Depends what you mean by "pompous". I make a post setting out, as clearly as I can, a point relevant to a matter under discussion. I try to carry the argument forward constructively, and encourage responses. So what contribution do you make, ChrisB? Do you actually have anything remotely interesting to say about this topic? Seems not, so you settle for something vaguely insulting. OK, be my guest.
When somebody goes to live and work in another member state, the salary the earn is a local salary, the taxes they pay are the local taxes, and the health and education provisions they get are the local ones. The benefits they can receive are likewise the local scales, obviously - nobody can take a little bit of their home country with them. Some states have higher salaries than others, some have more generous benefits than others. The UK is not the highest in any category, more's the pity.
This argument fails to address the economics of those who don't go and work in another member state. The EU is in limbo between individual sovereign states and a single super state and how benefits are funded, and the entitlement to those benefits, is a prime example of this. It is the creation of superstate by stealth.
I'm happy to be corrected, but I think one of the significant arguments here is that this country is one of a very small number that has non-contributory social security schemes. Pete is correct in saying that British subjects are free to claim local benefits in other EU states, but misses the crucial differentiator: prior contributions.
"Stealth"? It may have escaped your notice, but much of Europe has been debating and arguing and voting about EU affairs & treaties for the past 60 years. Nothing has been more widely discussed, in every detail and from every perspective. Some stealth!
Surely one of the reasons the UK is so attractive to migrants wanting a better life is that they can hit the ground running. English is an international language and most are taught it to a reasonable standard at school. If we all adopted a broad Geordie accent instead no one would be able to understand us and therefore the migrants would be deterred from coming to the UK, simples!
Remember that the OP was about 'benefit tourism', it wasn't about people coming here to be productive memebrs of our society.
EU fuckwits. Money grabbing do gooders with little knowledge of the real world or spivs with thoughts of filling their own pockets only. A typical cross section bureaucrats in effect. Having spent a fair amount of time in Brussels, there are many pros (you can get them to give a receipt as a restaurant, lol) and many cons (every one of the fuckers claiming expenses for being there). Gravy train it aint, more like a solid gold anchor for the little beggers. I do remeber having a lovely evening in my apartment using the pc on a LAN connection when I discovered I had access to the dickhead upstairs PC too via the LAN. A merry life he lived, being the agriculture representative for estonia or some other shit hole. But I do digress, he was typical of senior civil servants - they should be called Civil SELF servants. To mmuch education and little common sense. HaPpY Christmas EU, it's on us! We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Jingle bells, jingle bells the EU smells.
One of the worst things about the EU in Brussels is the incessant lobbying. This completely distorts policy just as it does in Washington. I don't get the impression that the situation is anything like as bad in Westminster. If there was a cash-for-questions equivalent in Brussels, would anyone notice? And if they did, would it be a major media story? I suspect that the answer to both these questions is "no".
Lobbying is an integral part of politics. People, firms, and institutions lobby for and against policies which affect their interests in Washington, in Westminster, in Brussels, and in every other important centre, just as they have done throughout history. This is a universal part of the human condition. It's ridiculous to cite this as though it were specific to the EU.
