Right then, seems to hot in the media at the moment, and not a minute too soon IMO.
Lets have a referendum here on Europe, the EU in particular and how we would save £45m a day.....
Please post your feelings and thoughts.
would we save 45m a day by not being in the EU?!
quote:
Originally posted by blakep82
would we save 45m a day by not being in the EU?!
I say out,
£45m per day, 38m tax payers in Britain, thats £1.18 each. There are 3 tax payers in my household, thats £24.78 of our money going to build motorways in Turkey every week - nice.
Trouble is, they have not started in Turkey YET!!
I saw Poland the year they joined, then two years after; what a change, and all paid for by us!!
I don't know enough about it to make judgement... look forward to reading the various views!
I vote in as I've got a Cypriot passport and would otherwise be evicted from here 
You'd think with all those improvements in Poland their lorry drivers would learn to drive better than a blindfolded child.
its about time we as a nation stopped "propping up" every other nation, who , i,m sure laugh at us behind our backs..IMO.
I say OUT.
cheers
andy
"I don't know enough about it to make judgement... look forward to reading the various views! "
What honesty,
Churchill wanted us to stay an island, and fought toothe and nail to remain so and while we are in the EU, we are not
Steve
quote:
Originally posted by handyandy
its about time we as a nation stopped "propping up" every other nation, who , i,m sure laugh at us behind our backs..IMO.
joke Am I right in thinking Switzerland are "part of the EU" without actually being tied to the financial rapage...
I think we need out... we need to focus back home more and get this country back on its feet!
Unfortunately the parasitic tendrils are probably too embedded in the ailing country for it to survive their removal.
Umm, just a thought. How much would we lose in trade if we left the EU?? Might have a bit of an effect? Easy to just look at what it costs us, and ignore what we gain. All rather difficult, but I suspect we would be stuffed. Remember we could easily lose our finance sector to another country, and that would be a disaster. plus the cost of imports would shoot up, and so on. This needs thinking through......
Out please..........
Andy
quote:
Originally posted by tegwin
Am I right in thinking Switzerland are "part of the EU" without actually being tied to the financial rapage...!
Oooo I was goig to say that
^^ yeah, but thats all I know without looking it up 
[edit]
if you want to know more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Economic_Area
[Edited on 2/11/2010 by mcerd1]
quote:
Originally posted by handyandy
its about time we as a nation stopped "propping up" every other nation, who , i,m sure laugh at us behind our backs..IMO.
I say OUT.
cheers
andy
OUT
and Sooner rather than later aswell
BUT just like the last 'government' i doubt We'll get the chance to vote on it...
quote:
Originally posted by slingshot2000
quote:
Originally posted by handyandy
its about time we as a nation stopped "propping up" every other nation, who , i,m sure laugh at us behind our backs..IMO.
I say OUT.
cheers
andy
My thoughts exactly, BUT, lets not restrict it to the EU. I forget how much a year we give in aid to India, but how come they have just oredered 250 fighter jets from Russia. I am sure some of our defence contractors would have loved an order like that, especially after our Goverment has cancelled so many of our own. Remember companies like BAE and Rolls Royce make more money from the ongoing mantainance and parts contracts, than they do on the original sale.
Def out ! The sooner the better!
quote:
Originally posted by cliftyhanger
Umm, just a thought. How much would we lose in trade if we left the EU?? Might have a bit of an effect? Easy to just look at what it costs us, and ignore what we gain. All rather difficult, but I suspect we would be stuffed. Remember we could easily lose our finance sector to another country, and that would be a disaster. plus the cost of imports would shoot up, and so on. This needs thinking through......
Out, Out, Out!
Guess which crowd I stand in?
I never voted to be in the damn thing in the first place!
Hello,
i have been checking some numbers.
From 1986 to 2000, the netto cost of EU by citizen is -34 € in UK ( cost) when it is 575 € benefit in Irland per citizen.
When you know that the Queen and Charles do receive great cheques from common agricultural policy ( so the money you give to EU that is payed back), i
don't think you have such a bad position.
Gerardo
Lol, i'll stay out of this debate, not before i say getting out would def spell disaster, england owns nothing at the moment, pissing people off
would def see the decline of the remaining service industries.
