Reply to: Farage vs Clegg

[Mich the Tester]

I spoke to Nigel Farage after the debate - some UKIP members (including me) met up with him for a pint. He's just a normal bloke who wants his country back.

I'm sure he's a delightful chap; I just think think he's wrong.

[Mich the Tester]

The people who wish to stay in the Euro are big businesses. This is because they know they can lobby the EU to build red tape to prevent small companies from taking their markets. For example if you want to sell a sanitation product into the NHS you will need to pay over £1 million to get it tested and certified.. If you wish to put any chemical no matter how safe it is into agriculture (despite the fact thaty already happily use the most toxic of insecticides and polluting fertilisers) - even flower growing it is hundreds of thousands of pounds to get it certified.
Likewise with sealant products or any other building product. In cahoots with the insurance industry and the certification companies we cannot build anything unless it is wrapped up in some kind of heavily capitalised package.

The NHS is run by the British government, not the EU.

No I think you'll find that those who oppose the free movement of people are, albeit unwittingly, supporting the interests of big businesses who want to move capital and jobs around as they please without the public having the freedom to follow those capital flows.

As for the insurance industry, it's the British government that's put up the most resistance to getting them under some kind of control.

Your fight for liberty and to 'get your country back' is very worthy, but you've picked the wrong enemy.

[Old Greg]

The people who wish to stay in the Euro are big businesses. This is because they know they can lobby the EU to build red tape to prevent small companies from taking their markets. For example if you want to sell a sanitation product into the NHS you will need to pay over £1 million to get it tested and certified.. If you wish to put any chemical no matter how safe it is into agriculture (despite the fact thaty already happily use the most toxic of insecticides and polluting fertilisers) - even flower growing it is hundreds of thousands of pounds to get it certified.
Likewise with sealant products or any other building product. In cahoots with the insurance industry and the certification companies we cannot build anything unless it is wrapped up in some kind of heavily capitalised package.

Dodgy, I love you like my own grandmother, but you are a blithering idiot.

[Lockhouse]

I spoke to Nigel Farage after the debate - some UKIP members (including me) met up with him for a pint. He's just a normal bloke who wants his country back.

[darmstadt]

The NHS procurement service spends GBP1.6 billion a year on 620,000 products so at GBP1 million corruption cost per product that means, er....Someone might want to go and have a read of: Home | Welcome to NHS Supply Chain or post a flatulant right wing press article which can easily be discredited by a simple bit of research, or is that too hard for a menial telephone sales assistant or whatever you call someone in a call center?

[darmstadt]

The people who wish to stay in the Euro are big businesses. This is because they know they can lobby the EU to build red tape to prevent small companies from taking their markets. For example if you want to sell a sanitation product into the NHS you will need to pay over £1 million to get it tested and certified.. If you wish to put any chemical no matter how safe it is into agriculture (despite the fact thaty already happily use the most toxic of insecticides and polluting fertilisers) - even flower growing it is hundreds of thousands of pounds to get it certified.
Likewise with sealant products or any other building product. In cahoots with the insurance industry and the certification companies we cannot build anything unless it is wrapped up in some kind of heavily capitalised package.

Without proof this is just more hot air which it seems is what the anti-EU brigade are full of. In fact if you really think about it, the EU has actually harmonised product certification so that once your product has been certified then it can be used in all EU countries, in other words 1 certificate - 27 countries so if you didn't have that then, 27 certificates - 27 countries (oh yeah, and 27 million smackers each time!!!)

Since EU legislation harmonizes mandatory requirements for product safety throughout the European Union, a manufacturer only needs to go through the process once and can then export to all 27 EU member states. With appropriate certification, goods travel freely within the borders of the Single Market.

[DodgyAgent]

1.All of those business leaders said the same thing about the Euro. Britain had to join otherwise they would all leave. Yes walk out of the 7th largest economy in the world. Honest guv.
2. See above/
3. Independent UK could choose who came here. Europe, India, wherever.
4. UKIP want to stay in NATO and spend more on defence so we can help our friends and allies all over the world. Just no more cannon fodder for Yankee wars.

The people who wish to stay in the Euro are big businesses. This is because they know they can lobby the EU to build red tape to prevent small companies from taking their markets. For example if you want to sell a sanitation product into the NHS you will need to pay over £1 million to get it tested and certified.. If you wish to put any chemical no matter how safe it is into agriculture (despite the fact thaty already happily use the most toxic of insecticides and polluting fertilisers) - even flower growing it is hundreds of thousands of pounds to get it certified.
Likewise with sealant products or any other building product. In cahoots with the insurance industry and the certification companies we cannot build anything unless it is wrapped up in some kind of heavily capitalised package.

