Oh dear me. UKIP's new strategy is likely to be mindless belligerence. We just stay in Europe, making dicks of ourselves with vetoes for everything until they are desperate enough to give us anything we ask for to leave.

The problem with hardball strategies like this is that when it comes back on us it is hard, and in the balls.

My brain tells me that there isn't a problem and the Labservatives will win again but I can't help having a horrible feeling about the next general election. And the UK political culture seems to get more childish and retarded with each passing day.

Luckily, I have a backup plan (my wife is German). Anybody know how long it takes to get German citizenship?

You really think Merkel's any better?

Germany does have considerable problems as well. Deutche Bank is currently even bigger and more highly leveraged than Lehmans Bank at its failure, by a huge margin. Poverty in Germany is rising and the numbers needing food bank support is rising as well.

http://www.dw.de/high-poverty-figures-in-affluent-germany-are-skewed/a-16327884

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2013/07/11/germany-foodbanks/

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-food-banks-and-soup-kitchens-struggle-with-demand-a-941661.html

If you're already an EU citizen, surely zero amounty of time when you move there.

It's less to do with any particular individuals and much more to do with the political culture as a whole.

For instance, at the last year's Saxony Day in Schwarzenberg, there was a line of stands for the political parties, in front of which there was a queue of punters wanting to speak with them about their policies. The usual suspects were all present (CDU, SPD, FDP, The Left, The Alliance/Greens) along with Alternative for Germany and some others. The whole atmosphere was grown-up, friendly and non-tribal, with people leaving the sausage & beer stands to come and talk to politicians. The people I spoke to were thinking about what things they wanted to happen rather than which particular troop they hated the least.

It was a delight to be honest. And most remarkable for the complete absence of class-politics.


But if we were to leave the EU, surely I'd cease to be an EU citizen?

In which case, in order to remain an EU citizen, I'd need to become a citizen of an EU member-state.

You might still qualify if your wife is an EU citizen.

Well if it's the same than the Uk you're looking at 3 years + of residence before being able to request citizenship.