Why did we get the £1.7bn bill?

[centurian]

If, as above, it's as transparent as a rebate-in-lieu, he's fecked.

That's how its starting to look...

What I am completely flabbergasted about - is how stupid they must think we are in order for them to get away with a stunt like this.

As soon as I saw the original BBC News item (they have tweaked it since), I was deeply suspicious when the rebate was mentioned - and that's before even poring over the details.

[jamesbrown]

That's how its starting to look...

What I am completely flabbergasted about - is how stupid they must think we are in order for them to get away with a stunt like this.

As soon as I saw the original BBC News item (they have tweaked it since), I was deeply suspicious when the rebate was mentioned - and that's before even poring over the details.

It's a deeply cynical political move based on their ability to obfuscate by arguing that it wasn't originally clear that the rebate would apply. In short, they've received clarification, not a negotiated compromise, and that clarification is being sold as a pig with lipstick, the lipstick being a payment plan, which was the very least they could (and always would) do. Utterly fecking ridiculous, but I dare say a large fraction of Joe Public will be blinded by the weasel words. I sincerely hope not.

[vetran]

Wonder how many Brits would have been "outraged" if there was a rebate and Germany had to pay

there is a rebate and the Germans are getting it.

explain that one.

[OwlHoot]

From Bloomberg, a US and thus presumably impartial (on this issue) source:

2014-11-07 U.K. Fails to Win Budget Payment Cut as EU Defies Cameron

Britain failed to win a cut in an extra budget payment demanded by the European Union, complicating Prime Minister David Cameron’s efforts to fend off an anti-EU movement at home.

EU finance ministers agreed in principle today to stretch out Britain’s payment of a 2.1 billion-euro ($2.6 billion) bill until September 2015. While the accounting arrangement includes an accelerated refund, it would leave the U.K.’s overall contributions to the EU untouched.

The bill, part of an EU funding reallocation that forced Britain and eight other countries to pay more, has lengthened the list of grievances that prompted Cameron to propose a referendum in 2017 that could take Britain out of the bloc.

“The U.K. will pay the whole amount without any penalties attached or interest rates,” Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan told reporters after the Brussels meeting. “The installments will be paid over a period of time.”

Britain’s room for compromise on the one-time payment -- labeled a “technical” adjustment by the European Commission -- was limited by blossoming anti-EU sentiment that threatens to make Cameron a one-term prime minister.

:::

Today’s accord met Cameron’s conditions by rescheduling the payments to next July and September and netting out a rebate of 1 billion euros on the extra payment that Britain would have received in 2016. The accounting maneuver cuts the one-time payment in half without altering Britain’s EU bill for the two-year period.