Chirac walks out of talks

[The Lone Gunman]

Chirac also needs to remember that he wouldnt have a country to represent if it hadnt been for other EU members. Ceding the French language in mixed company should seem trivial.

[privateeye]

Flash Gordon and the EU will between them shaft the UK by wrapping it in so much regulation that no-one can move without tripping over.

That bits already happened. An example would be the deer I run over a couple of weeks ago, no vet was legally allowed to send anyone to treat it because they would breach the working time directive , it took over 2 hours to find a vet that had not exceeded the limits in the directive. UK before EU were reknowned animal lovers. Would not surprise me that the emergency services will have the same directive aimed at them shortly.

[Antman]

Lone Gunman, how are you defining the UK's territorial waters? I don't think that they are that big (12 nautical miles?) Taking the UK out of the EU would protect that small stretch of water? If you are talking about letting all these all these other nations into areas which were traditionally fished only by the UK, well, yes GB negotiated themselves to give that up to join the EU, but it wasn't theirs to fish solely (pardon the pun).

As I understand it, quotas are organised so that each nation gets a limited bite of, for example, the North Sea cherry. I think that it's a good idea that has been cocked up in implementation. How would being out of the EU protect the UK's fishing industry? The UK could have as many boats out fishing to it's hearts content? Great you would reach the same situation as you have now only quicker (no fish).

Is the reason that you now have only a tenth of the fishing industry, due to Spain and others fishing in waters traditionally only fished by UK fishermen or that you have increased technology which requires a much smaller fleet to get the same amount of fish?

I think blaming the EU for that is a simplification and unfair

[John Galt]

I realise that this will not be a popular opinion but here goes. I think Chirac over-reacted but I support his stand - I think it's a real shame that we don't have the same sort of pride in our country that the French have. We are frequently walked over in EU matters because our politicians roll over so easily and quite frankly they deserve everything they get (or don't get!)

[PerlOfWisdom]

Blair stood up to them when he only gave up part of our annual refund.

[The Lone Gunman]

Sorry I meant traditional.

[Dundeegeorge]

JG, agree but....

I realise that this will not be a popular opinion but here goes. I think Chirac over-reacted but I support his stand - I think it's a real shame that we don't have the same sort of pride in our country that the French have. We are frequently walked over in EU matters because our politicians roll over so easily and quite frankly they deserve everything they get (or don't get!)

'we don't have the same sort of pride in our country'
I don't believe that's the case. I do believe that our representatives care only about themselves and so will do whatever it takes to keep them on the gravy train. And the problem is of course (shades of the Lothian Question) the rules these sh*ts enact rarely affect them, they only affect the mugs who are paying for the gravy train.

[John Galt]

'we don't have the same sort of pride in our country'
I don't believe that's the case. I do believe that our representatives care only about themselves and so will do whatever it takes to keep them on the gravy train. And the problem is of course (shades of the Lothian Question) the rules these sh*ts enact rarely affect them, they only affect the mugs who are paying for the gravy train.

Agree with everything you say DG but you must admit that, as a nation, our fighting spirit seems to have deserted us and I don't know anyone that has any sort of pride in the country that this has become

[Dundeegeorge]

Well again I kind of agree but

Agree with everything you say DG but you must admit that, as a nation, our fighting spirit seems to have deserted us and I don't know anyone that has any sort of pride in the country that this has become

You would certainly believe there is no national pride if you believe the vermin in the meeja. There is a lot of verbal 'burning the national flag', but again how representative of truth is the meeja? And the fact that there are people who are angry at what the country is turning into is a sign at least that there is some pride left. If we really didn't care, we wouldn't be angry.

[John Galt]

You would certainly believe there is no national pride if you believe the vermin in the meeja. There is a lot of verbal 'burning the national flag', but again how representative of truth is the meeja? And the fact that there are people who are angry at what the country is turning into is a sign at least that there is some pride left. If we really didn't care, we wouldn't be angry.

True but what do we do about it other than get angry?