So Jean-Claude Juncker has said that he wants the expansion of Schengen, the euro to

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Originally Posted by redgunamo

Not a bit of it! That's like calling your spoiled, lazy, petulant, ungrateful, entitled, greedy, loudmouthed, selfish, arrogant children the "political wing" of your household.

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What is Javier Solana doing these days anyway?

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Originally Posted by Ash

What is Javier Solana doing these days anyway?

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Polishing all his awards and trophies somewhere, I suppose. Writing his memoirs perhaps. Slimy git.

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Originally Posted by Ash

lol

Well, the EU is a bit like the political wing of NATO, and ISIS is/was effectively a NATO proxy in Syria, but is now magically melting away to let the SDF get to the Deir-Azzor oil fields before the SAA - are ISIS just being handed new uniforms?

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Actually not really, or not any more. Merkel's dislike of Trump has had her questioning whether Europe can rely on the US and the US are more interested in the Far East than Europe at the moment.

Plus our Turkish allies are now buying Russian hardware.

All which goes to show there is a divergence between EU and NATO interests.

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Originally Posted by Mo Britain less Europe

Actually not really, or not any more. Merkel's dislike of Trump has had her questioning whether Europe can rely on the US and the US are more interested in the Far East than Europe at the moment.

Plus our Turkish allies are now buying Russian hardware.

All which goes to show there is a divergence between EU and NATO interests.

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Nothing to do with the Donald, imo. He's really only marginally less popular than any other American president there's ever been, so far as I can judge. Overall, we simply don't like Americans.

Not true. The European chattering classes loved Obama.

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Originally Posted by Mo Britain less Europe

Actually not really, or not any more. Merkel's dislike of Trump has had her questioning whether Europe can rely on the US and the US are more interested in the Far East than Europe at the moment.

Plus our Turkish allies are now buying Russian hardware.

All which goes to show there is a divergence between EU and NATO interests.

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Fair point. Also I think that Germans might reasonably take exception to being forced to buy expensive US LNG because of the sanctions imposed for the (evidence-free) claims of Russian 'hacking' in the US election. Oh the irony of that accusation, from the most interferey country in the world.

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Originally Posted by World's End Stella

You do realize that this is the intellectual equivalent of the Remainers making the assumption that all the most dire consequences of Brexit will be realized and then using that assumption as a basis for criticizing it?

Why lower yourself to their level? :shrug:

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Errr, you realise that this stuff was said by the President of the EU Commission, right? In his State of the Union address? This is not conjecture or alarmism, this is the direction of travel desired at the highest level of the EU. Will all of it happen? Probably not. Will some of it happen? Yes, absolutely. Could we ever rejoin the EU if any of it happened? No, absolutely not.

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Originally Posted by World's End Stella

You do realize that this is the intellectual equivalent of the Remainers making the assumption that all the most dire consequences of Brexit will be realized and then using that assumption as a basis for criticizing it?

Why lower yourself to their level? :shrug:

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But anyway, as I keep pointing out, none of this has anything to do with you. Kindly keep your foreign hooter out of our English business.

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Originally Posted by Sir C

But anyway, as I keep pointing out, none of this has anything to do with you. Kindly keep your foreign hooter out of our English business.

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I thought you were Dutch, b is Irish and La is a nomad??

Yes. The Europeans are now suspicious that many of these US-led sanctions are actually geared at giving US companies an advantage. There is a school of thinking in US politics that has always seen trade as an extension of warfare rather than a substitute.