Reply to: Bloody EU wants to ban cheese and yogurt! (or does it?)

[petergriffin]

On the EU, if they had just gone more slowly and gradually relaxed migration rules as the economies in the East began to match our own, made sure that migrants integrated better, far more would be in favour of it.

You have to blame Tony Blair for that, not the EU. Under the EU rules national states have eight years' time to allow new EU countries' citizens in their labour market. Tony Blair decided it was ok to allow all the Poles in straight away. Other countries have done so in 2012 only.

It would have been very different if the government had decided to wait maybe 4-5 years, but instead the damage was done. So it wasn't the EU dictat but a sovereign choice, backed up by popular vote (9.5M votes for Labour in 2005).

[Flashman]

European Commission in the UK – Euromyths and Letters to the Editor » Blog Archive » No, Mail on Sunday, the EU is (obviously) not banning yogurt and cheese from school dinners

Yes listen to the EU trolls instead.

EU to set up euro-election 'troll patrol' to tackle Eurosceptic surge - Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph has seen confidential spending proposals and internal documents planning an unprecedented propaganda blitz ahead of and during European elections in June 2014.

Key to a new strategy will be "public opinion monitoring tools" to "identify at an early stage whether debates of political nature among followers in social media and blogs have the potential to attract media and citizens' interest".

Spending on "qualitative media analysis" is to be increased by £1.7 million and while most of the money is to be found in existing budgets an additional £787,000 will be need to be raised next year despite calls for EU spending to reflect national austerity.

"Particular attention needs to be paid to the countries that have experienced a surge in Euroscepticism," said a confidential document agreed last year.

[Flashman]

How much influence do you think Britain should have in an organisation of 28 countries? Do you think Britain is inherently superior and all the other should just fall in line with us and be grateful?

Eh? I don't think we should have a common government with 28 other countries at all.

[doodab]

We wouldn't have food labelling if we were outside the EU?????

Quite possibly not. We didn't used to have it, and the requirements and minimum standards it has to meet were introduced under the auspices of the EU

[xoggoth]

she's right when she says that the British public cannot form a proper opinion because they are brainwashed by the tabloids

People are being tied up in dark cellars and subjected to sleep deprivation and threats are they? There is no "brain washing". Those from the other side are just as selective in their arguments, just as likely to spout "propaganda". The Daily Mail is the most popular paper, not because it persuades people better but because they choose to read it as it chimes best with popular instincts, with what they already think AND what they often observe to be reality.

A society that works with human nature is a society that works a damn sight better and for that reason the right have a far better grasp of facts and reality that those on the left. And before some idiot says that's giving in to the worst instincts, no it isn't. Humans are social animals and have natural empathy, we just need to make sure that things are not rushed through in pursuit of ideals in a way that ignores the real problems. On the EU, if they had just gone more slowly and gradually relaxed migration rules as the economies in the East began to match our own, made sure that migrants integrated better, far more would be in favour of it.

[darmstadt]

And they want to ban CDs

EU ban on ‘naked’ CDS to become permanent - FT.com

tulip, read that wrong as well

[VectraMan]

1. GB has 29 votes out of a total of 345 votes in the Council of Europe. 8%
2. GB has 72 MEP's out of 736 in the EU Parliament. 9.78%

So our 'National Representatives' have around 9% influence over EU policy.

9 frickin %

How much influence do you think Britain should have in an organisation of 28 countries? Do you think Britain is inherently superior and all the other should just fall in line with us and be grateful?

[petergriffin]

The British government and the EU Government effectively merged together years ago.

What have you been smoking? There's no such a thing as "the EU Government"!

Your statements have the unpleasant smell of peasants' ignorance.

[darmstadt]

1. GB has 29 votes out of a total of 345 votes in the Council of Europe. 8%
2. GB has 72 MEP's out of 736 in the EU Parliament. 9.78%

So our 'National Representatives' have around 9% influence over EU policy.

9% in the EU or 100% outside the EU?

Actually the UK has 73 MEPs out of 766 according to this table: Search although in the next election that will change, 74 out of 751: Elections 2014: share-out of MEPs' seats among 28 EU countries

[Flashman]

If I ask to borrow your lawnmower and you say no, have I imposed the loan of your lawnmower on you?

Who decides what concerns the EU? Oh that's right, the national representatives we voted for.

Why exactly shouldn't they concern themselves with children's nutrition? Or adults nutrition? After all without them we'd probably not have a requirement to label foods with a list of ingredients, and we'd not have the standard E number system so we know what crap is being snuck into them.

Personally I'd like to see EU legislation mandating a minimum standard of critical thinking before people are allowed to post on t'internet.

1. GB has 29 votes out of a total of 345 votes in the Council of Europe. 8%
2. GB has 72 MEP's out of 736 in the EU Parliament. 9.78%

So our 'National Representatives' have around 9% influence over EU policy.

9 frickin %

Why exactly shouldn't they concern themselves with children's nutrition? Or adults nutrition? After all without them we'd probably not have a requirement to label foods with a list of ingredients, and we'd not have the standard E number system so we know what crap is being snuck into them

We wouldn't have food labelling if we were outside the EU?????

[Flashman]

It was the council of ministers (which includes the British prime minister) which asked the commission to come up with a proposal on fruit in schools, in the first place.

In other words Governments want this to happen and they've discussed it and agreed that it can be done via the EU budget.

This is not a "one-eyed" bureacrat in Brussels deciding what we should all do.

The British government and the EU Government effectively merged together years ago.

The big State. Loved by politicians, corporations and the unions throughout Europe and beyond. All of them get a slice of the pie.

Unless you're on the payroll you are f***ed

[Flashman]

European Commission in the UK – Euromyths and Letters to the Editor » Blog Archive » No, Mail on Sunday, the EU is (obviously) not banning yogurt and cheese from school dinners

Wow I never knew that.

I love the EU now.

[darmstadt]

No, that's the main point. A nature debate on the EU, immigration and what else must be grounded on facts first, not cheap and nasty propaganda, as it is the case with the DM all tabloids.

See, I don't like that Viviane Reding. She's an arrogant Luxemburgian bureaucrat, but you need to admit it, she's right when she says that the British public cannot form a proper opinion because they are brainwashed by the tabloids.

WHS +1, to paraphase Noam Chomsky: Any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the U.K. media.

or Joseph Goebbels: Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.

[petergriffin]

Regardless of the usual slurs on The Daily Mail

No, that's the main point. A nature debate on the EU, immigration and what else must be grounded on facts first, not cheap and nasty propaganda, as it is the case with the DM all tabloids.

See, I don't like that Viviane Reding. She's an arrogant Luxemburgian bureaucrat, but you need to admit it, she's right when she says that the British public cannot form a proper opinion because they are brainwashed by the tabloids.

[NickFitz]

In that case why was the Brussels paper released at all?

Just a guess, but maybe it was for the reasons explained in great detail in the OP?