May's Deal Suffers Third Defeat - What now?

perhaps I should have said its the stated ambition of the EU commission to harmonise tax rates rather than "could " change :slight_smile:

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Sure, and not to rabbit hole, but they’ve been trying to harmonise VAT rates for a long time (i.e., since about 1991). Throughout that time, the UK has maintained its zero ratings for children’s clothes. I don’t think that there’s anything on the horizon that would change that.

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thats a worthy opinion to have :slight_smile:

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How much of the British public would bother voting?

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We’ve never been too keen on participating, even when we weren’t trying to leave…

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It’s nice to have hope but thinking that the European Parliament is ever going to reduce taxes - which is what would be required to stop VAT on food which, as already noted, is the majority position - is taking wishful thinking a little too far.

So is leaving the EU :joy::joy::joy:

Doing the rounds tonight and seems to not be in previous comments:
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I know.

Remain voters are naive about the real nature of the EU.
Leave voters are naive to think that any vote on the subject will ever be respected.

It’s why I didn’t vote.

I think it should be 3 options:
Remain
Leave with no deal
Leave with “the deal”

However remain would have to get at least 50% to be considered the majority otherwise that would piss people off that leave won we just couldn’t decide how to leave and then then the majority within the leave vote if there was one would be the path to go down.

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Let’s hope Parliament are more decisive on Monday.

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Perhaps the only real way out of this now, is for the EU to actually have the balls to say to the UK Parliament, ‘Enough is enough, we’re not going to continue with this charade and we won’t grant any further extentions and you can leave without a deal’. But then even that won’t happen because they’re still fed up that one of their largest net contributors to the EU pot has almost slipped from their grasp. As it stands, if an extension is granted and it takes us into the European Elections, it’s game over for BREXIT.

I’ll admit, I’m no fan of the EU institution, I never have been. I’ve never voted for anyone sat in Brussels, Junker, Tusk or the rest of the EU cronies. They don’t speak for me personally, they’re only interested in creating a Federal European SuperState, and that quite frankly, scares the absolute crap out of me. Rant over!

Parliament, decisive

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(Happy birthday btw)

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So they admit they broke the law, mislead everyone in an advisory vote but let’s still go ahead with this? Deary me.

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Heard it said on Twitter earlier than it might have been their plan for a while to admit it this week on the principal that it was all done and dusted. Well

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No, other countries don’t charge VAT on other things they think should be exempted and there’s are also multiple reduced VAT categories each country has for multiple different things

The problem with this option is it splits the leave vote in order to allow remain to win. I noticed this months ago when it was suggested. A 50% margin for one option would complicate it.

It should be a simple 2 step question on the same ballot.

Question 1: Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union? Yes or No.
Question 2: If the United Kingdom votes to leave as a member of the European Union, how should the United Kingdom leave? [Listing options A, B or C (or D, or E, or F, or G, or H, or I, or J, or K, or L, or M, or N…).]

Many countries, and places like California, do it this way.

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I’m down for that option to be honest I just never realised they were a thing

Does having a “Question 2” not automatically make it so that there isn’t really a point in Question 1?

I also find issue (even as a remain voter) with having a Question that goes back over the brexit question (even if public opinion may have changed). I think a people’s vote, whilst the most sensible option (I think) is probably at the same time the trickiest.

I think we’re stuffed whatever we do.

Most people (members of the public) I see/hear via the media don’t seem to understand how our democracy works impacting the understanding of the previous vote and, more importantly, making any sort of future vote fraught with danger simply because of the unrealistic expectations that seem to result.

Despite all the political opinions on both sides of the debate, the one thing that the vote of June 2016 demonstrated is that as a nation we don’t know what we want. Parliament is now demonstrating that they share that opinion. In a strange and perverted sense that’s a little reassuring since they’re doing a really good job of representing the people as a result!

There is certainly no pain-free answer and I’m not convinced there’s even an achievable answer regardless of any pain threshold imposed.

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