Yes Minister — Why Britain Joined the European Union

What Hacker News said

Strong rec kstenerud · 2021-04 · on “The EU archived “Euromyths” printed in UK media (2018)”

The TV show "Yes, Minister" was a truly amazing show because of the brilliant writing, and how humorously it could speak the truth: Sir Humphrey Appleby: The Foreign Office is pro-Europe because it’s really anti-Europe. The civil service was united in its desire to make sure that the Common Market didn’t work. That’s why we went into it. Britain has had the same foreign policy objective for at least 500 years: to create a disunited Europe. In that cause we have fought with the Dutch against the Spanish, with the Germans against the French, French and Italians against the Germans, and the French against the Germans and Italians. Divide and rule, you see. Why should we change now, when it’s wo

Recommends fmajid · 2020-12 · on “Morgan Stanley to Shift About $120B of Assets to Germany”

The UK was in favor of enlargement precisely because it would hinder integration. The best explanation of this: [this video]

Cites Terr_ · 2016-10 · on “The “432 Hz vs. 440 Hz” conspiracy theory”

> our relationship with Great Britain throughout history I've been watching some episodes of "Yes Minister", a British comedy show from about 30 years ago, and it's weird how much is still relevant. [this video]

Cites harryf · 2017-01 · on “Theresa May: UK must leave European single market”

"I want my money back!" Margret Thatcher at the European Union summit in Dublin in 1980 "That such an unnecessary and irrational project as building a European superstate was ever embarked upon will seem in future years to be perhaps the greatest folly of the modern era. And that Britain, with her traditional strengths and global destiny, should ever have been part of it will appear a political error of historic magnitude." Margret Thatcher from her book Statecraft published in 2003 ... just pointing out that Margaret Thatchers views on Europe were nuanced at best. Probably best explained by this segment from Yes Minister [this video]

Cites btilly · 2018-04 · on “Facebook urged to make GDPR its “baseline standard” globally”

See [LINK] for lots of examples showing that regulatory capture is a real issue in Europe. The fact that you turn a blind eye towards it shows that jingoism isn't a purely American trait. And for the record, I grew up in Canada. I am not opposed to the idea of regulation in principle. However every approach has failure modes. And regulation works a lot better in practice when you exercise skepticism about the actual aim as opposed to the stated one. If you wish to build your skills at skepticism, I highly recommend watching the series Yes, Minister . It is from the UK in the 1980s. However the lessons about how bureaucrats manage to get their way while pretending to listen to politicians are

Cites Zenst · 2020-12 · on “EU pushes for 'right to disconnect' from work at home”

> EU accounts have been signed off with a clean opinion every year since 2007. Whilst the debate about how accounts with errors could be signed off, the matter probably best covered here: [LINK] > That's equally applicable at the national level too Very true and politics as it stands needs an overall to align with modern times as akin to electing one tool to handle all issues for 4-5 years is never an ideal solution as anybody who uses tools can attest. A more granular say in things is needed and whilst we are stuck with a limited choice selection of inputs we can only put an X every 4-5 years, politics will always drift from public opinion however initially the party was elected. >Do you re