Britain and the EU

It seems young Dave Cameron has upset the gaffers of Europe.

BBC News - Euro crisis: Europe reacts with anger

Basically, he has refused to let the EU take even more control over Britain, and apparently this is an outrage.

For the first time in as long as I can remember, perhaps my whole life so far, I'm actually slightly proud of one of our PMs. Well, proud isn't exactly the word. If this was a visual site you might see me ever so subtly nod my head.

 

Funny that, I don't recall ever being given the option of being in the EU, it was like, you are in in now, so put up with it.

Whilst we need to do everything within reason to stop the single currency from going under, we also need to protect our own boundaries.

 

It seems critics are banging on about the risk of isolation. Funny that. I'm pretty sure Britain invented the railway before the EU, and that we ran most of the world before the EU. I'm pretty sure we were trading with Europe before the EU, in fact about 6000 years before according to the archealogists.

And if we do end up slightly isolated, is that such a bad thing? I seem to remember when I was little stuff was actually made in Britain, and strangely, we seemed to manage ok. In fact, although slightly before my time, I seem to remember reading that not so long ago we had a little disagreement with Europe, and despite not being in the EU at the time, we managed to collaborate with other Europeans, and indeed nations much further afield, and we did ok.

 

And don't forget:-
the Lamb Wars with France.
The Beef War with Europe.
The Egg War (due to Edwina's gobby comments about Salmonella)
WWI & II with Germany.

Who needs Europe??.
We've got the Scottish Oil, Irish Beef, Welsh Lamb and Wensleydale Cheese.
It's great to be British.

 

New Zealand Lamb
Inidan Pakora
Turkish Kebabs
Aberdeen Angus BEEF

Jack McH

 

I think we do need Europe. Its the largest trading block in the world, and accounts for 40% of our exports. I think Cameron was in a difficult position. Essentially the government is being blackmailed by the city mafia. I don't think it is much to do with British Independence.

We have sacrificed our manufacturing for something more profitable - robbing the public of this and other countries via the city financial institutions. They contribute nothing to the world, but are very profitable. If the mafia in Chicago had paid taxes to the city - the city of Chicago could never have afforded to prosecute them. That is the position we have now. The city pays so much tax that the government cannot afford to regulate them.

Frankly I believe that they should be regulated and the European transaction tax would have been a start. But Britain cannot afford that. So I don't know what is for the best.

 

Last time we totally withdrew from the EU was in 400 AD, we did have a long dark age that followed, but we were prime real estate after that.

 

There's absolutely nothing wrong with being trading buddies with Europe. I'd like to think we could be a bit more than that. I'd like it if Britain and Europe could be allies, as indeed is the case for the most part.

From what I gather, all that is still as it was before Cameron stood his ground.

What I don't like is the idea of someone outside of Britain trying to set our laws. They already do that, and have done for a long time. I'd rather we didn't give them even more power.

I know this is a simplistic analogy, but this is the one I always use. I get on well with my next door neighbour. She has her property, I have mine. To some extent, what she does affects us (noise, garden maintenance etc) affects us, and vice versa, so in the interest of getting on, we show respect and consideration from each other, and occasionally lend each other a hand. The result is both households coexist fine.

If I started telling the lady next door that she must ensure that no more than n% of the mass of her tree must overhang my garden, otherwise I'll impose sanctions on her, such as preventing her from putting her bin out on bin day, in no time at all we would hate each other, and we would no longer be able to sort out our concerns with an informal chat and banter in the garden. We would lose all trust in each other, and we'd have to invest a lot of time and energy into protecting our own interests, so much so that our own interests would be insignificant because all of our spare time would be spent watching each other's activities.

We're already there with Europe. We see that every time the stock markets go crazy in response to some rumour that has happened in Europe or Britain. The very last thing anyone needs is even more paranoia about what someone else might be doing or planning to do that is outside of our control.

 

If any of those countries who've signed up break the new rules they will be fined, but who's going to lend them the money to pay the fines?

 

Flippin hec Dim......Thats some opinion,lets hope the yank is wrong.

 

I think this is a very difficult situation. The last few days have shown Europe up for exactly what it is - an institution which is happy to absorb our money but doesn't really have our interests at heart in even the smallest way. I'm sure Sarkosi is delighted with the way things are going (don't you just want to wipe that supercilious grin off his face permanently?) and if he can ensure that we're utterly marginalised but still coughing up large sums to prop up French agriculture he'll be ecstatic. It may well be that times will be tough if we ever decide to leave Europe completely, but I don't think they're necessarily going to be any better if we stay in, and at least we might be masters of our own destiny again. In that cissy, school-prefect way of ours, we've been abiding by all the rules, however ridiculous, while the people who created them have flouted them left, right and centre. Whatever the rule book says, the French look after French jobs. It's about time we took a similar attitude to our own workers.

 

Thanks Dim - I think that Max Keise report is very sobering. I would agree with Max that the City in London is not just a business - but a massive fraud.

However London is not the capital of fraud - thats New York. There are numerous reports that US treasury officials, banks and the legal system at the highest levels are responsible for massive fraud and corruption. A single example is the Wachovia bank of California, was found guilty of laundering over £360 Billion (yes Billion) of Mexican drugs money, but the court found that no individual was guilty as no one was aware that £360 Billion had passed through the bank!