France says Britain should lose its AAA rating

[AtW]

First of all why should'nt different countries compete for investment by adapting their tax regimes accordingly.

Fair competition that's why.

[Doggy Styles]

The treaty contained nothing extra for the UK at all. Cameron is under pressure to repatriate powers. He took the opportunity to hold up this extremely important measure to save the Euro, assuming that the others would agree, to a future opt out of any financial regulations that may appear at some subsequent point. In fact the fact that the others didn't agree means that Cameron achieved absolutely nothing, and the only logical step now would be to prevent the Eurozone using the EU institutions; otherwise the Eurozone will have won the day. They get their treaty through the backdoor and Britain didn't get an opt out on financial rules.

Can you explain to me what David Cameron achieved last week, if the Eurozone goes ahead with the fiscal treaty and uses the EU institutions, bearing in mind the treaty he would have signed up to applied only to those countries using the Euro ?

What concrete opt out does Cameron currently have?

The whole point of Cameron's strategy was an opportunity to use the Euro crisis to push for some titbits, which as you can imagine went down really well with the 26 other countries.

He wasn't pushing for titbits, he was protecting UK business from EU mission creep.

Is it so hard to understand?

[Jeff Maginty]

..

[Mich the Tester]

Boooooooring!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHS

[AtW]

He wasn't pushing for titbits, he was protecting UK business from EU mission creep.

He was protecting the City, which isn't the only UK business - we export to Europe a fair amount and I'd prefer to avoid having currency risk as well as paying 2% bank tax on conversions.

[doodab]

Finally there is the matter of responsibility. If a country elects an idiot who taxes and spends (such as the UK with NL) then it is a matter for that country to deal with and take responsibility for. Once you start "harmonising" taxes then you are removing responsibility away from Sovereign states and thus removing the democratic accountability from the politicians. This cannot be allowed to happen because we in the UK should have now learnt - though I doubt it- that a socialist regime of tax and spend impoverishes us all.

If governments were only allowed to borrow from their own banks and people then you may have a point but in a globalised world a country electing idiots who borrow excessively can quickly become a problem for other countries. When the stability of your financial system is at risk because your banks lent money to your neighbours (and made a tidy profit doing so, so it's not to be discouraged, just moderated) then it's very much your problem and not just theirs.

This is where the "each country for itself" mentality starts to look a bit 70s. The world has moved on and with things happening on such a large scale and crossing borders so easily you simply have to have supra national regulation. Anything else is simply irresponsible.

[BlasterBates]

He wasn't pushing for titbits, he was protecting UK business from EU mission creep.

Is it so hard to understand?

You do realise the treaty only contained the fiscal co-ordination, there was absolutely nothing on the table for anything else. It was purely focused on the Eurozone.

It is simply not true that there was anything in the new treaty about the tobin tax or financial regulation.

It would just not have been politically acceptable to sign any new treaty without adding some additional theoretical future opt outs.

[AtW]

It is simply not true that there was anything in the new treaty about the tobin tax or financial regulation.

Why do people call it tobin tax rather than Stamp Duty which has been used in this country for like few centuries?!?!

[sasguru]

Why do people call it tobin tax rather than Stamp Duty which has been used in this country for like few centuries?!?!

Why not research the differences yourself rather showing what a dumbkopf you are?

[darmstadt]

Why does everybody have to be put in a camp of 'europhiles' or 'eurosceptics'?

Isn't there actually a much larger group that can be seen as 'couldn't give a toss as long as the economic problems get sorted out somehow'?

I'll join that one...