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Post by Admin on Jan 31, 2020 18:17:11 GMT
Forty-seven years and 30 days after we joined. Three decades since the rot set in with the drive towards a United States of Europe. Seven years after David Cameron promised a referendum and 3½ traumatic years since Leave won it. It is hard to exaggerate the magnitude of this moment.
Events in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium and The Netherlands on the day that the UK is due to leave the European Union
Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday hailed a "new beginning" for Britain as it prepares to leave the European Union after 47 years.
The Conservative leader called for an end to years of bitter arguments over Brexit that have divided the country, saying it was time to move on.
"Our job as the government -- my job -- is to bring this country together and take us forward," he said in remarks released by his office.
"This is not an end but a beginning. This is the moment when the dawn breaks and the curtain goes up on a new act.
"It is a moment of real national renewal and change."
Britain will leave the EU at 11:00 pm (2300 GMT) on Friday, January 31, more than three years after the 2016 referendum vote for Brexit.
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Post by Admin on Feb 1, 2020 1:19:07 GMT
The UK has officially left the European Union after 47 years of membership - and more than three years after it voted to do so in a referendum. The historic moment, which happened at 23:00 GMT, was marked by both celebrations and anti-Brexit protests. Candlelit vigils were held in Scotland, which voted to stay in the EU, while Brexiteers partied in London's Parliament Square. Boris Johnson has vowed to bring the country together and "take us forward". Seven things Brexit will change and seven it won't In a message released on social media an hour before the UK's departure, the prime minister said: "For many people this is an astonishing moment of hope, a moment they thought would never come. "And there are many of course who feel a sense of anxiety and loss. "And then of course there is a third group - perhaps the biggest - who had started to worry that the whole political wrangle would never come to an end. "I understand all those feelings and our job as the government - my job - is to bring this country together now and take us forward."
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Post by Admin on Feb 1, 2020 18:23:09 GMT
Meanwhile UKIP was becoming a force in British politics. Leader Nigel Farage said he wanted a referendum to happen quickly.
A full, free and fair referendum with some proper sensible rules - particularly on spending - on both sides of the debate Nigel Farage, January 2013 Then-UKIP leader
By December 2013 the party claimed that a record year of growth had taken its membership above 30,000 for the first time.
Back in Brussels, the time had come for an EU summit, with Mr Cameron pledging to deliver a strong message to EU leaders.
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Post by Admin on Feb 2, 2020 1:13:23 GMT
On this edition for Saturday, February 1, the Senate impeachment trial winds down after Republicans vote to exclude new evidence, Brexit is official as Britain charts a new course amid divisions in the country, and our "Future of Food series" looks at how Jordan is using technology and innovation to help refugees facing food shortages. Hari Sreenivasan anchors from New York. No sooner had the union jacks been lowered in Brussels and Strasbourg, after 47 years of tortured British membership, than Boris Johnson was preparing to launch the UK into yet another uncompromising battle with the remaining 27 nations of the European Union. The morning after he had finally achieved his goal of removing the UK from the European club, Downing Street released photographs of the prime minister triumphantly striking a gong on the stroke of 11pm (midnight Brussels time) as this country took its leave. The text from a short speech he made as the clock struck 11 was also released. “I want you all to remember you were here tonight after 11pm, in Downing Street, when we got Brexit done,” Johnson told a gathering of advisers, civil servants and Brexit supporters inside No 10.
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Post by Admin on Feb 2, 2020 21:11:39 GMT
Britain will "not be aligning with EU rules" in any post-Brexit trade deal, the foreign secretary has said.
Dominic Raab argued agreeing to stick strongly with EU regulations would "defeat the point of Brexit".
But Irish PM Leo Varadkar said the UK needed to commit to a level playing field to get a free trade deal.
Talks to negotiate a free trade deal between the UK and the EU are due to start next month, following the UK's formal withdrawal from the bloc.
On Monday Boris Johnson is expected to set out his position ahead of those talks, where he will tell the EU he is prepared to accept customs checks at Britain's borders if he cannot secure the sort of trade deal he wants.
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier will also outline his approach to negotiations.
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