Brexit: the negotiation process

It staggers me the posters who believe in democracy when it agrees with their views. There was a referendum, the country voted to leave, the Parliamentary procedure has been followed and notice is to be shortly formerly given. There will not be a new vote, there will not be a change of policy because some people disagree. It would be productive to look how London and the UK can get the best outlook and be best prepared to take advantage. It is so pointless pretending Brexit will not happen. By,focusing on the past and living in demial you ignore the opportunities available for today and tomorrow. Lomdon needs to clean up the pollution, get rid of diesels, improve roads to minimize congestion and separate bicycle, pedestrian and motorized traffic. London needs integrated public Transport. Maybe Eurostar should come under TfL as it is a London Service. London needs affordable housing, London needs to protect those who are made self employed on zero hours contracts and who have lost the employment rights they had in the days before the EU when Unions were stronger. Tuere is so much to be done to make London better none of which are achieved by saying I do not like it so it is not democratic. How are we going to make London relevant to people from Africa, Asia, Australasia, the Americas? The world is not all White European, why do people want to ignore everyone else?

Too many people in this thread fail to realize that "democracy" does not mean blindly following along with an obviously destructive goal just because a thin majority voted for it once, in a referendum full of conscious misinformation no less. If you're going to use democracy in your argument then that also means the other side bring able to criticize what you're doing. There are many legitimate reasons to oppose Brexit and we are not going to simply shut up just because xenophonia is now the new normal in this country. To me it's a raging disappointment that that's what this country now stands for and obviously I'm not alone in this outlook.

Brexiters name-calling and bullying people into silence does absolutely nothing to convince me they have a genuine cause.

Brexit is here. Mainly due to the weak Conservative previous Prime minister.
The media are fuelling all kinds of crisis. Our negotiators will try and get the best deal but it will not please everyone, especially politicians who prefer to score points rather than help run our country.
There can be no fail safe plan. If Brussels and UK cannot agree then we go back and re-negotiate not walk away as some have suggested. As far as immigration is concerned people can apply for jobs here by work permit and we do the same if we wish to work in the Europe. People from anywhere outside our country have to be monitored.

I agree with the first commenter Greg Tingey.
People seem to sleepwalking into a disaster, and probably will wish they had stayed in the EU when it is too late.
Mrs may tells Scotland to stay with England as we are there nearest and main trading partner, while at the same time she is taking the UK away from its nearest and main trading partner. Daft.
Pity London's Mayor is not PM we might get some sense.

NO the decision has been made so accept it. It can not come soon enough as far as I am concerned. The country including London is extremely overcrowded and British people are suffering due to the influx of terrorists, criminals and unskilled illegal immigrants.I want my country back. I want to feel I am in England not Europe. If people move here they should learn to speak English and confirm to British culture but they don't.

On top of the priorities highlighted by the Mayor, I would add an agreement for the top Universities in London (UCL, KCL, LSE, Imperial) to retain the pool of European talent in research and students. Also an agreement for these Universities that would allow them to take part in European Consortiums for Research (Horizon 2020, for instance).

I think this list is too exclusive. London needs to ensure it can get the best talent from around the world and ensure the best standards worldwide and unfettered acess to service and trade markets globally. Ignoring the non "White European" areas of the world is not in Lomdon's interest.

I agree with Greg Tingey, but perhaps to make sure, we should suggest that Brexit should be cancelled

I am sorry to have to say this, but in my view, triggering A50 will be one of the most asinine and stupid things that this Government has ever done, that is, apart from having the EU Referendum at all.

The recent White Paper stated that Parliament was always sovereign anyway - and the vast majority of EU laws that the UK subscribed to were pro-consumer, pro-ordinary worker and ensuring that big business did not overstep the mark.

