From the Wiki linked in post #32848...
Quote
Renegotiation before the referendum
Main articles: United Kingdom renegotiation of European Union membership, 2015–16 and EU law
In early 2014, David Cameron outlined the changes he aimed to bring about in the EU and in the UK's relationship with it.[25] These were: additional immigration controls, especially for citizens of new EU member states; tougher immigration rules for present EU citizens; new powers for national parliaments collectively to veto proposed EU laws; new free-trade agreements and a reduction in bureaucracy for businesses; a lessening of the influence of the European Court of Human Rights on British police and courts; more power for individual member states, and less for the central EU; and abandonment of the EU notion of "ever closer union".[25] He intended to bring these about during a series of negotiations with other EU leaders and then, if re-elected, to announce a referendum.[25]
In November that year, Cameron gave an update on the negotiations and further details of his aims.[26] The key demands made of the EU were: on economic governance, to recognise officially that Eurozone laws would not necessarily apply to non-Eurozone EU members and the latter would not have to bail out troubled Eurozone economies; on competitiveness, to expand the single market and to set a target for the reduction of bureaucracy for businesses; on sovereignty, for the UK to be legally exempted from "ever closer union" and for national parliaments to be able collectively to veto proposed EU laws; and, on immigration, for EU citizens going to the UK for work to be unable to claim social housing or in-work benefits until they had worked there for four years, and for them to be unable to send child benefit payments overseas.[26][27]
The outcome of the renegotiations was announced in February 2016.[28] The renegotiated terms were in addition to the United Kingdom's existing opt-outs in the European Union and the UK rebate. The significance of the changes to the EU-UK agreement was contested and speculated upon, with none of the changes considered fundamental, but some considered important to many British people.[28] Some limits to in-work benefits for EU immigrants were agreed, but these would apply on a sliding scale for four years and would be for new immigrants only; before they could be applied, a country would have to get permission from the European Council.[28] Child benefit payments could still be made overseas, but these would be linked to the cost of living in the other country.[29] On sovereignty, the UK was reassured that it would not be required to participate in "ever closer union"; these reassurances were "in line with existing EU law".[28] Cameron's demand to allow national parliaments to veto proposed EU laws was modified to allow national parliaments collectively to object to proposed EU laws, in which case the European Council would reconsider the proposal before itself deciding what to do.[28] On economic governance, anti-discrimination regulations for non-Eurozone members would be reinforced, but they would be unable to veto any legislation.[30] The final two areas covered were proposals to "exclude from the scope of free movement rights, third country nationals who had no prior lawful residence in a Member State before marrying a Union citizen"[31] and to make it easier for member states to deport EU nationals for public policy or public security reasons.[32] The extent to which the various parts of the agreement would be legally binding is complex; no part of the agreement itself changed EU law, but some parts could be enforceable in international law.[33]
The EU had reportedly offered David Cameron a so-called "emergency brake", which would have allowed the UK to withhold social benefits to new immigrants for the first four years after they arrived; this brake could have been applied for a period of seven years.[34] That offer was still on the table at the time of the Brexit referendum, but expired when the vote determined that the UK would leave the EU. Cameron claimed that "he could have avoided Brexit had European leaders let him control migration", according to the Financial Times.[35][36] However, Angela Merkel said that the offer had not been made by the EU. Merkel stated in the German Parliament: "If you wish to have free access to the single market then you have to accept the fundamental European rights as well as obligations that come from it. This is as true for Great Britain as for anybody else."[37]
Looks to me like the real issue here is pretty much that the UK is pretty much upset with the EU's socialist leanings impacting the UK. This pretty much agrees with what I've said about socialism in general, many times before.
'The places in Europe where socialism SEEMS to be working, isn't TRUE socialism. It's more of a bastardized version of socialism where a given socialistic country can ONLY survive with the help of other countries.
Hence, the old rule of thumb that socialism has never worked... still holds true.
Read what I quoted above a few times, thinking about what I just said. It sure looks to me like the "people" in the UK are getting fed up with hauling some other countries asses out of the socialistic fire. And that THIS is the cause of the Leave vote.
/e I know I've said before that brexit was about immigration, and it is. But it ALSO seems to be about many OTHER socialistic ideas that the EU is trying to foist on all it's members.
This post was edited by Ghot on Oct 6 2019 10:11pm