Contributor Leaderboard

Well said

Rather than the little local difficulty we've been fed by the media it rather looks like the second spanish civil war is about to break out. A complete mishandling of the matter by Madrid being the major factor. What we are seeing in Spain is what we've always been careful to avoid in the UK. It's also what could easily have happened if there had been an EU-style attempt to ignore or overturn the referendum result. The Catalans seem to be going about it in the right way in launching their own currency. If only the Greeks had had this much sense, or at least the sense to ignore the ECB and let the printing presses run whilst they still had the ability. Spain's plot to use Brexit to enslave the Gibraltarians is now looking like a silly joke, as yet another plank of the remainer case (the allegedly sensitive Gibraltar issue) is kicked away. Will the Basques seize this opportunity, or will the EU's mounting problems surface somewhere else first? The Leave campaign said we needed to be clear of the EU as soon as possible to avoid getting dragged into the looming mess with British forces becoming involved - we are not clear yet!

Thanks for the compliment Merk, even if it was a tad backhanded! It would have sparked mass civil disobedience. The targets would have been obvious, and included the political classes. There's a very good chance that the military would have become involved, and it wouldn't have been on the side of the politicos. We've been a lot closer to a military takeover in our lifetimes than a lot of people would care to admit. As the revolution would have been on behalf of the monarchy and country, the Queen would have had no alternative but to suspend parliament and (after lots of consultation) appoint people who would command public respect. Basically our political system would have finally exceeded all former cronyism, and made itself redundant. Not too many people would have shed tears about that. The ruling classes know this, and that their tenure isn't as firm as they pretend; hence why the referendum result could have be nothing other than binding. Large numbers of them still believe they can hoodwink the public though. Blair and Osborne are not alone! Catalonia will be overstamping Euro notes, as the Greeks should have done. It really doesn't matter if it's accepted outside Catalonia at the moment as long as local trade proceeds. Official acceptance at the local level is all that is required. What is the Euro backed by? The answer to that is nothing but promises the German taxpayer isn't really aware of - yet! What happens when the German taxpayer wakes up and says enough? Merkel is already struggling to form another government, and is going to have to make major compromises in order to cling on to power. On NATO: Just because there's mutual interest in one sphere don't run away with the idea that this extends to others.The EU doesn't actually want any part in NATO (hence they don't pay their dues), and NATO wouldn't become involved. Our mutual friend Mr Trump would make sure of this. As the snowflakes are told it's the EU that has maintained peace in Europe since 1945 why would "Europe" need an Anglo Saxon dominated and controlled body? The EU is busting a gut to form its own army and a beefed up civil intervention force. But this has to be done by stealth, or even more people will smell the Juncker rat. Spain doesn't present them with the desire excuse - quite yet. They'd actually want a total mess in Spain, so they could step in and compartmentalise it into EU regions.