Europe

[The Spartan]

I'm not a nutter but it annoyed me that they had to go to the ECHR to be able to deport Abu Hamza after it had been to trial and then to SIAC

[Mich the Tester]

I'm not a nutter but it annoyed me that they had to go to the ECHR to be able to deport Abu Hamza after it had been to trial and then to SIAC

...which has nothing to do with the European Union.

[d000hg]

If the UK did leave:
a)would that be the first time anyone has left?
b)would it destabilise things even further with the Greek/Spanish situation?

[The Spartan]

...which has nothing to do with the European Union.

Isn't that what the "E" stands for?

[vetran]

They don't even know themselves

HM Revenue & Customs: Assessing the EU's impact on the UK: a review of the balance of competences

Apparently there is an inquiry.

[Mich the Tester]

Isn't that what the "E" stands for?

No, 'E' stands for 'European', but not 'European Union'. The ECHR is an entirely different institution set up at the instigation of Winston Churchill, with 47 member states, some inside, some outside the EU, whose aim is to take governments to task before they do things like the German government of the 30s, by enforcing the 'European Treaty on Human Rights', which is NOT an EU treaty. It is like Manchester United FC (MUFC) and Manchester Rugby Club (MRC); two entirely different organisations with different aims and interests, but with some shared members and one identical word in their names. The difference is that the EU states that a condition of EU membership is to sign the European Treaty of Human Rights, but the ECHR does not and cannot force the EU to require that and cannot force anyone to sign.

Granted, the ECHR has sometimes seemed to sway away from it's original aims, and that's a point for attention, but it is NOT an EU institution, and if Britain leaves the EU it will still be a signatory to the treaty.

[VectraMan]

Isn't that what the "E" stands for?

You're suggesting we leave everything that begins with the letter E?

Tell us again that you're not a nutter.

[BlasterBates]

I'd love to know what the nutters think all these powers that the EU have over us actually are. We constantly hear about EU interference and powers being moved to Brussels, but what does that actually mean? What exactly has the EU made you do today that you didn't want to do?

When you look at the way Romania is run as a country and compare it to say Germany it´s clear that there is a fair amount of leeway as to how you interpret EU legislation.

Many western European countries actually restrict the movements of members of Eastern European states, and there is also a clause which allows countries to reimpose visas on on any state if there is a problem with immigration.

One big complaint I here is that because of the EU Poles are now overrunning Britian. Well the reason is firstly it was Britain that pushed for the enlargement of the EU to cover Eastern Europe, a project driven mainly by John Major and secondly became the only Western European member of the EU to allow them in. The UK used to have an opt out on the European Time directive and then the British government then opted out of their opt out, now Cameron is going to "fight" to be opted out of the opt out (of the opt out) they opted out of.

I think in the end a lot of problems people blame on the EU was caused successive British governments. The truth is EU directives are pretty vague with plenty of flexibility.

The UK won´t be leaving the EU in the same way that Greece won´t be leaving the Euro, but it will allow some politicians to grand stand and "get angry", and there´s nothing like getting angry as a vote winner.

[Mich the Tester]

From the Beeb;

France has also weighed in with criticism. Laurent Fabius, a foreign minister, branded the referendum plans dangerous.

"It risks being dangerous for Britain itself because Britain outside of Europe, that will be difficult," he told France Info radio.

"We can't have Europe a la carte. Imagine the EU was a football club: once you've joined up and you're in this club, you can't then say you want to play rugby.

Oh no, Monsieur Fabius? Can you explain the phenomenon by which Blackheath FC, Richmond FC and some others are actually clubs that play rugby? Is it something to do with members choosing the code of football they wanted to play? Isn't that part of how the game of Rugby Football came into being? Silly man, get it right.

[KaiserWilly]

I'd say the British people are essentially unhappy about mass immigration, and they associate it with the EU, which is a bit unfair IMO, as Enoch Powell would demonstrate.

I'd rather have 500K Poles in my country rather than 1K Islamoafricans. London is poised to be an Islamoafrican-majority city by 2030. The EU has nothing to do with it, but it gets all the blame (unfairly as I said).

The Brits are barking at the wrong tree, IMO.