“Scheming EU states” is a total flame bait headline. The UK is not part of the EU, so why should they be included in any of this? They should be HAPPY about the EU not “meddling” with their “freedom”!
Not only that, but there are also two arrows on this map going into the UK. It’s up to the UK to take care of how well these arrows connect to important locations within their borders. There really doesn’t appear to be an issue whatsoever.
Not really, though? There are no development plans for the new railways in the UK and furthermore the entirety of the UK is greyed out but all the independent area of Ireland is part of the map.
Listen, I’m not defending the article written by people who supported Brexit then got mad about how much of a shit deal Brexit is for them, but the point of the above comment is that the maps include arrows connecting to UK Railways, but that’s besides the point because the larger context of the discussion is about how a massive Railway Expansion project completely excludes the UK. It’s completely moot and irrelevant to talk about the existing railways.
the UK cannot be included, because they aren’t a Schengen-member and the EU doesn’t want customs checks on their train lines…
it’s entirely up to the UK what they do with their rails within their borders.
and as was already pointed out:
there already IS a connection between the EU and the UK!!
the new plans are largely for connections between capitals of EU countries and major population centers, both of which already have rail connections in the UK.
so what do you expect the EU to do about the rail network in the UK?
Huh? Apologies for being slow but what is your point?
My neighbour redid their driveway, it completely excludes my driveway, obviously. We used to share a driveway mind you and we could have shared the cost of whe work on both our driveway but I got uptight because he let brown people use both our driveways. I told him driveways first, my driveway is losing its identity due to all the brown people and I got the whole neighbourhood to vote against shared driveways.
Pretty fucking cunty of him to only redo his driveway now though innit?
These arrows already exist! The France one is the English tunnel and the Ireland one is there because they need to make Ireland feel like one island. The uk dont have much control over how well they connect to their border. I think the uk would have benefited from this plan as they seem to be having problems with trains
The UK doesn’t need to be part of this really, there’s one link to mainland Europe (the channel tunnel) and the rest should just be sensible UK road and rail network planning. NI and Ireland already have ways to cooperate when it comes to planning transport on the Ireland of Island.
I say “in theory” because our government just scrapped HS2 phase 2, so our rail network is going to continue to be shit for years.
If that idiotic and corrosive Brexit campaign had been defeated, the headline might be screaming how scheming EU nations drag the UK into their expensive transport plans.
Also the same mindless parrots on their tellys and newspapers would be mindlessly arguing the point, tossing out word salads, exactly as they would with the EU making their plans and keeping the UK out of them.
Meanwhile, non-voters who could have made a difference will be just as idiotic on polling day: “Politics is for wankers/both parties are the same. Shall we go for drinks?”
It’s wild to me how America, UK, and Canada are dealing with these idiotic right wing extremists or fans. It did not go well in the states, is still not going well, but people in other countries are all agreeing that yeah now is the time to be loud, racist, shitholes who make life worse for everyone with their stupidity??? What the fuuuck
Step 1) blame everyone else for everything that’s wrong. Step 2) promise all the good things if only people vote for you. If they are actually gullible enough to do that we come to step 3) grab all the wealth you can and shift it to your cronies, smash anything too heavy to carry off and leave the opposition in a smouldering ruin that you can then again blame and berate the next government for.
And you’d think at the latest when the Brexit happens and totally fucked up logistics, industry and the already ailing healthcare in the UK, the right-wing voters might have realized “Oh wait, maybe the people we’ve been voting for us have been lying and it was rather obvious with how they didn’t want to be associated with the shit they made us vote for after it actually worked out and they won the vote”. Nope. They’re proud of it. All the mean mean evil EU now being mean to lil’ ol’ England out of pure spite. Aye.
(to be fair we already did that a long time ago when we banished them to a damp, sad and depressing island in the north sea)
I heard on the radio this morning the government singing their own praises after reintroducing pint size bottles of wine. A “Brexit benefit”. This is after 99% of those surveyed said they wanted metric sizes. 99%!
