Scammers are getting more clever every year, it’s just one of those things.

With email accounts they tend to get hacked with alarming regularity, I’d suggest your friend change his other passwords as well asap.

The UK head of state is a constitutional monarch with, effectively, no power whatsoever. A figurehead.

The UK Prime Minister is a democratically elected member of the House of Commons and the as the leader of the largest party the Prime Minister of the country.

So I see no relevant comparison with the EU model there.

We do not trade with Europe, we trade with individual member countries. The EU as an “entity” does not trade in anything.

Our leading export partners in 2012 were:

Germany, US, Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Ireland and Belgium

Our leading import partners in 2102 were:

Germany, China, Netherlands, US, France, Belgium and Norway.

You’re avoiding the point a bit about the monarchy – if you think that democracy is the most important thing for the EU then why not the UK? Even the top jobs in the EU have to be approved by elected MEPs or elected heads of government. In the UK voters don’t get to have any say about who government advisors are, UK ambassadors, civil servants, military leaders, or even who our Head of State is. Most of these have to get the OK from our representatives, the same as lots of EU officials.

The UK Prime Minister is only democratically elected by the people of one single constituency in the UK, and they only hold their office because they lead the single largest party in the UK House of Commons. The vast, overwhelming majority of the population had no say whatsoever in who became these party leaders in the first place – it’s very much indirect democracy.

And yes, we trade with the EU states individually, but agreements to trade with the EU are made by the EU as a whole, so considering it as an entity is very relevant. If we left the EU we would have to negotiate with the EU as an entity, not individual member states.

Re 16

How can the trading nations that comprise the EU be our major market when we now export less to them than we do to the trading nations that comprise the rest of the world and who now buy a larger slice of our exports than the EU?

Yes, I agree, the nations that comprise the EU are an important market for our exports but they are not, according to the ONS, and using your words: ‘our major market’.

I concede that the gap between what the EU buys from us and what the rest of the world buys, seems to be variable according to which stats you’re prepared to accept.

This comment plus that at #10 is my reply.

One further point; When the euro collapses, countries will still continue, almost seamlessly, to buy and sell – they have to, to exist. The euro will rapidly become an irrelevance as nations revert to familiar and tested currencies.

John, as a single entity the EU is our largest trading partner – this isn’t a difficult concept to grasp.

Indeed I remember it, one huge flame war that made the F-35 news and discussion thread look like well meaning, rational and friendly debate in comparison!

Indeed. I wonder how long ago it was, now that I think about it? Must be a while, I’ve been posting here for 10 years now! Time is starting to catch up with me!

But it’s true. Less than half the population of London are white British people, due in part to Labours open door immigration policy. And that population is declining.

How can it be racism to state a fact?

This is exactly the sort of bleeding heart liberal, PC obsessed attitude that is making people afraid of speaking the truth for fear of reprisal.

Except it isn’t true, at least not how he described it. If he had made a factual statement that the demographics of London are changing, and the proportion of white residents was diminishing, that would be one thing. Suggesting that white people are being ‘ethnically cleansed’ with all the connotations of that phrase, is patently absurd.

Getting back to the F-35, this little gem was in the news thread:

Why Can’t America’s Newest Stealth Jet Land Like It’s Supposed To?

Seems like a par for the course anti-F-35 article, and more than a little light on actual facts.

Please Tango can you do an army news thread. In General Discussion forum maybe. You have Airforces and Navies and now missiles. Armies makes it complete. Please do it. Im sure the rest of the forum would agree it would be great

There used to be an army forum here years ago but it got scrapped, I don’t think the mods would allow it.