To keep keep the discussion thread 'First steps towards a sucessful Brexit' on topic, here is another thread, where all the 'non-serious' comments can be posted.

I can't see how this first post will be beaten, but I know it will!

Telegraph:
Tony Blair hints at role as Brexit negotiator in EU talks that will require 'serious statesmanship'

And, from the man himself:
Telegraph:
Brexit talks will be stunningly complex. Who will provide the statesmanship we need?

What!

Express:
Theresa May DITCHES her plans to take Britain out of European Convention of Human Rights
BACKTRACKING Theresa May has already ditched her plans to take Britain out of the European Convention of Human Rights after announcing she is running to become the next Prime Minister.

The Home Secretary’s surprise statement comes just one month after she called for Britain to leave the controversial convention.

Last month she said: “The ECHR can bind the hands of Parliament, adds nothing to our prosperity, makes us less secure by preventing the deportation of dangerous foreign nationals, and does nothing to change the attitudes of governments like Russia’s when it comes to human rights."

Brexit 'could boot French fishermen out of British waters'
French boats are currently allowed to fish up to six nautical miles from the British coast but EU laws prevent British vessels from fishing within 12 miles of the French coast.
...
About 80 per cent of France’s fishing boats never leave French territorial waters, but the remaining 20 per cent, which are larger vessels, bring in up to two-thirds of the national catch.

Unbelievable!

In keeping with the policy of putting all the non-constructive, EU comment here:

Cameron leaves No.10, then is proved right, about not wanting Juncker as an EU chief:
'YOU'RE FINISHED JUNCKER' Livid Angela Merkel set to 'deal with' gloating Brussels chief

We may want to leave the EU sooner, rather than later:
Brussels offers EU states £8k for EVERY refugee they agree to house and BRITAIN foots bill

And I am pleased we are leaving such a dysfunctional dis-organisation:
Euro disaster: Basket-case Italy faces decade of austerity just to get back to 2007 levels

Eurozone to EXPLODE: Demand for referendums after Brexit puts currency on the brink

Another unbelievable, even though it was in the past!

Express: Now troubled EU boss Juncker faces calls to quit over secret tax talks with Amazon

It's a pity Cameron has gone: he could have welcomed Turkey into the EU, proclaiming INTDWI:
Daily Mail:
'We have taken control': Turkish military launch coup to depose Islamist government of Recep Erdogan as troops round up police, attack the capital, seize all airports and put tanks on the streets

Daily Express:
Beleagured Brussels: US cools interest in trade deal without UK as EU chief enrages China
BELEAGUERED European Union (EU) chiefs were hit with a double-whammy today as the US cooled its interest in a trans-Atlantic trade deal without Britain and a blundering bureaucrat risked stoking tensions with China.

Oh dear!

The EU has been caught out again!

The employers of those in pensionable employment need to make regular and appropriate contributions to their employees' pension fund, so that when they retire, their pensions can be funded from the accumulated funds.

This obvious and common sense arrangement appears to have passed the EU bureaucrats by, even those bureaucrats concerned with their own pensions:

A bitter clash is looming over who will foot the bill for paying pensions owed to thousands of British Eurocrats when the UK leaves the EU.

Brussels has estimated its pensions liability at €60 billion (£50.7 billion) for all retired and current officials, with annual payments currently at about €1.4 billion (£1.2 billion).

Some 1,730 Britons currently make up almost 8 per cent of the 22,000 retired EU officials.

The UK insists it cannot be held responsible for Eurocrat pensions which, it says, are the responsibility of EU institutions.
EU demands Britain pays pensions of 1,730 Eurocrats in wake of Brexit vote

And you thought Robert Maxwell was bad!!!!

Martin A on Aug 2, 2016 at 7:03 PM

I know many public sector employees pay into a pension fund that is quite separate from their employers' finances, even if some funds may be underfunded 'on occasion', because I have been told! I think there have been suggestions that the smaller funds should merge, to reduce costs, so they do exist. But I don't think that should really be relevant.

Doesn't the HoC MPs pay nominal pension contributions (which are topped up at the same time) that are built up WHILE THE MP IS GETTING A SALARY, not after he has left?

Around 1,730 Britons currently make up almost 8 per cent of the 22,000 retired EU officials.

They include former EU commissioners Lord Mandelson and Lord Kinnock, who both receive five-figure annual payments from Brussels.

Former MEPs are entitled to a pension worth 3.5 per cent of their annual salary for each year served in the European Parliament once they reach the age of 63.

In total, around 3,000 UK officials have worked for European institutions since the country joined the European Community in 1973.
Express: May on a collision course with Brussels as EU demands WE pay £50BN for Eurocrat pensions

£50BN between 3000 is £16.7 million each so, even if none of them had died, at 5% return (which is less than the Hinckey Point return for the Chinese), that is £833,333.33 per annum, as a pension! So we must be paying 'more than our fair share'.

It says 'retired EU officials', so is that just the retired EU officials, and not the MEPs?

If "Lord Mandelson and Lord Kinnock are receiving five-figure annual payments from Brussels", along with Chris Patten, in addition to their other pensions, they won't feel the pain as much as the pensioners who were affected by Robert Maxwell and Equitable Life's failures, or by the past and present BHS employees come to that!

"The lifetime allowance for most people is £1 million in the tax year 2016-17. It applies to the total of all the pensions you have, including the value of pensions promised through any defined benefit schemes you belong to, but excluding your State Pension."

It should include all 'foreign pensions', and the capital for defined benefit pensions should be 30 times the annual payment, not 20. :)

The DT reports that the £50BN is the total liability, for 22,000 retired EU officials, not just from Britain.

It is still an EU matter, not Britain's.

And still that Scottish Woman wants to stay in the EU!!!