The EU

It is to GB’s advantage for us to get back to full work with an immunised population before the rest of Europe. In that way we can steal a march on our EU competitors and start selling more goods to the rest of the world while the EU is still disappearing up it’s own arse over the vaccine.

Of course, once they see how successful we are they will start their stupid games, putting obstacles in our way, led by that arsehole Macron. I’m afraid we will always have problems with them, and we need to circumnavigate trade with the EU by buying and selling with the rest of the world.

If you’ve got a minute go over to the other place and have a look at the Brexit wins, add yours here. Towards the end of the thread that Bell Yatton is having another pop at you. I tried to put him straight but he totally ignored me.

There you go with all your fancy book reading, learning and stuff.

It's going to take some time to fully untangle over 40 years of integration with the EU and for new trade relationships to bed in, we'll see where we are in a few years, and where the EU are, if the organisation even exists in any way that's recognisable to how it is today.

As said previously, I'm certain that if a referendum on membership were held tomorrow in each country that is a fiscal nett contributor, the result would be 'Leave'.

Merkel made the decision very early on that Germany could not go it alone. The Germans are well aware that they are the most prosperous nation in the EU, and they decided it would not look good for European unity if they struck out on their own and left the rest behind. They were basically managing their image.
They have to be 'shackled to France'. It's a guilt thing left over from WW2.
The media did turn against the government a few weeks back, which was very unusual, but it was short-lived. Das Bild are probably the main media outlet that constantly criticizes the German Government. In general, the German media tend to keep very quiet about things. Most Germans have no idea of the threats being made by the EU. It's just not reported by the MSM. The angle that they give out is that the EU are doing everything they can to protect the people.

However, it is worth noting that the things the Germans are famous for, like organisation, efficiency, professionalism etc are now working against them. The slowness of the vaccine roll-out can be put down to many things, but the number one thing I can see is the fact that they cannot be flexible. They have their medical outlets, their doctors, nurses etc, and it appears that these are the only people who can provide a service regarding vaccinations. They expect that GP's (called House Doctor's over here) may be able to give injections starting in mis-April. It's still being discussed. They have their health system, and they expected that health system to deliver mass vaccination. There has been no 'out of the box' thinking, because that is a concept that Germans struggle to comprehend.
I know I may be generalizing a bit here, but that's how I see things.

The German establishment are fully behind the EU, after all Germany basically controls the EU. The MSM here are also very much supportive of the government. Sure, there are some dissenting voices in the MSM, like Bild, but generally a lot of things don't get reported. For example, remember the mass sexual assaults that happed in Köln on New Years Eve a few years ago. The MSM sat on the story for three days before the details started to emerge on social media. Both the tv and print media knew all the details but didn't report it as it 'wasn't in the public interest' at the time, as the assaults were carried out by migrants and these were stories that were being repressed.  Migrants committing crime was not a story that the government wanted the people to hear about. Eventually, the MSM had to report it.
The bungled vaccine roll-out is being reported as a success. The Germans are well aware that it is slow, but the message from the authorities is that it is slow because they want to make sure it is safe for the people. The initial issue that stopped AZ being given to over 65's was all because the government wanted to protect the people. The same with the blood clot issue. My wife is convinced that the government are doing all they can to protect her, and these delays actually show that the government care.
As for the vaccine it is now quite obvious what has happened. The EU took on the procurement role, and a decision was taken somewhere, probably between Merkel and Macron, to keep things European. They wanted a European success story. The main EU orders for vaccines went to BioTech (German) and Sanofi (French). The Sanofi order was for 400 million doses. They also placed smaller orders with AZ, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. However, the Sanofi order went tits up. This caused panic within the EU which has led to their dependence on the AZ vaccine. The need for the AZ vaccine is now paramount after the Sanofi failure. This was not meant to be the case. This can be shown by the loose contract the EU have with AZ. The AZ vaccine was only ever meant to be a backup.

There was an incident, which off the top of my head happened around October last year, where a man of a certain faith stabbed two people in Dresden. I had read about it being reported on the BBC or Sky or somewhere British. Anyway, she didn't believe me. Why not? Because it wasn't mentioned anywhere on the German MSM. Not in any newspaper, nor tv news. As far as she was concerned the British press were making the story up.

No, you cannot equate current Germany to the Third Reich. However, living here I can understand how this country ended up following Hitler, especially as to how they are easily manipulated by the media.
Germans are strange. Here is something I only found out last week. If terrorists were to hi-jack an aeroplane, with the intention of crashing it into a packed football stadium, then the German authorities would NOT shoot it down. It's something to do with everyone has the right to life, even terrorists. I find that incredible. This came after they did uncover a plot to fly a small aircraft into the Bayern Munich stadium (back in those good ole days when crowds were allowed in).

The traffic light analogy is a good one. When a German attempts to cross the road, and the Red Man is displayed, they will stop. There may not be a car in sight anywhere. The road could be empty, but they will wait for the Green Man to come on before crossing. They are conditioned to follow orders. Red Man says stop, so they stop. A British person in the same instance would probably look up and down the road, see no cars in sight, and cross the road. They would make their own decision based on what they see. A German would not be happy making that decision. I may not be explaining this very well but I'm sure you get my drift. The Germans like to be controlled and told what to do. The British tend to be more free thinking.