Europe

[DodgyAgent]

Are we /should we be in or out? If out what would we want changing

[VectraMan]

I think we should all learn how to spell Europe.

[BrilloPad]

In 1975 we joined the common market. Which is what most people want - the chance to trade freely with Europe. Without damaging our links to the rest of the world.

At the money we pay alot of money and get little back. Europe is jealous of the city and wants to kill it off. If the city does move it will probably be back to New York and the whole of Europe will miss out.

[Mich the Tester]

In 1975 we joined the common market. Which is what most people want - the chance to trade freely with Europe. Without damaging our links to the rest of the world.

At the money we pay alot of money and get little back. Europe is jealous of the city and wants to kill it off. If the city does move it will probably be back to New York and the whole of Europe will miss out.

1 Right, and there are others in Europe who primarily want a common market, including many conservative and liberal parties in Europe, it's just that many coalition governments make a compromise to not change things that are contentious. Britain should build alliances with other European countries and political groupings to move the EU toward being a free trade zone again; NL, for one, would be part of such an alliance, and probably Denmark and some others.

2 Wrong about the city bit; nobody in Europe's jealous of Britain having the city. Maybe they should be, but they aren't.

[VectraMan]

In 1975 we joined the common market. Which is what most people want - the chance to trade freely with Europe. Without damaging our links to the rest of the world.

At the moment we pay alot of money and get little back.

It's about £6bn net isn't it? Which is a little more than a tenth of what we pay in debt interest (for which we literally do get nothing back). However for our EU contribution we get "the chance to trade freely with Europe, without damaging our links to the rest of the world" - which surely isn't "little". In fact it's about 50% of our international trade.

[DodgyAgent]

I think we should all learn how to spell Europe.

[mos]

Are we /should we be in or out? If out what would we want changing

Central planning and redistribution in Europe is worse than in communism (as Lech Walesa once said). It is all run for the benefit of one country.

Many people misunderstand the subsidies which are provided to new joiners. For instance in Poland, the puppet government is completely subordinated to Germany. They privatize the most profitable and strategically important companies, practically handing it over to German investors for peanuts. It is them not the Polish citizens who benefit from EU funds.

[vetran]

common market containing:
1. Common safety, Quality & warranty standards.
2. Common trading standards and conditions.
3. Common qualifications. The IB would solve so many problems.
4. Common tax handling (VAT etc).


Not wanted
1. Common currency (just too stupid)
2. Common migration (I have no objection to having a preference for inter EU visa's and a quick cross country application process).
3. Common Judiciary.
4. An independent EU state.
5. An EU army, we have the UN & NATO for that.
6. MEP gravy train.

[vetran]

Many commentators focus on the net figure when estimating the direct costs of membership.
However, this is misleading. When estimating the domestic tax burden we do not deduct
public expenditure from the total tax burden. We don’t say income tax is zero because of
spending on health and education. Consistency demands that we adopt the same policy
towards payments — which are essentially a tax — to the EU.
Former Chancellor, Lord Lamont, has written (Sovereign Britain, Norman Lamont, 1995) that,
“it is like saying that the rate of income tax is not 20 pence but 2 pence
in the pound because we receive a lot back in schools and hospitals”.

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rc...41248874,d.d2k


£118 Billion a year?

EU 'costs Britain £118bn a year' - Telegraph

[Robinho]

We should leave, slash public spending, slash employment laws, slash taxation.

But we know no government in this country has the balls to do the above (apart from possibly UKIP but they won't get in). As such there would be no point leaving.