Common Market or not?

[Terence Lynock]

Was it a mistake going into the Common Market, doing away with customs boundaries, allowing free-for-all migration between countries?, going over to a common currency which personally I am glad we opted against.

So was it right or wrong, and remember we have a large following from European countries on the forum so keep it polite gents and gentess's.

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Thing is, we went into the Common Market, which was supposed to encourage easy trading between us and our neighbours- not to become a federal state of the European Union. I was just about at voting age when the referendum to come out was held and to my eternal shame, I was seduced by the argument that it would harm the economy to withdraw (I wouldn't have voted to go into it in the first place though).

 

Had I known that it would lead to the eventual loss of self determination and such a black hole for our money to disappear down I would have voted to withdraw like a shot. Any argument that the country was given the option to withdraw from the EU by the 70's referendum is absolutely false in my opinion.

 

And I'd also like to apologise to our Antipodean friends - the negative implications on trading with them had also passed me by at the time.

Edited By Martin Harris on 27/10/2011 01:17:24

[Gary Binnie]

I lived and worked in Germany for nine years, with and without border control. It was bliss not to have to queue up for passport checks just to go shopping in another country two miles away when they dropped it.

Currency exchange was always a problem, I would often have Deutschmarks, Guilders, Pounds, Belgian and French Franc notes in my wallet and it was obvious that it was silly. Remembering the exchange rate for each currency was tricky, could get ripped off at times. The useless small change from each country filled enormous glass jars! Pfennigs, pennies, cents and centimes, happy days!

I don't think it matters what currency is being used, it's a European financial/recession problem, nowt to do with the strength of the pound or Euro AFAIK (but then again I'm not an international finance expert!).

There is a small difference in VAT rates between the EEC members which doesn't seem right, I can order something from Germany and get it 1% cheaper (which admittedly is not a lot when you add P&P!)

 

Migration of no-hopers is bad, however our Polish cleaning lady is the most hard working person I have ever met and she's getting a box of Roses choccies this Christmas for sure.

 

GB

[Wiltshire Flyer]

I cannot see this thread ending in a good way.......

[BB]

" Don't mention the War "

 

[Seamus O'Leprosy]

What War?

[Wingman]

Posted by Seamus O'Leprosy on 27/10/2011 06:54:33:
What War?

The one between the French and the Germans!

[Peter Miller]

We were told that joining would help protect us against communism. There was no mention of turning it all into one federal state.

 

My main complaints now are: Brussels brings out new rules. Britain not only sticks to every one of them but actually adds to them, all the other countries ignore the ones they don't like.

 

I do object to having many of our laws formulated in Brussels or Strasbourg.

 

It is supposed to be free trade but we still have limits on how many cigarettes and who much booze we can bring in. Doesn't sound like free trade to me. Not that I would take advantage of that but it is the principal.

 

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Keith Simmons]

The idea is for easier trade rather than rely on the commonworth with it's long overseas links. Works if we have greater exports than imports, Now China has the greatest export market and therefore more likely to achieve world domination as Europe and USA becomes bankrupt. We British are too happy to obey the law (and get ripped off?) but the other country's pay lip service to Brussels.

[Devon Flyer]

The EU was sold to the British public on a lie - that of it being simply an economic trading arrangement - when all the time the politicians always knew that the ultimate aim was for a Federal States of Europe, where individual countries would lose their sovereign rights to govern themselves. Edward heath admitted he lied about the EEC, as it then was, in order to swing the vote for entry (he says as much in his autobiography).

 

"In essence, Heath knew clearly that entry into the EEC implied the formation of a European superstate, but reassured the electorate that this would not be the case. For example, he was warned before the negotiations started for EEC entry that there were plans for monetary union and a Treasury briefing paper warned that these would involve countries surrendering their sovereignty over their economies to central management.

The Treasury concluded that the process of change would be irreversible and the implications — political and economic — would have to be accepted from the outset. The report stated: "It could imply the ultimate creation of a European federal state with a single currency. All the basic instruments of national economic policy — fiscal, monetary, incomes and regional policies — would be handed over to the central federal authorities." SOURCE

 

And now all 3 main parties are running scared of giving us a referendum, because they know exactly what the result would be.

First rule of politics - never ask the public a question unless you are sure the answer is the one you want to hear.

 

Our government is now reduced to being simply a rubber stamping operation for any diktat that Brussels cares to make.

 

All parties at the last election promised to have a referendum on membership of the EU. All of them have broken that promise. Why should anyone vote for any of them again? I certainly won't.

[FunnyFlyer]

Hold your horses folks. We are in the EU. Fact. We will remain part of the EU forever. My opinion.

 

Let's not forget how Europe was ravaged by two world wars and conflicts in the former Yugoslavia. The EU ensures that these horrors are consigned to history.

 

I'm sure many of us in the forum are thinking about retiring to the Med or may have a holiday home there already. Slightly hipocritical that we talk about "getting out" and stopping cross border residency rights when many Brits take advantage of them.

