[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by jonbxx

Apologies for the late message but I did promise to give some perspectives from some work colleagues on Brexit. I was in meetings in the US with three colleagues from continental Europe and we had a good discussion over a few beers one night on Brexit. Two people were from EU countries and the third was from a country tat wants to join.

Can you guess which countries these people are from?

Person 1 - he said it was a shame the UK was leaving as his country always saw the UK as a kindered spirit within the EU. Generally we voted the same way and we were a useful ally against some larger more 'federal' nations

Person 2 - a bit more vocal! He saw Brexit as a triumph of nationalism over international cooperation and the UK was trying to 'turn back the clock' to pre-1939 while the rest of the world has moved on. I made the point that the UK hasn't been invaded for over a thousand years and s has never really felt the breakdown of diplomacy to a great extent which he liked. He got in to a big argument with a Trump supporter on the same issue!

Person 3 - from a country that wants to join. From the outside looking in, it was a club that non EU European countries really want to join. Accepting a small loss of sovereignty was a small price to pay for the prosperity of being an EU country. Big hint - she made the point that they changed the name of the country to ease accession to the EU.

It was a fun discussion. I tried to play devils advocate and use some of the arguments seen on here and elsewhere on leaving

1. Denmark
2. France
3. FYR Macedonia