend to single out UK people, if anything I’d say the xenophobia/racism of Poles most likely trumps anything the island has to offer. And I’m not proud about it. I was (till very recently) working with some people from UK regularly over the phone, and at least one of them was disgusted with the xenophobic sentiment he started noticing. Maybe that’s what made me think that way.
Do I believe xenophobia played a major role in the Brexit vote? Yes.
Is it possible I’m totally wrong about it? - Also Yes.
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I live in Switzerland, well I am swiss.
I listen to this podcast twice, because it is not only about this brexit, but also about history.
If this person tells BS, so it still made sense to me from a logical perspective.
He gives you a good example i.e. - if you have free trade with CHINA, do all the people from China have free movement to Europe ?
Just free up your mind and listen to it.
Welcome to freedom britain
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If Bill Gates walks into a bank and says, I want an account in this bank, but I want my bank card to be bright red… then the bank will probably do their best to sort that out. But that doesn’t work if you are, for example, me. Similarly, the UK is not China; cutting off trade with the UK would be bad but not ruinous for the EU, but China’s not like that. Switzerland is an interesting example, though, and evidence that you can be in Europe and not in the EU and still manage… but Switzerland is also a bit of a weird special case and all sorts of rules have Switzerland-shaped holes in them 
Well, you have to be careful not just trying to protect /defend your idea.
If someone is convinced of something, this person will try to defend its opinon no matter what.
Not only Switzerland - open your eyes:
Switzerland, Norway, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia, Ukraine, Moldova, Iceland, Belarus,
are not in the European Union.
This elite in Europe spends more time himself to pat on the back, than to tackle an important problems.
Furthermore, the lobbyists are a real danger - she is from the liberal sweden and works for the EU - please read it
After you heard the podcast above I am sure you think about changing your mind.
Just because of facts.
I think http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/brexitvote/2016/07/03/alan-skeds-case-for-brexit-a-six-point-rebuttal/ is an interesting counterpoint to that talk – mentions Switzerland, too. I’m not sure about all the arguments myself, but that may be interesting reading.
It depends on the terms of the deal. The bilateral agreements signed between the EU and Switzerland in 2000 specifically mandate, amongst other things, free movement of people in return for tariff-free trade. After those agreements, Switzerland agreed to join the Schengen Area in 2005, further codifying visa-free, borderless travel between the EU and Switzerland, something that makes sense since Switzerland is surrounded by EU member states. It also permits travellers in those states to travel through Switzerland freely, thus reducing transit time for people and cargo.
Free movement between the EU and China wouldn’t make much sense since there’s zero geographic commonality. You can’t walk, drive, catch a ferry or jump on a train across a border between the EU and China, because there isn’t one; you’d have to travel through three or four non-EU member states to get into the EU by foot/car/rail/etc, and travelling by boat via the Suez or around the Cape of Good Hope would take substantially longer than hopping on a ferry. Yes, visa-free travel would permit more Chinese citizens to travel to, and to live and work in the EU, and vice versa, but do you really think the Chinese authorities would wear it? Allowing anyone from 26 countries to just wander into China relatively unchecked?
China was a bad example to use, by the way
Opinions matter too. Brexit could be the best thing EVAR on paper, but I still don’t want the UK to leave something as forward looking and optimistic as a pan-European union. And it is events thus far[1] that have confirmed to myself that I made the right choice to vote Remain.
[1] cf weakening of Sterling, increased hate crime, domestic political instability, commercial uncertainty, et cetera.
That article is a cracking read, by the way.
I don’t know that one, I will read that later.
Have you listen to Alan’s speech, what do you think about it - in general /worse /bad /quite good /interesting arguments ??
Christoph Blocher was Bundesrat - he was against it, but his predecessor initialized it.
Out of pure fairness he supported this too. Today he still says - Schengen failed horribly.
And it does.
Since I can remember and this is may be 38 years ago, travel across borders in Europe was for me as a swiss never a problem. What about you, did Schengen change your live ?
This example is only for illustration. Of course can you have free-trade without out movement.
On this planet I know only two (2) things that are for sure:
- stupidity
- death
Everything else, you can decide /negotiate on, right ?
Such BS from the EU like NO NEGOTIATION.
- poor people, you’re disappointed.
- Did it differently than you have expected.
- It shows size, if you can lose
The alcoholics Jean-Claude Juncker 1 min - does alcohol influence your behavior - your capabilities to cope with difficult circumstandes
Why does a person with a drugs problem lead … how many countries ??
And this is all initialized by the people who do not accept a democratic vote 
In Switzerland we are used to lose a vote and walk on with head held high - get the best out of it.
Even if we do not agree.
This happens several times a year to me.
I have. Some good, some bad, I think. It’s worth drawing a distinction between arguments against the EU: separate them into the EU is a bad idea and the EU is a bad implementation. So “the EU enforces standards on how bent our bananas are allowed to be” is against the implementation, and “the EU wants to create a United States of Europe” is against the idea. (The difference is that to fix an implementation argument you could change how the EU works. To fix an idea argument all you can do is abolish the EU.) Sked’s implementation arguments are mostly bad, I think; sure, you can find examples of EU regulation that you don’t agree with (for any value of “you”), but there are also a bunch which I think most people would agree with and I personally am very unconfident that they would happen under a UK government. His arguments against the idea of the EU – I don’t personally agree with them, but they’re not wrong, they’re just a difference of opinion. Which is fine, and I have no issue with someone saying “I don’t want to be in the EU because I don’t like the idea of being part of a United States of Europe” and voting Leave on that basis. My disagreements are all with people saying “I vote Leave because then there won’t be so many regulations” or “I vote Leave because our jobs are being taken by people from other countries” or “I vote Leave because then we can spend £350m a week extra on the NHS”, i.e., bullshit. Sked largely isn’t saying stuff like that; we shall agree to disagree, but that’s not a problem, and he seems intellectually mostly honest. The “rebuttal” paper does call out some actual lies, though, which is a bit worrying, but equally that rebuttal paper is pretty petulantly written.
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Actually, things like increased hate speech and hate crimes are being perpetrated, by all accounts, by the people who voted Leave.
Also, please show me your absolute undeniable proof that Juncker is an alcoholic, and what drug problems he has. Otherwise you’re engaging in character assassination, and that’s low.
alcohol is a drug.
Miss use of this ‘legal’ drug is called alcoholic.
Google will show you some results.
The question I wanted to lead you to, why in the first place did Sarkozy and Merkel get him in this position 
because you didn’t treat them with respect for winning.
We have a saying: first clean in front of your door, before you judge others doors.
the Euro for example brings down a lot.
There is a movie, 90 min about the money per se and why the Euro must have failed.
It was /is obvious for everyone who studied finance - still it was pushed through and as Alan Sked said, that was and will not be the only mistake where they ignore democracy
Unfortunately the brexit result has been seen by many of the “little Englanders” amongst us as an excuse to express racist views which is of course inexcusable.
We have more in common than we have differences: I would argue that Britain is a much better place today than it used to be because of the influence of those who have moved here from other countries, food is an obvious example by no means the only one. Let’s unite against the common enemy Apple users.
Don’t take that last sentence seriously, I am no fan of Apple for several reasons, but if anybody chooses to use Apple that is entirely up to them and I would not berate anybody for making that choice.
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