[Devon Flyer]

Posted by FunnyFlyer on 27/10/2011 15:07:41:

Let's not forget how Europe was ravaged by two world wars and conflicts in the former Yugoslavia. The EU ensures that these horrors are consigned to history.

 

In it's present state some would argue that it increases the chance of conflict.

In several areas of this country 'Balkanisation' is slowly happening, the same thing is happening in France, Germany and several other EU countries.

It wouldn't take much for things to kick off.

 

To think that being a member of the EU "ensures that these horrors are consigned to history" is naive in the extreme.

 

As for being a member of the EU. If our Government had the will to pass the necessary legislation, we could be out of it permanently inside 24 hours.

Edited By Devon Flyer on 27/10/2011 15:20:27

Edited By Devon Flyer on 27/10/2011 15:21:00

[Terence Lynock]

We have lost the Commonwealth due to our headlong flight into the EU, the ex-Commonwealth countries on the other hand,and for the biggest part, are doing better than we are.

The Common Market is just a bottomless money pit, and my view from the beginning of the common currency thing was that if one country went down then it would wreak havoc not only within the EU but on a global scale due to widespread investments outside of the EU, and it is now shaping up nicely.

A figure of 1 trillion Euro has been bandied about but where is it coming from? writing off 50% of the debts of Greece, but who picks up the bill? and afterwards if Italy, Spain.Portugal or some other country hits the skids in like manner to Greece they will expect the same sort of help and it just cant be done.

Britain joined as a trading partner and I believe that is the line we should withdraw to, keep our own currency, keep our own laws and negotiate on trade only, then see where we go from there as to any further involvement.

[Codename-John]

It all stems from the Europaische Wirtshaftsgemeinschaft created in Germany in 1942, this is the english translation of it, its long winded but you might recognize some of the stuff from as it has happened already, i know it contains the N word some of you are so offended by, but if we can have swastika`s on our planes, as demonstrated in the fw 190 video thats been posted by one of the moderators i dont see any problem, and this as its quite informative and gives some back ground information of who wrote the Europaische Wirtshaftsgemeinschaft

 

 

 

[Steve W-O]

I think my feelings have been said.

 

Free trade, fine, live under someone else's rules that are not right for us, not fine.

 

Things will blow up one day,but I wonder if it will be in the UK or elsewhere?

 

The owner of Trago Mills has known all along what would happen, and has actively fought against it.

 

We were deceived by Heath, and are still being deceived by today's bananas (yellow, bent, and hang around in bunches)

 

 

[Devon Flyer]

^^^^^^^^^ Agree entirely ^^^^^^^^^

[Keith Simmons]

I concur.

[FunnyFlyer]

So which Commonwealth partners are doing better than us? Zimbabwe? Ghana? New Zealand? Our economy is still bigger than any of our Commonwealth partners.

 

The rise of the BRIC economies would have happened anyway - with or without our EU membership.

 

I'll sign off this thread now or I'll say something I'll regret and have the full wrath of the moderators unleashed against me.

 

Just make sure your copy of The Daily Mail or The Telegraph doesn't get soaked in this wet spell we are having.

 

Adios - Au Revoir - Auf Weidersein

[ken anderson.]

me thinks we are too too far in to ever get out------ no matter what anyone say's/thinks or what ever......

 

ken anderson ne..1.. europe dept.

[Devon Flyer]

Posted by FunnyFlyer on 27/10/2011 17:04:27:

So which Commonwealth partners are doing better than us? Zimbabwe? Ghana? New Zealand? Our economy is still bigger than any of our Commonwealth partners.

 

The rise of the BRIC economies would have happened anyway - with or without our EU membership.

 

I'll sign off this thread now or I'll say something I'll regret and have the full wrath of the moderators unleashed against me.

 

Just make sure your copy of The Daily Mail or The Telegraph doesn't get soaked in this wet spell we are having.

 

Adios - Au Revoir - Auf Weidersein

 

 

Stir it up, disagree with everyone else, sneer at them, then run away !

What a cop out !

[FunnyFlyer]

I lied... I couldn't let this one go.

 

"In it's present state some would argue that it increases the chance of conflict.

In several areas of this country 'Balkanisation' is slowly happening, the same thing is happening in France, Germany and several other EU countries.

It wouldn't take much for things to kick off.

To think that being a member of the EU "ensures that these horrors are consigned to history" is naive in the extreme."

 

In my opinion - this is right wing hyberbole. Where in the UK or France has there been genocide? I don't recall reading about any Blitzkreigs in the last 60 years or so.

[Peter Miller]

I have said for a long time the the EU will end up the same way as the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.

 

A violent break up. Look at all the EU countries. The people are all very different and they do not like their neighbours.

 

The only people who want the complete union are politicians and politicians can and do change as time goes on.

 

There will be more and more resentment. People will get fed up with Greece for example.

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Alan Cantwell]

AH, the common market, a GREAT idea, ruined by greed and jelousy, i want to leave the thing, for i can see trouble in mill, in-fighting will turn to punching out at other countries, and then gawd knows what will happen, euorpean war? i would not dismiss it