Even if we leave the EU, there will still be immigration because there has been a skill shortage in the UK plus large companies will always keep costs down in any way they can. Also, most trade treaties with other countries have clauses about making it easier for their nationals to come to the UK. Nothing wrong with this in my book - but it is probably not what the average Brexiteer voted for! A latest report for the Lords states that ending free movement may not cut migration – see:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39178288

The Leavers implemented Project Lie - ordinary people were not told that their problems were not because of EU policy, but because successive UK Governments, both Labour and Tory had allowed the current economic situation to materialise, including over-priced housing that keeps many young folks, who do not have access to the Bank of Mum & Dad, away from buying their own home.

We no longer have an indigenous ship building industry to speak of, we no longer have an indigenous car industry to speak of and we no longer have a UK aircraft building industry to speak of. Most of our utilities and railways are now franchised out, in many cases to European state-owned companies, who are laughing at us. Profits from these utilities go our European friends (and elsewhere of course) who are now subsidising their taxpayers, not ours. Former Business Secretary Sir Vince Cable expressed concerns about jobs because of the government's "lack of commitment to the customs union and the single market".
Sir Vince Cable stated:
“Car components have to go backwards and forwards across frontiers and they will acquire tariffs and checks. Vauxhall is particularly exposed to this, [as] about 80% of its exports are to the European Union. If you're a hard-headed car executive looking at the competitiveness of Britain versus German plants, Britain, I'm afraid, is going to slip down the ranking in future."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39175740

George Osborne warns against leaving EU without a trade deal:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39116895

Many thousands of workers in the finance sector will move away from London, yet another own goal, because those finance workers also paid taxes and bought stuff whilst in the UK. One of Germany's most senior banking regulators has warned London that it is likely to lose its role as "the gateway to Europe" for vital financial services. Dr Andreas Dombret, executive board member for the German central bank, the Bundesbank, said that even if banking rules were "equivalent" between the UK and the rest of the European Union, that was "miles away from access to the single market".
Mr Dombret's comments were made at a private meeting of German businesses and banks organised by Boston Consulting Group in Frankfurt earlier this week.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38925440

The UK still hangs on to tax havens - nothing whatsoever to do with the EU - and money deposited in those tax havens are largely exempt from tax, thus further decreasing money going into the UK Exchequer - which in turn means more cuts on the already poor.

To survive, the UK has to sell arms to Saudi Arabia and now Theresa May wants to sell arms to President Erdogan in Turkey, who will doubtless use them against the Kurds, who valiantly supported the UK against Daesh. Theresa May now has to - of yet another unsavoury character, namely the new neo-con POTUS, in order to try to sell whatever to the US. Our position as a trading nation will be made worse, not better, as a result of leaving the EU. Of course, we look to countries outside the EU to make trade deals with but, as an example, India says that a UK free trade deal will take years. India's finance minister has said that a free trade deal with Britain will take a "long time" and that no negotiations will start until the Brexit process has been completed.
On a visit to the UK today to meet the chancellor and the foreign secretary to discuss trade, Arun Jaitley, Minister of Finance of India, said there was "great enthusiasm" for a deal.
But he made it clear that any talks would have to run "in parallel" with current Indian negotiations with the European Union (EU). The EU and India launched free trade talks in 2007 but progress has been slow.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39103078

Staying within the EU also means that around 27 countries are all trying to look collectively after each other to a great extent - leaving the EU means the UK pursues national interest only - how can this be better? When awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to the EU, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said its decision was based on the stabilising role the EU has played in transforming most of Europe from a continent of war to a continent of peace. The EU’s most important achievement, according to the committee, has been "the successful struggle for peace and reconciliation and for democracy and human rights". The work of the EU represents "fraternity between nations" and amounts to a form of the "peace congresses" cited by Alfred Nobel as criteria for the Peace Prize in his 1895 will.
https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/history/2010-today/2012/eu-no…

The EU Referendum was advisory and the vote was not large enough to justify going ahead. It is more patriotic to do what is best for the country - in particular, what is best for the JAMs (Just About Managing) and those below the JAMs who are not managing at all.