The European Union is costing us more each day

First topic message reminder :

EU membership now £50m a day
Wednesday, 23rd November 2011

UKIP analysis of the latest figures contained in The Pink Book 2011 (UK's Balance of Payments) clearly show that the UK now sends in excess of £50million every day in contributions to the European Union.

Figures released today for 2009/2010 show that the UK's gross contributions have increased by 5.7%

Gross receipts (payments from Brussels to the UK) shrank between 2009 and 2010. Part of the reason for this was Tony Blair's surrender of the UK's rebate from the EU.

Our net contribution to the EU has rocketed from £6.6billion in 2009 to £10.3billion in 2010.

Last year the Office for Budget Responsibility envisaged £10.3billion as the annual cost of EU membership for 2014. These new figures show that they have grossly underestimated the cost to the UK of EU membership.

The Pink Book 2011 is a summary of balance of payments accounts, which contain detailed statistics for the current account including; trade in goods and services, income, current and capital transfers, transactions in UK external assets and liabilities, and levels of identified assets and liabilities.

Numbers contained in The Pink Book are higher than those from HM Treasury because not all UK payments to and from Brussels transit via HM Treasury. For example, the Department for International Development channels part of its 'overseas aid' direct to institutions by-passing HM Treasury.

Nigel Farage, UKIP Leader, said: "The figures speak for themselves. We are paying more than ever before for our EU membership and are getting less in return.

"This news is a kick in the teeth for the British people who are tightening their belts in these tough times.

"David Cameron has ignored the will of the people by denying them a referendum on the UK's membership of the EU, and now these figures will just rub salt in the wounds. How can the Prime Minister still say it is within our interests to remain in the EU?"

This is part of what the Polish Foreign Secretary, Radek Sikorski, had to say about British Eurosceptics last year:-
 
“Some want out but not entirely. By replacing membership with a negotiated free trade agreement, they argue that the UK will be better off. Because Britain’s market is too valuable for the rest of the continent to ignore, they say, the British government could negotiate a trade deal that would preserve all the advantages of membership in the single market, without any of the political and financial costs.

My answer to that is: don’t count on it. Many European states would hold a grudge against a country which, in their view, had selfishly left the EU. While you are an important market for the rest of the EU, accounting for about 11% of the rest of the EU’s trade, your trade with the EU is 50% of your total trade. No prizes for guessing who would have the upper hand in such a negotiation.

Any free trade agreement would have a price. In exchange for the privilege of access to the Single Market, Norway and Switzerland make major contributions to the EU’s cohesion funds. They also have to adopt EU standards – without having any say in how they are written. At the moment, Norway’s net contribution to the EU budget is actually higher, per capita, than Britain’s.

So think hard: the EU is a market of 500 million people who enjoy the highest average standard of living in the world. According to the IMF and the World Bank, Europe’s GDP is about 2.5 times than that of China and nine times that of India. Do you want to lose your privileged access to that market?”
 
For the entire article:-
http://www.msz.gov.pl/resource/ff80e9c3-19f6-460c-9921-c73bbb089c54:JCR

Occasionally referred to as "Cutting your nose off to spite your face." Human nature is very reliable.

Austerity for some!!!


Euro MPs seek to plunder £48m more from our pockets
EURO MPs provoked fury last night by demanding an extra £48.5million from taxpayers.
By: Macer Hall
Published: Sat, July 13, 2013

The European Parliament called for a massive 3.3 per cent hike in its annual budget next year to a total of £1.6billion.

Some of the cash is already earmarked for a museum of European history and an exhibition about Euro MPs in Brussels.

The huge demand comes despite David Cameron and other EU leaders agreeing a real-terms cut in overall spending over the next seven years.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/414519/Euro-MPs-seek-to-plunder-48m-more-from-our-pockets?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+daily-express-uk-news+%28Daily+Express+%3A%3A+UK+Feed%29

The few people who have tried to slow the Brussels gravy-train were all thrown off it.

Perhaps we should ask why the equally expensive Westminster organism is allowed to continue in parallel.

The European Parliament called for a massive 3.3 per cent hike in its annual budget

tlttf. Thanks for another yawn of a story. Is that sordid piece of crude propaganda supposed to make us all support UKIP and far-right Tory headbangers? In your dreams. The European Parliament has asked for some more money. So what? It doesn’t mean it will get it.
 
The only significant thing about that pathetic article is its appallingly hyped-up emotive language. “Demand”, “fury”, “plunder”, “huge”. As we’re told that the claim is for 3.3%, we don’t need to be indoctrinated with the word “massive”; can’t we be allowed to make our own judgement? In most people’s view, 3.3% is not massive. 50% is massive, the sort of bonus that bankers get – you know, those bankers who Cameron and Boris Johnson rushed off to Brussels to support when a cap on bonuses was being discussed.
 
I really feel sorry for you if you can’t find anything better than that unmitigated trash to read. It’s no wonder that your postings are so dreary, so loaded with half-truths or lies and so superficial.

Ivan, when I need to read unmitigated trash, guess whose posts I read?

