melesian

Every single one of the predictions of the Brexiters has been exploded: migration, taxation, funding the NHS, better public services etc.

The cost of implementing customs controls ALONE amounted to more than the sum total of UK contributions to the EU budget from day 1 of the UK joining the common market. The losses to the UK economy have been staggering -- up to 8% of GDP on a recurring basis. And no the UK didn't have a cold-turkey exit from the EU, that would have been a "no deal" exit.

But... but... splutter Brexiters, "look at Germany". Always looking at growth rates and cherrypicking data. Germany has had a massive increase in energy costs, far greater than experienced in the UK.

Go on: tell us Brexit is a mere "flesh wound"

Brexit has been a bone-crushing failure and repeated polls show a majority of the electorate knows it. A toxic minority of older voters, the UK's MAGA cohort, is ready to double down, and all they will achieve if they get anywhere near govt is the breakup of the UK, wihch of course many younger non-English voters support. Either way it's been a quite boon to the EU.

Your condescension and arrogance is amusing. The British discoverer of the metal, Sir Humphrey Davy, named it aluminum, which Americans still use.

Patronizing rubbish. The EU builds plenty of EVs, rockets and fighter jets and has far more subway systems and public transport than the US.

Europe is already great. It's why hundreds of thousands of Americans moved here in 2025.

As for being a vassal: Trump was warned of the consequences of invading Greenland and he backed down immediately. Some vassal.

You can be very sure that millions of Europeans and large numbers of businesses are finding alternatives.

The absence of war in Europe is more down to the EU than the US. Polls do not consistently show anything of the sort.

The UK itself lost one third of its land area in 1921, following yet another insurrection in Ireland (always a coerced part of the UK subject to genocidal rule and expropriation).

The last straw for the Irish was summary executions of the insurrectionists and the ravages of the Black and Tans -- like ICE but with arsonists and criminals, but without masks. The US will be fortunate if the parallels remain only financial.

Oh look, an ignorant begrudger. I don't know many banana republics with a well-educated workforce let lone the best educated workforce in the world.

Perhaps you'd like to compare Ireland's position in the Human Development Index with that of its neighbours?

Ireland started by not leving tax on income from writing on writers for specific cultural reasons -- to support and encourage writers.

It's a cultural norm. Extending it to other generally penniless artists is too.

When universities in other countries start running courses on Irish food service workers we can reasonably expect them to be included.

On the contrary, the EU is the solution.

Blinkered nonsense.

Yes, of course Europe doesn't have any US laws but to suggest that it doesn't have legislation about accessibility is simply wrong. Guess what... the legislation generally applies to buildings and construction post-dating the legislation. Applicability to earlier structures will vary depending on feasability and justification (cost, traffic).

If American companies don't want to pay taxes in Europe they can easily avoid doing so by staying home. If they prefer to earn profits in Europe they can comply with the law. As it is they do everything they can to avoid paying taxes, full stop, not just in Europe.

I want a Linux phone based on open source hardware. I gave up an iPhone for Android then switched to Pixels. My current Pixel 7 will be my last Google phone. I want out of the surveillance economy. I want AI assistance as badly I want a hole in the head.

I carry an 8 inch tablet (fits in a jacket pocket) and do most of my mobile web, email, podcast listening etc. on that, using my phone as a hotspot. Can't buy a new 8 inch tablet with a fingerprint reader. Got a couple of 2nd hand ones on eBay and will soon look at putting LineageOS on them (they have out of date versions of Android).

The fact that most research participants and their families are unaware that they are part of a vaccine trial, leaves no room for justice or compensation.

What an absolute load of tripe.

Straight from disease surveillance being a bad thing (it isn't) to this drivel /eyeroll.

Disease surveillance helps stop potential pandemics before the cost of addressing them and the damage the can cause, including loss of life, reaches colossal proportions. Recommended reading: The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett.

I note how the conspiratorial assertion of Africans being used, in effect, as guinea pigs is entirely unsupported by any evidence whatever. Vaccine trials happen everywhere, not just in Africa, and no national healthcare system in Africa blindly accepts vaccines as if people were experimental animals.

Did you give informed consent yourself for the childhood vaccinations you received?

National economic statistics -- GDP, GNI etc. only tell you so much. Measures of human wellbeing I'd argue tell you more.

Ireland is ahead of the UK on every metric, from child mortality to longevity and everything in between -- and the gap is widening.

French and Germans were not depicted in English publications as apes.

The Irish were coerced into the UK and were officially British citizens, that is ostensibly, co-nationals. They weren't treated as such because those in power regarded them as subhuman. If that isn't racism the word is devoid of meaning.

