Are you ready for BRIXIT?

[BrilloPad]

Britain is already the tax heaven of Europe and global capital of money laundering. Juts ask those you know at HSBC. How low can you go?

London is the ‘global capital of money-laundering’: TBIJ

I wish that article were true. Also the cuckoo clock makers are way better than us.

[centurian]

I beg your pardon, this is rubbish! Look at this official document from the HM treasury:
http://www.official-documents.gov.uk.../8232/8232.pdf

Scroll down to page 18, I see in descending order of net contribution: Germany, France, Italy, UK. These are the latest official figures from 2009.

That's because the "official" net figures don't include payments by the EU to individuals/organisations in particular countries.

Officially this is EU spending, rather than a "contribution" by the EU to a particular country, but this spending is heavily skewed towards certain countries. Farming subsidies are the biggest example.

This article goes some way to explaining it

Articles: Who Pays for the European Union?

However I do conceed that this article shows that Italy and France are also net contributors to the EU, but at a considerably lower amount than the "official" figures.

What this means is that without UK contributions - this would leave a humungeous hole in the EU budget.

[Robinho]

Exactly, Swiss have done well out of 2 vile regimes. The Nazis and now the EUSSR.

[petergriffin]

We agree to disagree on this but one thing is for sure: Germany (both SPD and CDU) is totally against a 2-speed Europe and rightly so, as it makes no sense at all. Therefore the UK is only an obstacle to full-fledged fiscal union that would finally give the Germans the steering-wheel of European economy. Auf wiedersehen!