"Get Britain Out of the EU" says the Daily Express Special Edition

[beorhthelm]

That suggests that there's no massive hunger to leave the EU at the moment.

the point was, there is growing dissent against the direction the EU is being driven in. the average Jose, Sebastien or Jungen isnt too keen on a Federal States of Europe.

 

[Gwylan]

Thats pretty disingenuous because all the anti EU parties are single issue, much as i agree with a lot of their policies, I wouldnt want UKIP running the country.

I agree but it demonstrates that it's not a single issue that concerns too many people. Some times that single issue strikes a chord; you could say that the SNP is a single-issue party and they're the dominant force in Scotland.

 

[User removed 4]

I agree but it demonstrates that it's not a single issue that concerns too many people. Some times that single issue strikes a chord; you could say that the SNP is a single-issue party and they're the dominant force in Scotland.

i dont agree with that at all, i dont want to get into a debate on it as this is a different topic , but i will use the example of immigration being a massive issue for a lot of people , myself definitely included , but i wouldnt vote for the BNP .

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

The 1975 referendum was all about joining the European Economic Community which had more benefits than just being in EFTA. The EEC has morphed into the EU and its members are just part of an all enveloping superstate. Remaining in the EU is on the road to nowhere.

 

[adrian29uk]

I'm not particularly in favour of the EU (and would probably vote to come out if there was a straight referendum) but there are anti-EU parties in every country, including the UK. All EU countries have general elections with an opportunity to vote for an anti-EU ticket, yet pro_EU parties generally win. In the last general election, for example, pro-EU parties won about 98% of the vote, the antis won 2%. That suggests that there's no massive hunger to leave the EU at the moment.

The reason these parties don't get the votes is because people don't know they exist. They hear mutterings about them in the news, but that's as far as it goes. People have to do the research to find out about them.

When UKIP do get a platform on places like Question Time they are just shouted down by morons. I see nothing wrong with UKIP. I really cannot see any difference between the government and Labour.

 

[beorhthelm]

But protectionism already exists between EU and Non EU nations, so it would therefore apply to the UK if we pulled out.

which kinda suggests its not working too well for us...

And there's still the issue of the plumbers of course.

i will concede this. however we could arrange a bilateral agreement with Poland. some have suggested we train more British plumbers, but thats rather a batland idea. much better to send our youth to Shire University to gain an honors degree in Lightweight Studies. (veering off topic...)

 

[Hunting 784561]

Interesting that the vote is roughly 50/50% so far, which might explain why the Express don't sell that many copies nowadays.

In my view the UK needs to be part of a larger international grouping, as this group of islands is far too small to stand alone, and keep some influence in the world.

So IF we left the EU, what should we go into - an English speaking commonwealth of countries, maybe the next state of the US - or what ??

Standing alone is not viable in this world.

 

[Lincoln Imp]

They are opening these factories in eurozone countries where labour is cheap, IE eastern europe, they wouldnt be opening them here anyway, or germany or france.

Partly true - even some EU manufacturers assemble in eastern Europe (every Fiat 500 is Polish), but there remains huge manufacturing capacity in West Europe and the reason that Ford and others prefer, say, Belgium to the UK is the fixed exchange rate with the rest of Europe. They know that labour rates in eastern Europe will quite quickly catch up with those elsewhere but the varying exchange rate between the UK and most of Europe looks like being a permanent factor.

But the argument against the EU and euro isn't based on facts, either yours or mine. They are based on an intangible fear of sharing something called sovereignty. As an Englishman I don't genuinely know what the problem is.

 

[ROSM]

The Plumbers ARE a big issue, but on a day to day basis I'm more concerned about who will serve my coffee and breakfast at station coffee bars?

Will somebody please think of the Croissants?

 

[e77]

In but the EU as an organisation needs massive reform. Having un elected commissioners needs to end.

 

[fork me]

I think the BIG issue is not having our own immigration queue at airports. I'm fed up of having to join the "EU Citizens" queue, it's my country so I should be able to join a "UK only" line. Scrap the EU solely for this reason.

Very short sighted. You would then have to join the horrendously long "everyone else" queue at other European airports instead of the EU one you currently enjoy.

Britain needs the EU. Being out of it would hit trade hugely, not only ours directly, but our interests in the Commonwealth as well. Some of the sillier (on the surface) EU laws were actually put there by the UK to protect such interests. (Such as the bendy banana law so ridiculed in our tabloids years ago). A lot of the more sillier EU laws championed in our press don't even exist and never has. They had some of the more famous ones on QI a while back and not one of them existed.

 

[simmo]

I'm not particularly in favour of the EU (and would probably vote to come out if there was a straight referendum) but there are anti-EU parties in every country, including the UK. All EU countries have general elections with an opportunity to vote for an anti-EU ticket, yet pro_EU parties generally win. In the last general election, for example, pro-EU parties won about 98% of the vote, the antis won 2%. That suggests that there's no massive hunger to leave the EU at the moment.

Mmmm, I am not so sure about that.

People vote a general elections for a multitude of differing reasons. Any individual that votes for a party on a single issue must have very very strong feelings about this issue, wheras the everyday person really to be quite honest couldn't give 2 sh1ts about politics yet his vote counts just as much.

