[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

1/ Didn't care what the other countries may or may not have wanted to do but the UK was not on course to do this in 2015 nor did I want it to.
2/ Don't know enough about the history of this to comment. Certainly, I'm pleased we left the ERM and I've never wanted the Euro.

I see our ideal position as somewhere between a full-on member like Germany and an affiliate like Switzerland. I thank we had the balance right before but we've now gone too far in the opposite direction but in time we will become closer.

An interesting perspective that I'd not seen from you before.
On the Euro/Germany thing, I did give a full explanation somewhere on how Germany rigged the Euro (by letting in Greece, and Portugal to depress the basket exchange value, despite their not meeting the required thresholds).

As to our ideal position, we had this in the early 1990s. It was all going swimmingly then; no WTD for a start.

My complaint, though, is now. The EU has shown itself through the EC, Macron and Merkel (and the perfidious Varadkar), to be a nasty bunch of revanchistes. However much I would have been content to remain in the EEC, now they are beyond the pale and to hell with them.

Which brings me to Ireland and a point you made in an earlier post.
The EU skilfully exploited May's weakness by shoving the entire GFA onus onto the UK - whereas the Republic had equal onus. Had we walked away, the Republic would have had to step up and the UK/Ireland could have sorted this out bilaterally. Except that their precious Internal Market would have poked its horns into this. We could have just stood back and say to Ireland "Sort it". Our entire stance was wrong, possibly blinded by the lure of a trade deal.