[Edited on 2/11/10 by femster87]
This is an interesting topic as , if you look at the amount of votes on this thread
37 for
8 against
3 abstain
(currently as i type this post)
Given that the voters on this thread is a good mix of cultures/income etc etc & so a fair vote of the nation we live in,
The percentage is 75% for removing from the EU,
This in my opinion is why we are never allowed a referendum.......the goverment already knows how the vote would go, but wouldn,t act upon the
decision voted by the population they are supposed to serve 
cheers
andy
quote:
Originally posted by handyandy
The percentage is 75% for removing from the EU. This in my opinion is why we are never allowed a referendum.......the government already knows how the vote would go, but wouldn't act upon the decision voted by the population they are supposed to serve
quote:
Originally posted by scootz
quote:
Originally posted by handyandy
The percentage is 75% for removing from the EU. This in my opinion is why we are never allowed a referendum.......the government already knows how the vote would go, but wouldn't act upon the decision voted by the population they are supposed to serve
Why do you suppose that is so though?
media clout; we're all told to dislike the EU so we all do. I have no idea if we should or not, and 10 mins googling just confirms there's
an awful lot more to it than meets the eye. The reality is that politicians probably know more about it than Joe Bloggs, and they seem to mostly
favour it.
You could also argue that the anti EU politicians are just taking that stance to get public support.
Background reading would include a history of europe since the war, a degree in economics, and a passing knowledge of continental farming markets. 
We should be like norway, not part of the EU, but part of the european economic area. All the benefits none of the costs.
Do you remember a time when a guy called Wheeler, who lives in a very large estate in Chilham, Kent, was kicked out of the Conservative party for
talking like this? Just asking.
Who will you get to do those unsightly jobs like construction labourer etc if you don't have access to the European market? What about those of
you who like to holiday in Spain and France etc? Just things to consider.
Populist ideals are often very dangerous. We have a populist government here in Canada, and I highly recommend against it. The US is about to go that
route too, as Obama is seen as too intelligent for the dimwitted average voter. Better to have dummies like Ray Gun and Bush Jr, where the real power
people are behind the scenes, untouchable. But of course, I'm off topic, sorry.
I know full well I have no business commenting on your country, so don't take what I say too seriously!!
[Edited on 3/11/10 by RK]
...............but the government have as much if not more access to the public via the media than the EU haters do so why don't they tell us
what good Europe is doing.. . . . if it's doing such a good job
Steve
They do tell you, but the public tend to not believe much of what they say 
I was a strong supporter of the EU before the single currency, when it was mainly about free trade [1992, single market act etc].
The single currency was IMHO a case of those who want polirical union pulling a fast one. On the face of it a single currency sounds like an economic
thing, but it is actually political because when combined with removal of market barriers it takes monetary and fiscal control away from national
governments.
Like the current situation where Greece and Germany really need very different policies, but are tied to having the same. The only thing that can prop
it up is transfer payments from the countries with succesful economies to the ones with weak economies - hence lots of money going from us to other
coutries.
This is what hapopens within coutries where successful regions put in more in tax than unsuccessful regions, but as we are part of the same country we
generally don't mind.
Stu
Yes, likes decide to blame the rest of Europe (in particular those dodgy Eastern European types). Let's pretend they're to blame for the
financial pickle we're in and that it had nothing to do with us.
Oh no, hang on, this isn't 30s Germany. Sorry, please ignore the original statement, I must have been passively absorbing the knee-jerk Daily
Mail xenophobic BS whilst wiping my arse with it.
The truth is we're so ingrained in the EU system that it makes it very difficult to work out a balanced answer to whether membership is positive
or negative to this country. If we just look at the money going to the EU (as the DM would like) then we'ld be ignoring any possible benefits
(which would clearly be ridiculous). I doubt one person on this forum (I certainly don't) has the detailed knowledge required of a complex and
organic system to work out a cost/benefit analysis on membership of the EU. So in my book a referendum is a bad idea- it would be like letting a jury
decide in a criminal case where the only evidence heard is the rantings of a rather rabid prosecution lawyer.
quote:
Originally posted by tegwin
Am I right in thinking Switzerland are "part of the EU" without actually being tied to the financial rapage...
I think we need out... we need to focus back home more and get this country back on its feet!
The UK pays a lot of money to the EU but it spends a large amount of it here in the UK. The net contribution is quite small compared to Germany. The
company I work for is almost entirely dependent on EU trade, as are many others. People don't realise what a lonley place the UK would be
outside of the EU. We're only a small player in world affairs these days and its only that we're one of the big economies in the EU that we
hang on to what remains of our political weight on the world stage.
Of cource the EU needs some reform. The Common Agricultural Policy and the wasteful second parliament are the two usual examples. The EU is a mixed
blessing but I think the good outweighs the bad.
Don't believe all you read in the press. They exist to sell you paper, not a balanced opinon. Only bad news sells so that's what they give
you. The EU is only useful to them as a bad news story.