please empty your brain below

Just read this over breakfast and I feel slightly queasy.
61
The one we are going to get, BRINO?!
..or 46
Haven't we already had No 51?
Poor. You must have run out of ideas...
101) The one where no one in the rest of the UK cares about Northern Ireland.

Viewed from the US, 78/79 seem most likely. But that will happen in mainland Europe as well so it will be as if Brexit never happened.
I think it will be a combination of several of these, but I was never any good betting on accumulators.
You popping along to the March on Saturday?
Glad to know I'm not the only one musing over 99. Other topics include the Crown Dependencies, Gibraltar and expats, but perhaps you are saving those for the international edition of your blog that can't be accessed from Great Britain or Northern Ireland. Thank you for mentioning the M26.
One to bookmark come March 29th! I feel a sweepstake coming on ...
The one where DG breaks his records for comments on a blog entry, and really wishes he hadn't.
Or 42 followed by 89.. by Easter next year.
Seriously, dude, go somewhere on a train and take some photos.
102. The one where the EU gets fed up with the Irish Border question and expels Ireland, leaving UK and Ireland as an offshore trading area.
DG, this is very hypocritical. On 27 August you snipped an aside I made along the lines that <snipped thing>. I assumed you had a veto on Brexit comments, and now today!

As everyone else is flagging up their own 'favourite', mine is #80. I wrote to my MP months ago gently pointing out that the real culprit in all this current muddle was Edward Carson. Apparently the Catholic population of Ulster is now approximately that of the Protestants so if we wait 20 to 30 years when all the current baby Catholics are of voting age, Northern Ireland may choose to join the Republic and we can have an orderly EU exit then. Patience in life is everything.
The problem with #80 is that although the Republic would dearly like to have a united Ireland at some point in the future, they'd really rather not tackle that until all the Trouble-makers are dead. Give it 30 years.
None of the above.
Viewed from this side of the Channel, just so long as the UK leaves with as much pain as possible.
For two years you have been told no cherry picking, but still you whine about special deals
The German car industry is not going to ride to the rescue.
March 2019 you will be on your own, the UK has to understand you are not special, and the other 27 members do not owe you anything.
If WTO rules were so great don't you think everybody would be using them.
Why do I click on this mind numbing drivel?
0. The one where it was all a bad dream.
@YDU 9.57

I agree with you, to a degree. However given the relative levels of trade between the UK and the EU, a no deal scenario will be painful on both sides. The advantage the EU has is that the per capita pain will be less for the EU. But if you are truly a German, think of 4 things:1) we will be unable to afford as many BMWs etc as previously, 2) the EU loses our net payments, 3) we certainly won't be helping out with the migrant crisis in Europe created by Mrs Merkel's ill considered largesse and 4) as an island nation we are better placed to handle security than a landmass like Europe.

So the comment about inflicting as much pain as possible, if you truly want that, shows immaturity and a lack of realism. Again, if you are German, I would have thought you were better than that.
To be fair, most of the mind numbing drivel is in the comments.
I must say you're very creative to come up with 100 scenarios - I have only ever managed 2 -
1) doom
2) gloom
But why is anyone actually surprised by all this - how many years have we had of Europe ganging up against the UK in the voting at the Eurovision Song Contest?

And it's got a whole lot worse in recent years... once upon a time we did actually win it a few times.
48) The one where an obscure cabinet minister becomes PM as the least worst option.

Chris Grayling?
I feel like 78 has been looking more and more likely over the past few years.
I'll order 3, 4, 19, 22, 36, 45, 64, 70, 72, 78, 83, 86, 88 and 97, with 102 for dessert.
It is interesting how a proportion of the pro-Leave crowd brook no argument, dissent, satire or even discussion when it comes to this topic. A good number of the outcomes are positive/pro-Leave, even though DG's stance is clearly Remain, and yet we get the same old 'this is eyewash' comments. As Spock would say, fascinating.
67 is wrong - that's the **17th** century.

I'd still like a bet that someone bottles it and we stay in. I'd vote for that. The EU may be bent, broken and a bosses' club but we can't change that from outside. Many of us are from mainland Europe in one form or another and I for one do not wish the UK to abandon our 'cousins'. With pragmatic alliances and patience we could make the EU very very attractive.

And it's still the best peace treaty the world has known. The real reason its predecessor was set up - those who may know war will know that's the last thing any of us ever want to know. It would be the last thing we knew.
...at least austerity is over
@Joel 4.08pm

Just watched PMQs on iPlayer, I'm with you. My bet is a second referendum (voting to remain) simply because no one can agree on anything. When a professor of politics says he hasn't a clue what will happen, that says it all for me. I voted 'Leave' but will change my vote if given the opportunity because I have in over 60 years of following current affairs, probably back to Suez in truth, never known such a shambolic approach to ANY political issue. I would still like to leave but via a process managed by sense not the argumentative approach at present.
It's only looking difficult because pro-EU Tories and the EU want it to be difficult. Every subscription service makes it difficult to leave; they just want your money.
Love Europe, not the EU...
101) the one where the nhs gets an extra £350m per year
102) the one where we have our cake and eat it
103) the one where people come to realise that voting for something advocated by the likes of Nigel Farage, Boris Johnston, Donald Trump, Andrea Leasdom, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Vladimir Putin & Marine Le Pen was perhaps not the smartest choice

I could go on....
Correction to 101 - replace ‘year’ with ‘week’
Well, this is a relief.

On the question of when Brexit can be discussed, DG evidently subscribes to neither of the extreme views ("always" or "never"). The proper middle way is to talk about it sometimes - it is important. But we also need plenty of Brexit-free conversations, in order to help us remain sane and reasonable cheerful.
The one where we all live happily ever after in the Sunny Uplands... oh - that's 97
You missed one..

The EU de-jure ceases to exists (its currently de-facto) and it goes back to being the old EC/EEC which no one, apart from the Norwegians, ever had a real problem with. Which will then negotiate a deal everyone can be happy with. With the usual mutterings.

I am very pro Brexit precisely because I read the French, German and Italian press on a daily basis. And have for decades. Immediate family in a bunch of EU countries. For a start I dont think the anti-Brexit crowd in the UK are aware of just how catastrophic the current political status quo collapse in Germany is. Italy is business as usual, but Germany is now entering late Weimar territory. Which for the EU as constituted means end game.

So best to get out first. See how the rubble falls. Then deal with what replaces it when its in a position to deal.

Say, five years time.
I swear some of these half arsed thoughts are loosely-controlled bots. Only slight human intervention to make it vaguely relevant to the actual piece to give the impression of being flooded with a certain view
@Alex

You are the Bot in this thread and I claim my 2/6 first prize. Or is it now a 5 bob postal order.

Its a while since I've done one of these Spot the Bot competitions. In fact the last time I won a prize in a competition like this was a Blue Peter Badge in 1972. One of the round white ones. Still have it somewhere. And the very nice letter than came with it. On BBC stationary and signed by Biddy Baxter no less.










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