I can't do this; I can't do that. Selfishness rules the world these days. Petulance and childish behaviour I have no time for. Britain had good deal, yes Britain, the whole country has a good deal but individuals only see what they can get out of it. The reality, in any event, is that Brits can still move too and work in the E.U. Yes there will be some minor inconveniences but nothing any reasonably minded person cannot accept. Well done Boris; you pulled it off despite all the moaning and pessimism by those wanting you to fail.

Lots of UK qualifications won't be valid in the EU anymore.

Anyway, here is a first draft simple analysis done by the Institute for Government.

https://www.instituteforgovernment.o...eal/governance

In actual fact that has been the case across many professions. Not all qualifications have been recognised, nothing new there! As regards the future, of course there will be ongoing negotiations. Even within the E.U. negotiations continue as circumstances are always changing.

Perhaps anyone on here who are crowing about the agreement can actually explain what Brexit was all about because it seems to me that the UK still has follow the vast majority of EU rules and laws especially in the field of human/workers rights and environmental law It has already cost the UK billions and will continue to cost the UK billions more firstly in ongoing payments to the EU(which was in Johnsons Withdrawal agreement ) huge costs for any NI business wanting to export to the rest of the UK and for UK businesses in general millions in additional paperwork staff costs and border delays as well its effect on individuals lives as uk businesses move to the EU and opportunities for study and cooperation are reduced As well the services sector is excluded from the EU which means that thousands of jobs will migrate from the City of London to the EU and of course uk banking is totally excluded from the EU because the UK does not want to follow EU banking rules on governance transparency and money laundering Which of course explains exactly the raison d'etre of Brexit The rich such as Mogg Sunak et al can now continue to hide their money away Russian criminals in the UK who make million pound donations to the Tory Party can continue to launder money through UK banks whilst ordinary people will be paying higher taxes prices and generally have a reduced standard of living but hey the UK has got a bit of extra fish So any explanation that helps me top understand Brexit will be gratefully received

I've woken up very serene about all of this.
Now it's up to the UK to prove it can take this forward, and in maybe 5 years time it should be clear what advantages have been gained. I'm going to reserve judgement until then, and hopefully over time I will come to understand what it's been all about. At present I have a blind spot on that. In particular I struggle with the point made above, that individuals are being selfish in thinking about .themselves because that is not the point. I guess I must be naive in thinking that a country should be all about its citizens first and foremost, because what is a country if not its citizens? I thought the point of having a strong economy is not in order to be able to say We're doing better than China / France / wherever, it's to empower its citizens, give them all a good standard of living, give those who want it scope to lead fulfilling lives and to have dreams and live them. A strong economy helps achieve this but there are other strands in achieving this too, and specifically being a member of the EU brought advantages for UK citizens. Empowering all its citizens and giving them freedoms was one of the main thrusts of the EU. But apparently Brexit is not about empowering British citizens. It's about sovereignty. And there, I hit a brick wall. Sovereignty is about who makes the laws that govern the country, and as a citizen I don't give a monkey's fart who makes the laws, what I care about is whether or not they are good laws. So the two problems that I can't get my head round are firstly, what makes British citizens different from citizens of other countries that they need different laws, and secondly, why Brexit was necessary because most of the things HMG has announced so far are things that they could have introduced as a member state. So I am looking forward with interest to watching and learning.

It's a crap deal, it's worse that the one that Mayhad, and at that time Johnson said it was unacceptable, he also stated, in Parliament, that one of the things was the Erasmus programme, which would never be abandoned, and so he's abandoned it now, one of the growing list of promises made by the Tories that has been thrown under the bus.

On Erasmus - apparently Johnson has announced a £100m scheme to enable British students to study abroad. It will be interesting to see how that improves on giving all British youngsters the automatic freedom to study anywhere in the EU. I'm guessing it'll focus on opportunities to study in non EU countries but I haven't seen any details yet.

I haven't read anything from people crowing about the merits of the agreement though quite obviously there are some who, like me, are happy with it. However I have read and continue to do so, people who are still whinging and moaning about leaving the E.U.!!!

Well put !

I think most people except some die-hard Brexiters will consider the deal better than no deal.

Part of the discussion is just the continuing astonishment of how Brexiters think and the natural worry for the country's future since Brexiters are in charge of the government and therefore one wonders what other inane decisions they will make.

So you are astonished at the way Brexiteers think. Have you considered that Brexiteers, let me remind you, who are in the majority are equally bemused by the constant whinging of remainers!

No more arguing about the two different sides of the vote regarding Brexit. The discussion is about the actual changes that will be put in place so that is the only thing that will be talked about in this thread. Any posts deviating from the given subject and any that are there purely to start an argument will be removed. I will not tolerate the forum becoming a venue for petty arguments. Discussions and diverse opinions are welcome.

Rosemary

It would seem, reading the press that most informed people believe it to be a very good deal. It is very easy to nitpick and select a point that suits an argument but overall it is an excellent deaL

This isn't selfishness. You can change "I can't" for "we can't". We (all 67 million of us) have lost at a stroke many fundamental freedoms that our generations took for granted and now our kids and our kids' kids cannot. A slow motion Greek tragedy.

I think you have it the wrong way around! At a stroke Britain has regained total independence of action that 50 million died for!! A good many of them British!! You are absolutely spot on though about taking things for granted!