Do You Still Beat Your Wife?

[Rhumsaa]

we won't get a vote anyways so let ignorance and apathy rule the day once more

[simon]

Particularly so as a result of the French attitude to the coalition to liberate Iraq from that evil man Saddam.

Yeah right Vader! Isn't it really great how Britain and the US has made Iraq so much more stable and less worrying. Thank goodness those dangerous "weapons of mass destruction" don't threaten us, any longer. Thank goodness they haven't created a terrorist state.

 

And the French and Germans must have been dafto bonkers to ever even suggest that we were stupid idiots for thinking that George Bush wasn't surrounded by genius - and that an invasion wouldn't make matters so very much better. Isn't it obvious that the world is so much better now. What a good thing that we didn't make policy with our EU enemies.

 

Apart from that Shamus. I have the opinion that you are confusing the EU with the Council Of Europe. Meanwhile - Britain signed up for ever closer union; towards no borders and common laws and taxation. It's still a good idea.

[hollandaise]

At the end of the day we are British and the ultimate right of Britain to determine what we do on a global scale should be the prerogative of Britain and not be subject to the dictate of other nations whose values on life are different to ours.

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Now, THIS makes sense. Do we really want a bunch of French, German, Italian, Spanish etc etc etc politicians sitting round a table and deciding what the British should be eating, or WHEN we should be allowed to drink alcohol, or what side of the road we drive on? Where do you think it will stop once we've signed our lives and our democracy over to these people?

 

Now they may politely reassure us they only want to control X, Y and Z.

 

But give them a few years, then a few decades, and they'll be after the whole f***ing alphabet - if you'll pardon my English colloquialism which will no doubt soon disappear from our vocabularies to be replaced by a more PC and border-friendly Euro swearword.

 

And it will affect the IOM, of course it will. In subtle ways at first but more powerfully later. The Island can't stand alone against Europe for long. If Britain goes, sooner or later it'll be sucked in too.

[simon]

Your post (Hollandaise) is utter nonsense because none of this is on the agenda:

 

a bunch of French, German, Italian, Spanish etc etc etc politicians sitting round a table and deciding what the British should be eating, or WHEN we should be allowed to drink alcohol, or what side of the road we drive on?

 

Though personally I'm in favour of us shifting the side of the road we drive on. It would make cars cheaper.

[monkey_magic]

Typical scaremongering. Do you read the Daily Mail by any chance hollandaise?

[Fatty Fatty Toad Boy]

Signing the current constitution as it stands is effectively endorsing the current EU institution but, discounting Daily Mail rants about Jonny Foreigners and pound coins, it has some major problems:

• It's rife with nepotism, corruption and ineptitude.
  
• It's accounts are a shambles and open to fraud - auditors have refused to off the accounts for the last 10 years
  
• The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of subsidising our farmers keeps food prices high here while causing poverty in the developing world.
  
• France, one of the largest countries by GDP in the EU, is the largest receiver of European handouts (30% of the agricultural budget).
  
• It's unaccountable - the policy makers are appointed not elected (the MEPs, are paid a fortune, receive lavious expenses but have very little power) - and secretive.
  
• It cannot enforce its own rules -Italy, Germany and France have all broken the rules of the Maastricht stability pact; France has the largest of number of directives outstanding (the UK has the lowest).
  

A European Union can be a good thing (a 2nd super-power to rein in the US, a powerful trading block, a means to economic growth) but the current version needs radical reform.

 

P.S. Losing the pound isn't the problem, it's losing the ability to price the currency (through interest rates) and use fiscal policy to influence the economy. Hence, the UK's strong run of growth compared to the Eurozone's stagnation. Until the Euro and UK economies are closer aligned (and through European deregulation or increased social regulation this may happen soon), the UK should keep the pound.

 

P.P.S The UKIP may be a party of middle class Colonel Blimps, but they are still the only party with a distinct anti-EU policy. The rest prefer to partronise and in-fight.