The U.K., the 51st State

R

Ricardodaforce

Self requested ban
Suspended / Banned
Messages
18,340
Edit My Images
No
I saw this on another forum and thought it would make for an interesting discussion:

BACKGROUND
The year is 2030.
The UK eventually left the EU in 2020 under 'no deal.'
Scotland hasn't gained independence.
The intervening decade has not been kind to the UK. Promised trade agreements with other significant countries have failed to fully materialise.
The country still hadn't fully recovered from the 2008 financial crisis and, since 2020, things have got markedly worse for low and middle income families.
Unemployment is at its highest rate since the 1970's, food bank use has risen sharply and continues to do so.
Taxes have risen sharply.
There is no major car manufacturing left.
Inward investment is practically non existent.
NHS waiting times and satisfaction ratings are at their worst in decades.
Banking institutions are starting to move their operations to other countries.
For once, all political parties and government advisory bodies agree, there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Things are predicted to get significantly worse.
The UK is no longer in the top 10 most powerful countries, as of year 2030 we are 26th.
The UK is isolated … alone.

PROPOSAL
The USA (now the 3rd most powerful country), which has continued its isolationist approach started by Trump when he was in power, holds secret talks with UK government ministers. They propose the UK becomes the 51st United State of America with a 24 month transition period. After this if not before, the USA promises the UK will start to see significant financial benefits and by 2040 much of the challenges listed above should be resolved, financial stability should be restored. Legal experts on both sides agree there is no barrier to this that can't be circumvented. In short of both countries want this union, it can be done. There will be no public vote on this, no cross-party agreement will be sought, the UK Government will decide.

QUESTION
Do you want the UK Government to say Yes or No to this offer and what are your reasons?
 
I don't give a toss because the O's have just won the Champions League final
 
For this to happen it would require a fundamental re-write of the constitution. And who would be stupid enough to actually trust an American making such an offer?

I've worked for 2 companies that were acquired by US businesses. All they did was asset strip & fire the staff after a couple of years when they were no longer necessary, and that's exactly what would happen to the UK. I don't hate Americans, but they have a completely foreign set of ethics that I see as deeply and fundamentally immoral. Far more likely would be overtures from China, or possibly even India.
 
Sounds like a leavers nirvana, if I thought that things were going to turn out that well even I might have voted leave.:ROFLMAO:
 
Reminds me of one of those novels that must have taken more time to read than to write - "This United State" by Colin Forbes, virtually the same plot, and the same waste of space.
 
Last edited:
I read the start of a time-travel scifi 'book' on Kindle recently, where the British prime minister was plainly meant to be Boris. Meh.
 
Of cause all this hinges on whether or not some trigger happy Johnny in the Middle East doesn’t kick off WW3 ,and although it’s gone quiet this week ,we are pivoting on a knife edge .. r.a.f typhoons in Cyprus , India sending warships to the straits of Hormuz both this week .. it’s not a case of if more like when .... let’s hope not but it’s a more likely scenario than us joining the u.s.a
 
the black fox said:
Of cause all this hinges on whether or not some trigger happy Johnny in the Middle East doesn’t kick off WW3 ,and although it’s gone quiet this week ,we are pivoting on a knife edge .. r.a.f typhoons in Cyprus , India sending warships to the straits of Hormuz both this week .. it’s not a case of if more like when .... let’s hope not but it’s a more likely scenario than us joining the u.s.a
Click to expand...

Those thoughts went through my mind last week. We were playing golf in Sheffield. We quite often get a light aircraft or helicopter above. Last week the sound was different. Looking up we saw 2 low altitude Apache helicopters. Believe me those things ( I knew they weren't hostile to me) are terrifying and intimidating. I can't imagine what it's like to meet these things doing there intended job. Those 2 aircraft, fully armed, could have taken out most of the city. Or somebody else's!
 
People who predict the future are usually wrong due to a lack of forethought... :tumbleweed:
 
the black fox said:
Of cause all this hinges on whether or not some trigger happy Johnny in the Middle East America doesn’t kick off WW3 ,and although it’s gone quiet this week ,we are pivoting on a knife edge .. r.a.f typhoons in Cyprus , India sending warships to the straits of Hormuz both this week .. it’s not a case of if more like when .... let’s hope not but it’s a more likely scenario than us joining the u.s.a
Click to expand...


