Demon eyes is back....

[darmstadt]

Do you really think that the indominatble fighting spirit that made Britain the worlds greatest ever military machine in history will allow itself to be bullied by a bunch of unelected eurotw*ts? If the EU thinks that it can impose soviet style authoritarianism on anyone wishing to leave then countries will queue up to leave.

Sadly due to successive governments making cuts to military spending, Britain is no longer looking like the 'worlds greatest ever military machine' although apparently Ukip want to increase military spending but not actually use the military (unless its for home use to keep the plebs down )

Next up is: 'soviet style authoritarianism' which is a bit weird as the leading group in the EU and garnered the majority of votes are the Group of the European People's Party which is primarily center right (including conservatives but not the UK Conservatives who instead are in the European Conservatives and Reformists which hold 5th place) but I somehow don't think they hold your idea of the EU, in fact they're nothing like that. I would suspect the only groups who believe in 'soviet style authoritarianism' are probably the Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group (far right groups.)

[darmstadt]

Christ on a bike. We import far more from the EU than we export to the EU.

And how much of that is inflated due to transfer pricing to offset profits and avoid corporation tax I wonder?

Question one, is why does the UK import more from the EU than export to it? Is it because the EU has goods that the UK no longer manufactures yet countries in the EU don't require as many goods from the UK as it used to?

Question two, are many of those imported goods where corporation tax is being avoided due to people buying goods from Amazon as they can't be bothered using their local high street?

[darmstadt]

Quite interesting looking at top exports and imports:

Top exports year to date:

1 - Nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery and mechanical appliances; parts thereof
2 - Natural or cultured pearls, precious or semi-precious stones, precious metals, metals clad with precious metal, and articles thereof; imitation jewellery; coin
3 - Mineral fuels, mineral oils and products of their distillation; bituminous substances; mineral waxes
4 - Vehicles other than railway or tramway rolling-stock, and parts and accessories thereof
5 - Electrical machinery and equipment and parts thereof; sound recorders and reproducers, television image and sound recorders and reproducers, and parts and accessories of such articles
...
20 - Tanning or dyeing extracts; tannins and their derivatives; dyes, pigments and other colouring matter;paints and varnishes; putty and other mastics; inks

Top imports to date:

1 - Nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery and mechanical appliances; parts thereof
2 - Mineral fuels, mineral oils and products of their distillation; bituminous substances; mineral waxes
3 - Vehicles other than railway or tramway rolling-stock, and parts and accessories thereof
4 - Electrical machinery and equipment and parts thereof; sound recorders and reproducers, television image and sound recorders and reproducers, and parts and accessories of such articles
5 - Pharmaceutical products
...
20 - Wood and articles of wood; wood charcoal

[DodgyAgent]

Sadly due to successive governments making cuts to military spending, Britain is no longer looking like the 'worlds greatest ever military machine' although apparently Ukip want to increase military spending but not actually use the military (unless its for home use to keep the plebs down )

Next up is: 'soviet style authoritarianism' which is a bit weird as the leading group in the EU and garnered the majority of votes are the Group of the European People's Party which is primarily center right (including conservatives but not the UK Conservatives who instead are in the European Conservatives and Reformists which hold 5th place) but I somehow don't think they hold your idea of the EU, in fact they're nothing like that. I would suspect the only groups who believe in 'soviet style authoritarianism' are probably the Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group (far right groups.)

UKIP are the plebs. they are not the affluent Tories. My point about the EU becoming a Soviet style dictatorship still stands. The fact that it is fostering the growth of nationalist parties with their own totalitarian agendas is a symptom of the way people now see the EU. UKIP are not allying themselves to these groups for the very reason that they offer a fairly benign nationistic vision for the future which is why people are voting for them rather than the likes of BNP

[darmstadt]

UKIP are the plebs. they are not the affluent Tories. My point about the EU becoming a Soviet style dictatorship still stands. The fact that it is fostering the growth of nationalist parties with their own totalitarian agendas is a symptom of the way people now see the EU. UKIP are not allying themselves to these groups for the very reason that they offer a fairly benign nationistic vision for the future which is why people are voting for them rather than the likes of BNP

Ukip are plebs Remind me about what Farage was employed as? Have a look who funds them and many of their candidates are failed Tories. As for the Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group, I would suggest looking at who else is in that group apart from Ukip (i.e National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria)

[doodab]

The argument that we'll compensate for leaving the EU by exporting more elsewhere is also rather flawed when you look at it on a country by country basis.

Our biggest export destinations?

Switzerland (probably cos all Nissans are sold there from the factory...)
USA
Germany
Netherlands
France
Ireland
Belgium
China
UAE
Hong Kong

It's hard to argue we'll export loads more stuff than we already do to the US, China etc when they are already our biggest individual trading partners, IMO.

BTW the balance of payments to Switzerland is £37 billion in our favour. Take that out and the RotW figures don't look quite so rosy do they...

Based on per-country data for 2013, downloaded from https://www.uktradeinfo.com/Statisti...ages/Home.aspx in case you are wondering.

[DodgyAgent]

Ukip are plebs Remind me about what Farage was employed as? Have a look who funds them and many of their candidates are failed Tories. As for the Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group, I would suggest looking at who else is in that group apart from Ukip (i.e National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria)

I dont give a sh*t who is in the group. I look simply at UKIP and what they stand for. Though I did not vote for them (my local MP is a friend of mine) I could quite easily have done so.. Your lot have been well and truly trounced in the Euro elections and best you can do is to try and smear them by association. All you are doing is showing us what an arrogant bigoted little snob you are.

You lost so get used to it

[DodgyAgent]

The argument that we'll compensate for leaving the EU by exporting more elsewhere is also rather flawed when you look at it on a country by country basis.

Our biggest export destinations?

Switzerland (probably cos all Nissans are sold there from the factory...)
USA
Germany
Netherlands
France
Ireland
Belgium
China
UAE
Hong Kong

BTW the balance of payments to Switzerland is £37 billion in our favour. Take that out and the RotW figures don't look quite so rosy do they...

Based on per-country data for 2013, downloaded from https://www.uktradeinfo.com/statisti...ges/EuOTS.aspx in case you are wondering.

Of course Switzerland that well known EU state

[darmstadt]

I dont give a sh*t who is in the group. I look simply at UKIP and what they stand for. Though I did not vote for them (my local MP is a friend of mine) I could quite easily have done so.. Your lot have been well and truly trounced in the Euro elections and best you can do is to try and smear them by association. All you are doing is showing us what an arrogant bigoted little snob you are.

Pray tell me, who is my lot? At least when I vote I do so for a principle and a belief in what policies that the party are standing for and not because the person standing happens to be a friend, that really is wasting a vote

I would give a tulip who is in the group because they're going to be dictating what happens in Europe for the foreseeable future...but then again it seems you like right wing politics

[doodab]

Of course Switzerland that well known EU state

Exactly my point, oh dimwitted one. Our +ve or only slightly -ve balance of payments with the RotW depends almost exclusively on the Swiss.

On a country by country basis our top three export destinations are non-EU. How much room for further expansion do you think trade with those places has?