[mos]

They employ MTT to go around polishing the armco and the bollards at the sides of the roads, just to make sure everything's neat and tidy, you know.

FTFY

[darmstadt]

Actually to be fair, Farage did answer the question. He stated that his wife worked for him for years without remuneration and that he wouldn't be able to do what he does without her help and so she is paid modestly for her work.

Clegg totally avoided the question though.

In order to gain votes and thus be elected Nigel Farage gave a very public promise on Meridian TV that he and UKIP would never employ family members, a promise which he and others of his chums were soon to abrogate on. Also from the same interview:

Hornby: "Is there something, Nigel Farage, a touch hypocritical about you flying out on these free flights and enjoying the restaurants and so on of the parliament here, and enjoyng the gravy train, so-called, life of an MEP? How do you square that circle?"

Farage: "You will remember that right through (the 1999 Euro campaign) that we said we are not going on the gravy train; that we are the only people who are intending, annually, to publish so that the public can inspect them, our expense accounts, our allowance accounts, and the excess that we get - the excess that we are forced to take - particularly on travelling allowances, we are going to be putting into a trust fund and that money will be used to help victims of the European Union in our country, so I do reject the allegation that we’re on the gravy train and there’s certainly no chance of the three of us going native."

He lied. Nearly 15 years on and still no trust fund and no full audit of his accounts.

Don’t forget that a unanimous resolution passed at the NEC meeting of 17 November 1999 stated: "The NEC re-affirms its control over MEPs expenses and allowances, in accordance with the pledge signed prior to the Euro-election. Substantial allowances are being deposited within MEPs accounts which must come under NEC control for the benefit of the Party. Messrs Stone King, Solicitors, have been approached with a view to setting up the 'Trust Fund' promised to the electorate. The NEC wishes to take matters forward to counteract negative statements in the Press but is reluctant to incur legal expenditure without a guarantee of compliance by the MEPs".

Minutes of the meeting were circulated to branch chairmen and candidates on 24 November 1999 with a covering letter that included: "Enclosed is a copy of the agreement signed by all Euro election candidates prior to June 10th. This is a matter of a serious nature which must be resolved. The Party is not receiving the benefit in the way that was promised to Party members and to the public who voted for us".

The Trust fund was quietly forgotten.

[darmstadt]

4. UKIP want to stay in NATO and spend more on defence so we can help our friends and allies all over the world. Just no more cannon fodder for Yankee wars.

They don't know what they want: http://www.ukip.org/newsroom/news/85...es-on-the-line

[Flashman]

If I was Clegg I would have asked the following questions:

1. You realise most businesses in the UK support being in Europe?
2. What will you do when Nissan, JLR, Honda, Mini et. al move out of Britain, as they've said they will, since they're only here for access to the Euro market?
3. You say you want more ties with the Commonwealth rather than Europe - does that mean giving more visas to Indians?
4. How will you pay for your policy of increasing the armed forces and why do you need it since you're against foreign wars?

etc etc etc ad nauseum.

It's not as if UKIP "policy", such as it is, is not riddled with holes.
Instead he defended some of the more dubious Euro practices.

1.All of those business leaders said the same thing about the Euro. Britain had to join otherwise they would all leave. Yes walk out of the 7th largest economy in the world. Honest guv.
2. See above/
3. Independent UK could choose who came here. Europe, India, wherever.
4. UKIP want to stay in NATO and spend more on defence so we can help our friends and allies all over the world. Just no more cannon fodder for Yankee wars.

[Zero Liability]

The highlight was listening to Clegg squirm and utterly dodge the question of trust with reference to his pledge on tuition fees.

Lets not forget this, too.

[Mich the Tester]

Looks like the average is nearly double in Luxembourg compared to the UK. They must be terrified of all 70 million of us turning up overnight looking for jobs.

Terrible crime rate in Luxuryburg as well; right down at the bottom of the league tables on that one. THREE murders per year!

[Mich the Tester]

Looks like the average is nearly double in Luxembourg compared to the UK. They must be terrified of all 70 million of us turning up overnight looking for jobs.

They employ eastern Europeans to go around polishing the armco and the bollards at the sides of the roads, just to make sure everything's neat and tidy, you know.

[VectraMan]

Interesting figures here: List of countries in Europe by monthly average wage - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Looks like the average is nearly double in Luxembourg compared to the UK. They must be terrified of all 70 million of us turning up overnight looking for jobs.