Fixed that for you :)
 
sirch said:
Fixed that for you :)
Click to expand...
Nope I dont think you have , trump for all his bombastic remarks actually called off a air strike last week in response to collateral damage .. previous presidents would have just sent them in .... at this moment in time there is a very volatile mix in the region , we assume that it needs the leaders of Iran etc to give a order to start something .. it doesn’t it only needs a rogue commander to initiate something and bingo all bets are off ...
 
May be I wasn't referring to Trump himself. As you say his hawkish advisors and military were all ready to go in guns blazing when they had triggered an incident in the first place by flying a spy drone close to or in Iranian airspace. From what I have read, Trump spoke to some less hawkish people who were pushed out of his administration and accepted their advice.

the black fox said:
it doesn’t it only needs a rogue commander to initiate something
Click to expand...
And that guy could be from any nation, not just the middle east.
 
Thinking about the OP a bit more seriously, why would America want to adopt another state, especially one so far from it shores (OK Hawaii but bear with me)? I can see two principal reasons that would motivate a government to do this economics and defence. On the economic front we have a better debt to GDP ratio than the US at the moment but we have about 10% of their GDP so we wouldn’t dilute their debt to GDP by very much and even the thought of doing this, converting currencies, etc. would probably send the bond markets running for safer havens so the net effect would be at best unknown and most likely reduce bond yields and so push debt to GDP up. The other economic motivation is to expand the available market, the more people who can buy your goods without barriers, the more you can produce and sell (but we hate that idea, hence we are leaving the biggest single market in the world) but you can get fairly close to the same thing with a trade agreement without the upset caused by merging two countries.

The other reason, defence, is pretty much already covered by the special relationship, we share intelligence and America has bases on UK territories around the world; during the cold war they even had nuclear bombs on UK soil. So there doesn’t seem to be much to gain in that area.

It is far more likely that we will be sold down the river to America so a few multi-millionaires can become billionaires via a free trade agreement, where we get the worst of America (terrible animal welfare standards, poor environmental protection, genetically modified food products, etc.) and they get the best of British such as “privatisation” of the NHS via an insurance model ( a stated policy of Farrage), access to NHS patient data, pharmaceuticals, defence technologies, etc.
 
I reckon Humans have got about another 100 years before it all ends anyway, so we'll all be grabbing at whatever straws we can soon enough, well, I wont I'll be pushing up the daisies well before the 100 year is out, shame, as I'd love to come back and be proved wrong.
 
[QUOTE="sirch, post: 8467631,)

The other reason, defence, is pretty much already covered by the special relationship, we share intelligence and America has bases on UK territories around the world; during the cold war they even had nuclear bombs on UK soil

.[/QUOTE]
And your naive enough to believe they haven’t now ... the mind boggles
 
MatBin said:
I reckon Humans have got about another 100 years before it all ends anyway,
Click to expand...
That's one possibility but not one I consider plausible. Still in the absence of a practical anti-agathic treatment we will none of us (as you say) be around to find out who's right... :naughty:
 
Oh for Gosh sake... is there no end to this end of the world remain garbage...

And just one more question, why should the UK be one of the "ten most powerful countries?"

It does amaze me when remainers knock everything in Britains history that even remotely smells of imperialism and yet seem to faint at the prospect of Britain not being one of the most powerful countries on earth.

No pre packed sandwiches, no condoms, no medical supplies, all aircraft will be grounded, no one else in the world will ever trade with us again and in fact all international trade with the UK will stop overnight and be banned by the international community and we'll revert to being a middle age pre industrial agrarian country where no one goes more than 20 miles from their home village.

That sounds like a world environmental activists have been calling for for years. Bring it on!

Oh and whilst I'm here this pathological hatred of the USA is beginning to look ugly. There's always been a degree of USA hatred from the UK and European establishment and left but IMO it's not consistent. There's just been a bit on the news about illegal immigrants dying trying to get into the USA and whilst this is a humanitarian disaster which should be effectively tackled where were all the protests when Obama was busy deporting more illegal immigrants than any other president and deaths on the border were far higher? Is it a case of Obama being the acceptable face of liberal racism whilst Trump isn't?
 
Last edited:
woof woof said:
we'll revert to being a middle age pre industrial agrarian country where no one goes more than 20 miles from their home village.
Click to expand...

Depends if they have an old Leaf or a Tesla I guess :)
 
One earth saving thing I'd like to see is the end of mobile phone technology and the dismantling of all of the hardware and infrastructure which is so damaging to the earth and there'd be the added advantages of not having to constantly hear load boring conversations and having to avoid being bumped into by screen viewing zombies wherever we go.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top