Yes but I had the misfortune to be at school with Nigel Farage, we were actually in the same class, and I can confirm he was a swivel eyed nutter in the Seventies and I see nothing about him now to change that view. Questioning the EU is not mainstream, bizarre stories about cucumbers and confusion with the EHCR on an agenda driven by the tabloids is what many people confuse with debating the EU. The meaningless soundbites that emanate from Cameron and Farage about "regaining soverignty" and "clawing back powers" never actually specify what those sovereignty issues and powers are, which leads me to suspect that either they don't know and are spouting meaningless platitudes to get some positive press or worse they want to repeal much of the employment legislation prtecting workers rights. I have a friend in the USA recently made redundant after 13 years and she was shocked as to what you or I would receive as a legal minimum in payment, consultation and support if the same thing happened here. She was given 14 days notice and er...that's it. Supposed EU red tape seems to me as an employer, manufacturer and exporter to be a complete non-issue, it only comes into effect if I want to get rid of people for no good reason or make them work 60 hour weeks on a pittance.
So long as all those poor prisoners we so cruelly discriminate against get their opportunity to vote as I wouldn't want them to feel left out!! Oh and whilst we are at it can they add a second question to the ballot for the English. "Do you want to keep Scotland in the UK?":tongue: This way we can piss everybody off and destroy our country completely. We need to be in it to change it otherwise the EU will just get on with it and sideline us.
There seems to be a fair proportion of people on here who are Eurosceptic. Are you saying they are either swivel eyed, confused or not in full possession of the facts ? I agree the debate needs to stepped up in terms of quality but equally the pro EU lobby has to stop characterising the anti's in this way. Minimum redundancy payments are subject to caps and are unlikely to exceed £20k, not much recompense for a lifetimes work, so I don't think the EU is doing us any favours there. What else are they doing that you think is good ?
Surely as we are supposed to be a democracy only those we have elected should be able to bring in laws , rules and regulations. If we have a referendum and vote to stay in we will have accepted that unelected people in other countries can make the rules. Fair enough if that is what the majority want, I`ll accept it even if I dont agree but we must have a vote on it. It doesnt matter if the rules and laws are good or bad, it is the principle of who gets to make them.
European legislation is brought in by the European Parliament, who you get to vote for. You don't get to vote for the French MEPs in the same way that you don't get to vote for Welsh, Scottish or Yorkshire MPs.
I'm inclined to think some of each They should stop behaving in that way then £20k may be minimal for a lifetime's labour but if the alternative is 14days pay, no consultation, no appeals process and out on your arse I know which I'd prefer, you may disagree. What else has the EU brought us? Well, off the top of my head... Free movement of labour, for every polish plumber there's a Full English Breakfast Bar in Benidorm Europe wide consumer legislation, do you think Ryan Air would pay compensation for leaving you stuck in Magaluf for 3 days without EU wide legislation? Open borders Inward investment for the UK from outside the EU area Equal pay for women Full workers rights for part time employees Cheap flights Food labelling, ironically the tabloids favourite recent story, horse meat in burgers, is a contravention of EU wide food labelling legislation.
Voting for MEP's is as uniformed as the EU debate in the UK. Generally i don't think people were or are anti EU in principle, just anti the trend of the nutters who currently run it dictated to by the economic tank which is Germany led by Merkel. The next 5 years of the EU will be a bleed of wealth from the Northern EU members to the South to save the Euro from collapse. Dress it up as they might, Spain, Italy and Portugal are basically Bankrupt. There will be a glorious compromise, which big Dave will bask in the glory of. He will shut up his back benchers because he can say the people have spoken, pacify the EU sceptic voters but in effect regain some token powers that Merkel is happy to let us have. If i had to vote tomorrow based on what i know, i would stay in, but the landscape will look diferent in 5 years. Big Dave will count on the Spain etc issue being sorted and the money bleed abating so less negatives pointed at the EU. We are traditionally Euro sceptic as a nation but more so because of the economic times we are in. They won't last forever. Hence the timing of this vote. Prime ministers rarely offer a vote they don't think they can win and will stack the cards accordingly
A lot of the negative aspects of the eu legislation are of our own making, the civil servants who put their interpretation on what a particular act means rather than using it as a guideline, most other country's use a loose interpretation but we have to have fixed boundaries and these are set by our civil servants not by the eu.
What do you mean, 'unelected'? *The members of the European Parliament are all elected by the peoples of the 27 member states. *The council comprises the ministers of the governments elected by the 27 states *The Commission comprises commissioners appointed by the elected governments of the 27 states *The Presidency is held by each nation for 6 months in rotation, and led by the elected government of the current president state EU institutions have vastly more democratic accountability built into them than our own dear old British constitution has ever had.
If you want my 2 peneth i say lets get out and stop all the scum of europe landing on our shores and claiming food and housing because they have the rightand see the uk as a big fat cash cow even though its very unlikly you could go to there country and do the same , and lets face facts we still drive on the correct side of the road we do still use miles not kilometers ,we still buy beer in pints we are not european we are British
Not in my house. Weddings and funerals are the only time the iron comes out. Irony in Eu law, it certainly exists. As i saw a comedian mention yesterday - You can no longer discriminate against Gay, Lesbian or Trans Sexual people by law but you can still makes jokes about them legally. Which is good because if you took a girl home and found out she had a big cock, you would want to bloody laugh about it.
Yes we are British don't you know! I'll drink a single malt when we finally get out of the euro gravy train in my grandfathers Memory who served in the RAF during WW2 fighting so called european state! Roll on the vote and let the people decide!
Yes, and what a complete pain that all is.. we have to have a unique specification for our vehicles, our roads are un necessarily dangerous because we drive on the wrong side, and we got upset because of a word to discribe our beer. Instead of pint, we could have 'large' which could be exactly the same quantity. People got irate over a meaningless word. Pathetic. It's exactly this kind of flat earth thinking that will kill this country.
Its all about how much money we pay in and how much we get out of the EU. and the laws and rules. some bad some good. I never have like being in the EU. If we traded with the world and the money we would save. We are more close to the yanks then the gutless Europeans. The French started this back in the 70's. And they done very well out of it. {Another quote said British, no I am English then British}
The great tragedy is that Napoleon never came across the Channel to give us good government and sensible laws, infrastructure and such. I blame Nelson and Cunningham, those bloody idiots.
London and the South-East pays a lot more into the UK than we get out. If you imagine political unions are just big bank accounts, perhaps you would argue there should be a referendum on whether the SE should stay in or get out of the UK?