However, I think in continental Europe there is a very very strong anti EU feeling at present. Every which way the Greeks turn they are fcuked by being a Euro member, the same goes for Ireland (Spain and Italy are getting sucked in to) but unlike Iceland they can not devalue their currency to try and get out of their predicament. Yet the every day Greek (for eg) whom has very little understanding of economics thinks why is this happening, it didn't happen when we had the Drachma. I am also sure that the German general public are also going to be too happy to bail out those coutries that are less financially sound as they are.

Thank goodness we didn't join the Euro, people slag off the Tories on here, but John Major called that one spot on and what a crucial decision it turned out to be. Going forward I think we should also try and disentangle ourselves from as much as we can without effecting our trading situation and we should seriously look at EFTA rather than full EC membership and the pros and cons of that. Border controls/immigration and judicial decisions may also be a good place to start review without upsetting to many of our European trading partners.

 

[beorhthelm]

They are based on an intangible fear of sharing something called sovereignty. As an Englishman I don't genuinely know what the problem is.

so you have no problem with a legislature which is technically, procedurally and culturally remote, deciding upon the laws we have to abide by?

 

[fork me]

No, the big issue is that they make us eat STRAIGHT bananas.

It's PC gone mad I tell you.

I was waiting for that one, didn't take many posts. The UK introduced that law. The difference it made was that it forced ALL EU countries to import Carribean bananas (part owned by UK companies) which are long and straight instead of Central American bananas (with no British interests) which are short and bendy.

 

[Badger]

Very short sighted. You would then have to join the horrendously long "everyone else" queue at other European airports instead of the EU one you currently enjoy.

I was waiting for that one, didn't take many posts. The UK introduced that law. The difference it made was that it forced ALL EU countries to import Carribean bananas (part owned by UK companies) which are long and straight instead of Central American bananas (with no British interests) which are short and bendy.

 

[Spiros]

I don't object to what the EU is supposed to be but I object very strongly to what it has become. The idea of a set of common rules and principles being shared across a set of countries with a lot in common is a good one. However the EU - especially the European Commission - has become a byword for corruption, backhanders and well paid 'jobs for the boys'. This is where you find the worst of the overpaid, unelected officials which spend most of their time trying to justify their existence - such as van Rompuy and Ashton. It pains me to think that we spend BILLIONS of pounds a year just to subsidise the likes of them. As said by a number of others on this thread the original EEC was about economic partnership let's get back to that.

 

[fork me]

They also have been careful with the oil money they generate. Where as we have pissed all the North sea oil profit up the wall, they have carefully controlled and spent theirs, which means they now have a huge fund (and it is huge at many 100's of billions $) to help finance the country in the long term.

It's not that "we've pissed ours up against the wall while they have carefully controlled theirs" at all. Norway have a huge amount MORE oil revenue per capita than we do. A huge amount more.

That's like saying doctors have bigger houses than checkout girls because their more careful with money. It's complete nonsense.

 

[brunswick]

its just a headline to sell papers.

the elite in the uk (whatever labels you call them; tory, labour etc) all signed up to europe decades ago - yes, there may be a vote, but much like in ireland it will be staged to make it look like "they" listened to the people.

the daily express taken seriously oh my.

 

[fork me]

Personally, I think Switzerland gives us a good example of what can be achieved outside the EU but then I'm anti-EU !

Switzerland has a large amount of the rest of the world's money in it's banks, that's why it survives. But even Switzerland is doing badly at the moment. They are desperately trying to reduce the value of the Swiss Franc as they can't sell anything abroad and even their tourism is suffering.

 

[adrian29uk]

Mmmm, I am not so sure about that.

People vote a general elections for a multitude of differing reasons. Any individual that votes for a party on a single issue must have very very strong feelings about this issue, wheras the everyday person really to be quite honest couldn't give 2 sh1ts about politics yet his vote counts just as much.

However, I think in continental Europe there is a very very strong anti EU feeling at present. Every which way the Greeks turn they are fcuked by being a Euro member, the same goes for Ireland (Spain and Italy are getting sucked in to) but unlike Iceland they can not devalue their currency to try and get out of their predicament. Yet the every day Greek (for eg) whom has very little understanding of economics thinks why is this happening, it didn't happen when we had the Drachma. I am also sure that the German general public are also going to be too happy to bail out those coutries that are less financially sound as they are.

Thank goodness we didn't join the Euro, people slag off the Tories on here, but John Major called that one spot on and what a crucial decision it turned out to be. Going forward I think we should also try and disentangle ourselves from as much as we can without effecting our trading situation and we should seriously look at EFTA rather than full EC membership and the pros and cons of that. Border controls/immigration and judicial decisions may also be a good place to start review without upsetting to many of our European trading partners.

And that's the problem as you quite rightly say some people that don't give 2 shits about politics, but when someone gets in to power they don't like they are soon moaning about it, me included. That's why I am going to make sure I vote next time around.

Your right as much as I hated John Major he did say another good thing, we could use the current situation as a bargaining tool with the powers to be.

.