Having lived in The Netherlands let’s just say they’re not even in the same bloody universe as Brits when it comes to thinking they’re better than everybody else (in fact as far as I can tell the Dutch in general have almost no Nationalistic delusions of grandeur) and as for their Far-Right, the Dutch Far-Right took off led by a guy who was from the start very openly gay (something that would never happen in Britain) and it never exceeded 25% of the votes, whilst in the UK it took over the Tory Party during the Leave Referendum and went on to rule for 3 consecutive governments.
The kind of anti-immigration talk being pushed from the sidelines by the Far-Right in all those other countries is what the Tories (on of the two main British parties) has been pushing for over a decade in government.
Britain is pretty much 10 - 20 years ahead of the rest of Europe when it comes to the Far-Right dominating politics.
Having also lived and worked in the Netherlands they are some of the most casually racist people I’ve ever met. If you’re not white life is very different to if you are. This is not everyone, of course. I have life long friends that are Dutch and ok the whole they are warm and friendly. But you might have a different point of view of racism depending on how you look.
Far right populism is alive and well in Europe. The UK doesn’t have a monopoly on that. We should all be worried.
In Britain those casual racists were in power for the last 12 years (and have been replaced by a supposedly left-of-center mainstream party that’s so much to the Right they’re repeating the same anti-immigration bullshit as the other party).
Whilst living there I’ve had multiple non-white friends (from quite the range of origins and ancestries) being victims of racism and I myself was a victim of racism (whilst I’m supposedly “white”, I’m from Southern Europe, so a lot of Brits have massive prejudices against the likes of me).
In The Netherlands I had non-white friends and I never once heard any of them complain of “casual racism”. That said, it was more than a decade ago before the Theo van Gogh murder and I hear anti-Islamist really took off after that.
Bringing Britain back into the EU now would be like bringing Hungary in now if they were out.
And this is just one reason why Britain for now is not a good match for the EU we want to have (which has its own increasing racism problems, especially against people from the middle-east, and doesn’t really need to bring in even more Far-Right nutters), not going into other things such as how when in the EU they would often act in the service of American interests and were prone to blackmailing the rest with the veto to extract concessions for themselves alone (hence all the exceptions Britain had).
Bringing Britain back into the EU now would be like bringing Hungary in now if they were out.
No because, as I’ve explained to you, Britain doesn’t have a monopoly on racism or far right extremists. Actual current EU members have the very same issues you claim you don’t want to import into the EU. And quite frankly “not having racist incidents” is a daft entry requirement for no other reason than all member states would fail instantly. Which is why the EU doesn’t have this as a requirement.
not going into other things such as how when in the EU they would often act in the service of American interests and were prone to blackmailing the rest with the veto to extract concessions for themselves alone (hence all the exceptions Britain had).
You would be extremely naive to believe that the French don’t vote in their national interests when it comes to Common Agriculture Policy, or the Germans don’t act in thei interest when they negotiated cheap Russian gas to fuel their economy, or the Irish in their interests when they veto and drag their heels on mass corporate tax evasion, or the Poles when they protest and block Ukraine selling grain into the EU to raise funds so that they can stop Russian aggression. Every country in the EU is working in its own interest and insofar as the EU facilitates that they will continue doing so. It’s politically and historically naive to think otherwise. And I’m not knocking it, they should be working for their own interests as getting as much out of EU membership as they can. That’s why leaving was such a mistake because the UK could have gotten so much more out of the EU whilst being in than out.
The Netherlands, Germany, Italy, and France would like a word 😉
Having lived in The Netherlands let’s just say they’re not even in the same bloody universe as Brits when it comes to thinking they’re better than everybody else (in fact as far as I can tell the Dutch in general have almost no Nationalistic delusions of grandeur) and as for their Far-Right, the Dutch Far-Right took off led by a guy who was from the start very openly gay (something that would never happen in Britain) and it never exceeded 25% of the votes, whilst in the UK it took over the Tory Party during the Leave Referendum and went on to rule for 3 consecutive governments.
The kind of anti-immigration talk being pushed from the sidelines by the Far-Right in all those other countries is what the Tories (on of the two main British parties) has been pushing for over a decade in government.
Britain is pretty much 10 - 20 years ahead of the rest of Europe when it comes to the Far-Right dominating politics.
Having also lived and worked in the Netherlands they are some of the most casually racist people I’ve ever met. If you’re not white life is very different to if you are. This is not everyone, of course. I have life long friends that are Dutch and ok the whole they are warm and friendly. But you might have a different point of view of racism depending on how you look.
Far right populism is alive and well in Europe. The UK doesn’t have a monopoly on that. We should all be worried.
In Britain those casual racists were in power for the last 12 years (and have been replaced by a supposedly left-of-center mainstream party that’s so much to the Right they’re repeating the same anti-immigration bullshit as the other party).
Whilst living there I’ve had multiple non-white friends (from quite the range of origins and ancestries) being victims of racism and I myself was a victim of racism (whilst I’m supposedly “white”, I’m from Southern Europe, so a lot of Brits have massive prejudices against the likes of me).
In The Netherlands I had non-white friends and I never once heard any of them complain of “casual racism”. That said, it was more than a decade ago before the Theo van Gogh murder and I hear anti-Islamist really took off after that.
Bringing Britain back into the EU now would be like bringing Hungary in now if they were out.
And this is just one reason why Britain for now is not a good match for the EU we want to have (which has its own increasing racism problems, especially against people from the middle-east, and doesn’t really need to bring in even more Far-Right nutters), not going into other things such as how when in the EU they would often act in the service of American interests and were prone to blackmailing the rest with the veto to extract concessions for themselves alone (hence all the exceptions Britain had).
No because, as I’ve explained to you, Britain doesn’t have a monopoly on racism or far right extremists. Actual current EU members have the very same issues you claim you don’t want to import into the EU. And quite frankly “not having racist incidents” is a daft entry requirement for no other reason than all member states would fail instantly. Which is why the EU doesn’t have this as a requirement.
You would be extremely naive to believe that the French don’t vote in their national interests when it comes to Common Agriculture Policy, or the Germans don’t act in thei interest when they negotiated cheap Russian gas to fuel their economy, or the Irish in their interests when they veto and drag their heels on mass corporate tax evasion, or the Poles when they protest and block Ukraine selling grain into the EU to raise funds so that they can stop Russian aggression. Every country in the EU is working in its own interest and insofar as the EU facilitates that they will continue doing so. It’s politically and historically naive to think otherwise. And I’m not knocking it, they should be working for their own interests as getting as much out of EU membership as they can. That’s why leaving was such a mistake because the UK could have gotten so much more out of the EU whilst being in than out.