Time to jump the EU ship?

9:08am Thursday 25th October 2012 in Letters By Reader letter

Time to jump the EU ship? Time to jump the EU ship?

SAVE us from this meddlesome EU!

The award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union is a farce and a travesty.

It may boost the already inflated egos of the ‘Muscles in Brussels’, but will have no effect on the struggling nations within.

Those chaps in Norway who hand out these prestigious awards are on another planet safely outside of the EU.

How little they know. The award was given for six decades to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights.

The implication being, if we didn’t have the EU around us, we’d be at it like knives fighting each other.

Not any more, even communism took a tumble.

Nato has protected us and we have our own democratically elected governments (however inept).

So what has the EU done done for the greater good of mankind... not a lot!

Poorer nations that jumped on the gravy train now find themselves fighting for survival and needing to be baled out carrying penalties.

Everything hangs on the fate of the unstable Euro. If that fails nobody’s safe, even the UK outside the zone.

Isn’t it time to abandon ship?

Joan Byron, Mendip Grove, Parr.

Comments(9)

mikeperry109 says...
11:46am Fri 26 Oct 12

Joan, it was once Labour Party policy to remain outside the European Union and as a trading nation we would trade with the whole world. As a result of membership of the EU we abandoned our trade links with many parts of the Commonwealth and now that the EU is stagnant economically we are also suffering. If the British were given a referendum now they would vote overwhelmingly for an exit.

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Sankey says...
4:41pm Fri 26 Oct 12

While Europe is imploding Britain returns to growth albeit tiny amount. But this shows how its a myth our fortunes are inextribly linked to Europe the very opposite is the case we cannot rely on them and must seek new markets and trading partners.

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mikeperry109 says...
6:48pm Fri 26 Oct 12

Sankey wrote:
While Europe is imploding Britain returns to growth albeit tiny amount. But this shows how its a myth our fortunes are inextribly linked to Europe the very opposite is the case we cannot rely on them and must seek new markets and trading partners.
We had them, Sankey, but successive governments discarded them in favour of the EU countries. They also gave away our sovereignty cheaply and poured billions into the black hole that is the EU "budget".
Will any government have the guts to give the British people a referendum -in or out- just like they have given the Scottish people. I bet not.

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chasmcn says...
7:40am Sat 27 Oct 12

Iam open minded on this i need more information its a debate that we don't really have . A easy letter to write with no opinion in the letter of a alternative .

So i will ask the question to open the debate .

Are we as a nation big enough to go it alone .

any one going to enlighten me ?

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Sankey says...
10:41am Sat 27 Oct 12

The EU is a solution to a perceived 1950’s problem. Back then it was believed you needed to be a part of a big trading block to survive. Nowadays with globalisation and technology that concept is as outdated as the Spinning Jenny. What matters in today’s world is international competitiveness and ability to sell your goods anywhere and especially in the emerging economies India, China and South America. The sooner we have that referendum the better and it would be unanimous for us to get out or be a very loose federal member. Probably the latter.

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chasmcn says...
7:55pm Sat 27 Oct 12

So sankey you are saying that we take the position of Norway or the position of Switzerland in being out of the EU

Norway trades with the EU as a EEA member so the UK would have to legally implement all aspects of EU law as applied to the Single Market, but not to agriculture and fisheries. But by doing that we would have no say over the single market laws and we would be expected to implement them. We would pay less into the EU budget and not in the Common Agricultural Policy,British farmers would receive no CAP subsidy and tariffs applying to British agriculture exports to the EU ,we have no say in EU foreign policy and we would receive no regional funds

Switzerland is a EFTA member were you dont have to apply EU laws to the single market but can trade with the EU tariff free as Norway can for everything except agriculture and fisheries.
The UK can have its own legislation to market issues or products etc in the UK different from the EU eg manufacturers would have to produce two products one for the UK market one for the EU market , no say on foreign policy and no regional funds from the EU

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Sankey says...
9:53am Sun 28 Oct 12

No I am not saying that Chasmcn but it does not sound a bad idea does it? I would expect we would negotiate our own terms or pull out altogether surely you cannot believe our future is to hitch further into the EU? It will either implode (most likely) or be one state run from Berlin with permenant subsidies to the southern states of which we would be a major contributor.

As for regional funding from the EU they can stick it. Every £2.60 we contribute to the EU we get a pound back. But the biggest reason to pull out is that the future growth lies elsewhere in the world we would be insane to ignore that.

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chasmcn says...
4:03pm Sun 28 Oct 12

Theres a lot of questions that need answering if we go it alone we will lose our car industry eg nissan as they will move to be in the single market so relocating to Poland say, as car exports with tariffs attached into the eu will make them very expensive and the same to imports coming in from the eu to us,The city of London is not too keen on coming out of the EU and losing financial control to Frankfurt So going it alone i dont think we can go it a lone ,i think the EU needs redefining i don't agree with the CAP that as needed looking at a long time ago, the fisheries policy also needs to be renegotiated .The EU is the biggest producer of GDP in the world its bargaining power far outstrips us i need convincing more to say come out .

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Sankey says...
7:18pm Sun 28 Oct 12

Not sure protectionism is an argument for the EU or developing an economy in general. If that’s the argument for the EU then more than ever we should ship out. I can see how Japanese car manufacturers would want to be inside the EU but international competitiveness would also be a big pull. It’s also a question where the future markets are its hard to see strong growth in the EU for many decades if ever that would also influence car makers. Protecting the financial services industry is even less of an argument Bonn and Paris have been after the UK’s financial sector for many years. But let’s have an honest debate and let the British people decide not that the BBC will be even handed or the politicians with their snouts in the EU trough. Also we don't need to go it alone we can be out of the EU but still in their trading bl;ock they sell more to us than we buy from them so they are not about to give that up especially given the mess they are in.

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