Dumping things that aren't up to standard for sale in the EU is routine since the UK left the EU single market. The EU implemented full customs controls and goods inspections on day 1 after the UK left. To date the British still don't have either the infrastructure or the staff to do the same. As result it has become a magnet for substandard goods, both originating in the EU and passing through it (e.g. from Rotterdam).

The estimated cost for the UK to implement full controls amounts to more than the entire sum of the UK's near 50 year contributions to the EU budget. And that's only one of dozens of areas where the EU saves money by agreeing common standards.

If you visit any store in the EU selling new phones or tablets you will find only USB-C devices for sale. No enforcement required.

What the Chinese do with cheap products sold on AliExpress isn't important. Obliging big manufacturers to adopt common standards reduces environmental waste and helps cut down on gratuitous exploitation of consumers.

You can find plenty of 2nd hand devices for sale with non-USB-C connectors and no, the police, aren't arresting people for selling them, nor is their sale illegal.

https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/books/232/

You don't appear well informed about the EU or about the consequences of Brexit for British manufacturers. If you're implying some kind of EU civil servant driven influence over decisions in the UK I suggest you acquaint yourself with happened with the UK's UKCA mark.

Very simply, maintaining two production lines or trying to engage in pointless differentiation from the standards of your largest export market is costly and potentially futile.

No need for any EU-bashing conspiracy theory nonsense. It's an association of democracies with a democratically elected parliament that approves EU legislation.

I'll help (there's plenty more if you care to look): https://www.trethowans.com/insights/is-this-the-end-of-the-u...

Perhaps you should inform yourself by reading the DMA. You won't find in it anything about Apple or anyone else hindering developers from selling elsewhere.

What the EU is regulating is fair competition for very large platforms, defined as having 45m or more users. These benefit from network effects and may be operated in ways that inhibit competition.

Do you also believe that John D. Rockefeller never did anything anti-competitive? lol

If Apple wants to sell in the EU it will have to abide by EU rules decided by democratically elected politicians. The US has proven incapable and or unwilling to regulate big tech. The EU has been slow and won't always get it right first time but it's trying. This is why EU citizens have e.f., privacy rights Americans don't, why broadband costs way less in the EU than the US etc.

If parasitism is what interests you I suggest directing your attention to rentier capitalism and the never ending upward flow of wealth to the 1% and the extent to which US politicians are owned by billionaires.

Typical BS from a house journal of those who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

It's not simply about what you SEE. It's about tracking what sites you visit, where you are, what information can be collated to profile you in any and every way: your political preferences and likely interests can be gathered with some degree of probability from such things as your taste in music. Google buys your purchase history. Facebook has over 4,000 data points on you even if you don't use Facebook (use WhatsApp? people you know do? you're in their phone's address book?). Microsoft, Amazon and others likewise.

The data are for sale.

This is how Trump got elected and the UK got Brexit. Microtargeted political messages to persuade a proportion of the population to vote the way the very rich wanted them to vote.

This is naive. Read https://www.eff.org/wp/behind-the-one-way-mirror.

There's nothing wrong with traditional advertising. That's not the world and surveillanace economy we now live in, where you don't have to click on anything.

And you should be as or more worried about democracy than the web. We managed without the web. Living without democracy would be far worse, imo.

Not self-hosting. Linking by identifying key fields. Currently just using password login.

I help run a small non-profit that has managed data in a number of spreadsheets. Grist made it v simple to pull the data into a web site linking it together with a variety of different scrollable views. Came across it while looking for lo- and no-code solutions and quickly stopped looking. It was just the ticket.

What does this do that broot doesn't?

100%! It's an employee-owned company that is ethical and responsive. I've been with them for years and their service is outstanding both technically and in terms of support. Vastly preferable to the UI shambles that is Gmail and every "free" alternative.

Arrant nonsense. The Irish rejected the Lisbon Treaty. It was then amended to address Irish objections and then approved, not just by the Irish electorate (whose approval is constitutionally required for all constitutionally significant legislation) and then by 27 other EU member state parliaments.

Clearly, you have have no idea whatever what you're talking about, and subscribe to conspiracy theory BS without bothering to do any homework because it fits your prejudices

It appears you don't understand the role of the directly elected EU parliament.

It can and has fired the entire Commission in the past, and it must approve EU legislation.

Much more fun to subscribe to a conspiracy theory about all-powerful people behind the curtain though.

The EU is a democratically constituted association of democracies committed to collective action in shared interests. Your assertion that it is a propaganda machine and use of hyperbole like supreme irony is juvenile nonsense. You don't like unregulated capitalism? Too bad.