British exporters are suffering from the fact that half of their business is with Europe, which shows nil growth over the past twelve months. Even Germany has declared less growth than the UK's published figures.

The Victorians enjoyed a story about the Duke of Wellington being addressed by an individual in Hyde Park, "Mr. Smith, I believe?" To which the Duke responded, "If you can believe that, you can believe anything."

The modern history of Singapore may be what Brexiteers are dreaming of:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Singapore

The European Union is currently litigating against Google for unfair preference of its own comparison site.

Trump appears to be about to zap Syria again. Is there a message for Brussels there?

Maybe the title of this UKIP-instigated thread should be changed to 'Leaving the European Union is costing us more each day'?

Surviving hard Brexit will require sacrifices not seen since the Second World War

In reality the only sensible way to make the UK a success is by another dose of full-on free market economics. In the short term that means unemployment; depressed wages because of more, not less migration; scrapping the living wage; no increase in public sector pay and tax breaks for corporations.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/brexit-david-davis-free-trade-migration-labour-laws-low-taxes-a7845421.html

Leaving the EU "risks imperilling the very health of the nation"

Jay Rayner, the son of the late Claire Rayner, is a British journalist, feature writer, restaurant critic and jazz musician. He’s written a book called ‘A Greedy Man in a Hungry World’, which is about food sustainability.

Rayner was asked recently if he would speak at a round table discussion on 25 July to provide “food for thought” for the Murdoch stooge Michael Gove, who is now the environment secretary. He declined the offer and published this open letter in response:-

“After much hard thought, I have concluded I am just not grown up enough to play the game of British politics and sit in a room with a man of whom I think so little. Yes, he may have done good by bringing in free school meals while at education. Yes, he made positive moves while at justice. But since then he has disgraced himself. He was one of those who continued the £350 million-a-week EU lie and led us down the disastrous path to the utter folly of Brexit. He has been revealed to be a plotter and a conniver and all-round rather nasty piece of work. No, I cannot sit in a room with him and make talk, small, large or otherwise. Sorry. I’m just not that guy.”

Rayner also pointed out that Gove was one of the chief campaigners to leave the European Union, a move that will, in his opinion, cause large scale issues for our food supply chain.

He finished his reply as follows:-

“I find it extraordinary that, in the correspondence inviting me to the meeting of food experts called by you, your colleague Fiona Gately said that Brexit would not be part of the discussion. She later retracted that verbally; said it was of course something we could discuss. The point I made to her then and I make now is that, where our food supply is concerned, Brexit is the only subject. It is implicated in every single aspect of our food supply chain and risks imperilling the very health of the nation."

https://www.indy100.com/article/michael-gove-jay-rayner-sarah-vine-7856676

Rather well expressed and sensible opinion there - I don't enjoy his literary style, but I think he has his critique of Gove spot-on and his view of the effect of Brexit on food supply

An article in the Financial Times (pay-wall) uses the acronym BEANO ( A Brexit existing in name only ) to describe a probably indefinite settlement.

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/news/brexit-in-name-only-and-the-politics-of-transition/ar-AApedzM?li=BBx1bGE&ocid=mailsignout

(That is to say, it may never happen).

Is this the first sign of "things to come", or just more fake news from the Daily Wail?

It's also in the Express - must be true ;-)

What more proof could any voter ask?

Leaving the European Union is costing us more each day.......

A million skilled EU workers see their future outside Britain

Almost a million EU citizens working in Britain – many of them young, highly qualified and much sought-after by businesses – are either planning to leave the country or have already made up their minds to go as a result of Brexit, a study has found. A survey of 2,000 EU workers in Britain by KPMG, the professional services firm, found that 55% of those with PhDs and 49% of those with postgraduate degrees were either planning to go or were actively considering it.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/aug/27/million-skilled-eu-workers-planning-to-leave-uk-brexit

Golden Oldie:

"Will the last person to leave please switch off the light?"

I think we may be wise to check the small print...

This thread has such a stupid title. It's not the EU which is dragging us down but the failed policies of our awful Tory government.


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DRSYtj7WAAIWtyb.jpg

I think it's clear to most that in leaving the EU we are leaving a prestigious club within which we all stand to benefit to some degree - looking at the outcomes for Greece, though, maybe it's not a club that always operates at present in the best interest of ordinary and poor folk.
I'd rather stay in because even a partial shelter is worth a lot in these harsh times but I guess it won't be the end of the world if we leave (that's Trump's department)

Robert Peston says that according to research from the University of Birmingham, those parts of the UK which voted most strongly for Leave would be hurt disproportionately more by a hard Brexit with no trade deal:-


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DRZUDCCX4AA0C6v.jpg

And that's the terrible irony - talk about turkeys voting for Christmas

All this since Article 50 was enacted........

Were you disappointed when Theresa May refused to give a running commentary on progress of Brexit negotiations? Well, we are going to keep you informed! Just how much more bad news do leavers have to see before veering away from the cliff edge?

https://brexpatshov.com/our-views/#/running-commentary-on-brexit-negotiations/

perhaps we could Brexit from Brexit