Norway Warns Uk Against Eu Exit

[jake-the-peg]

Norway's Foreign minister has cautioned the UK against leaving the EU.

Norway is not a member and is used as a model by Euro-skeptics of how the UK could continue after leaving the EU.

"We are not at the table when decisions are made" he said

Is this a prophetic warning of how the UK could lose it's voice and influence in the world's largest economy?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20830201

[ZedBloke]

where is this oil and gas going to come from?

[Wharton]

Somewhere between Lerwick and Oslo.

[ZedBloke]

So are the people of Shetland getting any say?

[mushroom25]

the representatives of orkney and shetland have already indicated that their participation in an independent scotland cannot be taken as a "given". there is the possibility if comrade salmond gets his independence mandate, the islanders may refuse to leave the UK.

[starone]

Excuse me entering the discussion. I don't really understand most of it but it seems to me that rather than being a successful economy it is a dismal failure and consequently the quicker we can leave by fair means or foul the better it will be for us. Bet this will put the cat among the pigeons!

[Wharton]

Everyone in Scotland will have a say.

[ZedBloke]

Orkney and Shetland are not part of Scotland, Are they to be annexed?

[Wharton]

By whom?

[ZedBloke]

err the newly independent Scotland?? Orkney and Shetland are ot part of Scotland they have actually stated that they are not necessarily willing to be part of an Independent Scotland.

[Wharton]

Orkney and Shetland will participate in the 2014 independence vote and will accept the democratic outcome, as shall we all.

[mushroom25]

wharton, at 16h53, you wrote "In 2014 Scotland will be an independent country."

this is somewhat at odds with your later statement that all who vote "will accept the democratic outcome", and suggests that if the vote is against independence, mr salmond and his supporters will just ignore the vote and break away.

[bazwillrun]

And you can bet your bottom dollar the EUSSR are doing everything they can to try and get norway in, to get hold of their resources.

norway is another thorn in the rs of the EU

[Wharton]

mushroom25, I'll put it another way to you. In 2014 the Scottish people will vote to become independent.....and it's nice to see you now refer to Salmond as 'mr' and not 'comrade'.

[mushroom25]

//In 2014 the Scottish people will vote to become independent//

that still sounds like you believe the vote will be a foregone conclusion.

[Wharton]

I know of no country whose population voted to be dependent.

[VHG]

But if we leave the EU we miss out on things like this

http://tinyurl.com/cl6sxez

[VHG]

And we would miss out on this as well

http://tinyurl.com/ce3d7sm

[ZedBloke]

The OP seems to have abandonned this post!

[New Judge]

Things have moved on a bit since I went out for a pie and a point and we seem to have shifted a bit off topic. But no matter.

Should the Scots vote to break away from the Union (by no means a foregone conclusion and something which, as a non-gambler, I would wager against) the EU has made it quite clear that they will have to apply for membership in their own right. Leaving aside the perplexing matter that having voted to leave one union which causes them little harm, they may then apply to join another union which most certainly will, the Scots should realise that they will have to join the queue behind such beacons of Peace, Human Rights and free trade as Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Turkey and perhaps less threateningly, Iceland. They should also bear in mind that they will have to adopt the Euro as no opt-out from the single currency is available for new member states.

I find it highly amusing that Mr Salmond is desperate to disconnect Scotland from the UK (a move, as an Englishman I heartily endorse) which, for all its faults, provides the Scots with a standard of living they could only dream of if they were independent. But they may then go on to join an undemocratic corrupt union from which they will gain very little. (Though, on second thoughts, most of the States without a pot to pi55 in do not seem to have done too badly out of the EU.

[New Judge]

A pie and a point! Shome mishtake shurely !!!