Pros and Cons : Great Britain in the EU - commentaires

Pros and Cons : Great Britain in the EU

hi this is hedi <3

Pros and Cons : Great Britain in the EU

Difficult to think of many pros and in relation to those you raise I would counter :- • We are not a super power, I can live with that, neither is the EU which consistently fails to take any positive action on any serious issue beyond making noise. Military strength within the EU lies almost exclusively with France and the UK and we can chose to work with the USA or not as we wish. Please do not confuse working with the US as being somehow in the control of the US. • We are perfectly capable of regulating our own financial markets and indeed have gone further than the EU in many respects regarding doing so. • We have a pro trade bias in goods and services. The EU constantly frustrates free trade in services. • Easier travel perhaps but then again is it really any easier for us to travel to Germany than to Russia ? Most visas are simply a way for the host country to tax travellers so they don't exactly go out of their way to make it difficult. The question of workers travelling and doing jobs in the UK that others can already do adds significantly to unemployment issues. • The EU has reduced it's economic importance in the World consistently over the decades due to inflexible rules and lack of competitiveness. Being a member is therefore in increasing irrelevance. • Tony Blair never dared try to join the Euro because he knew without any doubt at all he could never persuade people to vote for it. It was the people not Brown who stopped the UK joining the single currency, it's called democracy. • The two speed Europe is now formally existent after December 2011 and you could easily argue it has since the Maastricht Treaty was signed so please don't threaten that.

Cons are much easier to identify :-

• Net contribution of 6.9Bn Euros this year rising to 9.3 in 2014. • Lack of democratic accountability or tradition within the EU e.g. EU providing significant funding for pro EU campaigns with no balanced for dissenting views. Yet referenda still regularly lost and then returned to voters to get the ‘right' answer. Replacement of elected governments with Brussels appointees. Parties told what they can and can not do after election e.g. Irish and Spanish elections. Put the latest treaty to the vote and see how the common people feel about the loss of sovereignty. (Of course only 12 countries need to agree it don't they so even if Ireland does vote no it makes no difference.) • The ESM treaty creates a body which is essentially above and beyond all control and unaccountable to anyone. The latest and greatest leap away from the people. • Lack of understanding of UK culture and outlook. (The comment about bland food is illustrative). We tend to be outward looking to the World ; the mainland continent is more inward looking. (In short De Gaulle was right) • Too much of our heritage is ignored or denied, simple example traders locked up for selling fruit and vegetables in imperial measures rather than metric, isn't that for us to decide. If everything must be standardised across the continent, I suggest English as the standard language. How will that go down ? • Finally given the lack of popular mandate (indeed the word populist is positively an anathema to the EU), can anyone think of an artificial political construction that has been created and lasted any length of time against the will of the people without use of large scale repression. E.g. USSR, Austro Hungary, Yugoslavia etc. If I am wrong just put the proposition of a Federal Europe to your own electorates and get the support. (But don't forget France, Netherland, Sweden and Ireland have all got it wrong in the past.)

By the way, the level of UK support for the EU has in fact dropped from the 30% you quote to 20% in the latest Eurobarometer Survey and when the next full survey is produced I would expect it to fall lower. Lets see how UKIP do in the next EP election.

Anyone with eyes to see or ears to hear would recognise that the UK only wants a trading bloc. The European political elite know this as well so why is it such a shock that the UK is so difficult. Indeed the only reason Edward Heath and Harold Wilson were able to persuade the UK to join and vote to stay in the EEC respectively was by misrepresenting what it actually was. You will not find a single UK politician of any party openly supporting a Federal Europe (even Nick Clegg) because it would be complete and utter electoral suicide.

Pros and Cons : Great Britain in the EU

wow as a Brit, a young Brit in my twenties I have got to say its great how you all generalise a nation and its people. Bland food, bad weather geez mate cheer up, you live up north right, global warming will have the place baking in no time. We're a mixed multi cultural pain in the ass nation who don't want to be in the EU, don't want to be the US's plaything and just want to live it up, I love it here. Every government needs reform to some extent every government is corrupt so singling out Britain just sounds like some pro EU bitterness that we don't generally want to be in. yeah the EU sucks cause its corrupt and panders to France and America push us around but we are a charitable nation who even when we're poor we donate to other nations who are in crisis. I'm proud to be English and can't wait for the day when our government decides to put aside the EU and gets some new mates. Wait for it you know it's coming...common wealth, I know you're disappointed but I'd like some free movement with Australia and Canada please. I know its not practical but a girl can dream.

Pros and Cons : Great Britain in the EU

The EU as it stands is in dire need of some reform. We cannot keep going on like we all have our little clics and clubs where if your face does not fit you're not it. Speaking as a Brit we have some of the worst politicians in the EU and the average Brit is not someone anyone has much respect for (Not even the average Brit), our weather is terrible, our food is bland to say the least, we are taxed and told what to do by unelected idiots Brussels (Which really annoys us). But one thing I have to most defiantly put right...we hate the Americans more than we hate the back stabbing French ! :-P

Pros and Cons : Great Britain in the EU

this article is very good.However i would like to ask a wider question.Has the UK ever been comfortable with the idea of EU integration ?

Pros and Cons : Great Britain in the EU

The thing that worries me the most, apart from the other cons, is the cooperation (well, more like servitude) between the islanders and the Americans. The last thing we need in Europe is the US government telling us how we should run the integration process or blocking the emergence of a united Europe.

Pros and Cons : Great Britain in the EU

The « pros » seem to be — most of them at least — « pros » for Britain. The benefit for Britain for being a member of the Union are indeed much greater than the benefits ofr the Union to have Britain as a member...

Considering that the Union itself is an half-baked project, the cost to have a british governement that is opposed, whoever is in charge, to the political objectives of that project, are much higher than the economical benefits to include the UK in the Union. BTW those benefits would be the same if that county was only a member of EEA instead.

Pros and Cons : Great Britain in the EU

Guys this is an interesting article, or rather an interesting style of article, given that you say this is not necessarily your opinion. However I don't understand the aim given that it has no obvious conclusion. Is the idea simply to highlight some of the pros and cons of British EU membership ?

Also, who is the article directed at ? Is it a critique of British governments / leaders, the people of Britain, the United States or the rest of the EU ? Because it could be any or all 4.