Apparently initial proposals for this pre-date brexit by 26 years.
This is a Daily Express article. Utter trash, right wing yellow journalism. Rabidly pro-brexit, endorsed Liz Truss for PM. You know, the weird cheese lady who was outlasted by a lettuce.
Obviously brexit isn't going so well and neither is the latest tory PM, so it's time for their daily article about how the foreigners done ruined Engerland.
As a heathen Yank, I don’t have an actual stake in the whole thing. However, I can’t escape the following, as my considered opinion:
EU Proponent: “Hey, you know how it’s really easy to govern, fund, and defend nations and empires?”
Skeptical European: “Ummm…are you joking?”
EU Proponent: “Well, some of us were thinking.: what if we carve out a nebulous, constantly shifting middle-ground between a single nation, a group of nations, and an empire. Ya know, some kind of cobbled-together, mutated entity, possessing some characteristics of all those things, but never truly being any of them. That might be EVEN EASIER to manage.”
EU Proponent: “We figure the most important aspect would be a constant vagueness, regarding the enforcement of laws, standards, and regulations that all the nations in the semi-pseudo-super-nation group would have to follow.”
Skeptical European: “Come again?”
EU Proponent: “Well, it’s simple: maybe all the countries in the quasi-ultra-state would be bound to obey laws passed by the mega-parliament. But also, maybe they would still be sovereign states, and they wouldn’t have to obey those laws. But, then again, maybe they ARE supposed to obey them, technically, but there isn’t an effective method of enforcement. If everyone has to keep guessing, that will make sure everyone pays attention, and everything will go really smoothly.”
Skeptical European: “Ohhhhhkay. But we’ll still bully the shit out of Greece if they have financial problems, right?”
EU Proponent: “Oh, fuck yes. That’s 90 percent of why we’re even doing this.”
I think people in this comment section seem to think people who voted to leave the EU are shaking their fists in rage, why would they be? The diagram also looks sus in terms of legality
What’s truly bullshit about this map is Hungary. To get anywhere, you have to go through Budapest and it’s been like this since the last 150 years, when it comes to rail. Even though it has at least seven metropolitan areas outside of Pest county with population above 100k… NOPE! You have to go through two of the three major railway stations of Budapest.
What’s worse is say you are a local to Hungary and you live east of the Danube. You want to visit Lake Balaton in the west. You have to take the train to Budapest. You then transfer by Metró to the other railway station. And then take another train to the lake. Three fares and two transfers, which might be fine as an individual but adds up in costs and stress if you are with family or have accessibility needs. And by accessibility needs I’m just talking about being elderly (who mostly travel free or at a very reduced rate) or a stroller.
It’s always weird to read stuff from the UK to do with brexit. That paper is clearly some right wing rag and the reality is that we are connected via the channel tunnel and all that this is doing is leaving us off the maps and probably the reasoble prices.
But people like to rile it up like we are missing out on some grand EU mega plan that is going to save the world. The EU has plenty of problems and is not some sort of nirvana. Would I rather be in the EU? Yes it is better to be part of something. However it is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination and to be honest day to day it makes little difference to me. People in the UK are not crying into their union jack hankies, we have bigger problems like a completely corrupt and incompetent ruling class.
And since I was curious, here are the new guidelines adopted last week. Nothing revolutionary but an evolution in the right direction. I do find it personally interesting that the TEN-T apparently did not previously formally take into account military mobility…
TETP is just a nefarious scheme to dictate glorious typography to member states. Seriously that thing is good: Ridiculously legible and specifically so in “big font at long distances” situations, meanwhile both friendly and authoritative – exactly the kind of thing you want when asking for the way. No “yeah let me think where was that intersection” or “can’t you find your own way” but “Of course! Go straight ahead, first to the left, then the second right”.
Now if the EU would get around to telling member states that they should learn from each other in overall traffic and urban design, and follow the best practices that they can find anywhere. Which is diplomatic language for “Do as the Dutch do”.
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