Forum Topic

Born free, taxed and screwed by the E.U.

Us girls are facing higher car insurance premiums from 21 December 2012, thanks to a E.U directive.  How much more of our lives are they going to ruin and, what gives a bunch of faceless bureaucrats, who are getting fat off our money, the right to dictate insurance premiums to us, of the gentle sex, who are far better drivers?Never fear chaps, you will be hit in the pocket on retirement pensions.Both genders will be hit on life insurance.Is it time to get out of the E.U or tell them to eff off and, stop meddling in our lives?  After all, we managed without these failed human beings, before our Governments signed away our rights.  I'm in favour of equality but, not by non elected faceless dictators in another country.

Nicola Howard ● 5023d30 Comments

No argument here Nicola.

Keith Iddon ● 5023d

All they do is take away our luxuries, stop us from having a good time and destroy our businesses. They want to take pensioners houses from them, rehouse them into pokey studio flats assumingly so they can give their houses to all those Romanians & Bulgarians we will be swamped with next year when they join the E.U. They want to ban smoking completely, & yet legalise cannabis. People can barely afford to keep a roof above their heads, are in dire poverty, the government say there is no money and yet they're giving away millions of our hard earned taxes to the E.U. & countries outside it! RANT OVER! VOTE UKIP!

David Wright ● 5023d

Steady David...try to keep a sense of perspective.

Keith Iddon ● 5023d

Sadly there are very few MP's who are willing to speak up for us, instead they are only too willing to roll over when the EU makes demands.In our prsent circumstances charity should go to those in need in this country.The PM is afraid to ask the people what we think not only about the EO but on many other issues, maybe because he knows the answer!

Jean F Fernandez ● 5022d

Sadly there are very few MP's who are willing to speak up for us, instead they are only too willing to roll over when the EU makes demands.In our prsent circumstances charity should go to those in need in this country.The PM is afraid to ask the people what we think not only about the EU but on many other issues, maybe because he knows the answer!

Jean F Fernandez ● 5022d

I have just ordered my new car, (just under 20K inc VAT) I wonder what the insurance will be next year.  Let's not forget that VAT was another directive of the EU.  Please let's get out of the EU and, reinstate purchase tax.  Let's keep our money in our country, and, not finance the bureaucrats who remain faceless and unelected by anyone of us.If UKIP form a coalition with the next government, we should be in for some fun and games.  Out of the EU, borders closed, illegals out, just to name a few.  What if Scotland decide to go it alone, they will have to apply for membership of the EU and, could be refused.  Where would that leave them?  Roll on May 2015.

Nicola Howard ● 5022d

Just heard on Sky News that UKIP have overtaken the Liberals now, didn't get the percentages, Yes the next election could be very interesting!

Jean F Fernandez ● 5022d

If we ever get this now legendary proposed referendum the two questions ill probably be:A) Should Britain stay in the EU with re-negotiated terms?B) Should Britain leave the EU?Anyone with an ounce(or 28.375 grams)of sense will know that re-negotiating terms to the degree that we want them changed will be impossible.I find it hard enough to trust our own politicians never mind those from another country.Let's get out and trade more with the emerging markets and the Commonwealth and determine our own future,sink or swim.

Keith Iddon ● 5022d

I wonder if the EU coffers are like Aladdin's cave?  There again the whole organization is liken to a pantomime. The only good thing that has come out of the EU is the VW Golf and,...?  Can't think of anything else. B) Should Britain leave the EU?  Yeh Yeh Yeh.

Nicola Howard ● 5022d

YES A.S.A.P.

Jean F Fernandez ● 5022d

It's about time that those who work in the EU bureaucracy took a cut in their wages......the Kinnocks for example are doing very nicely.....but what do they actually do for their money?

Dee Cook ● 5021d

If you think our mp's expenses debacle is dubious,the mep's claims would make your toes curl.

Keith Iddon ● 5021d

Nothing at all, given that neither Kinnock  presently holds office at the EU, either appointed or elected: Glenys stepped down as a MEP in 2009, while Neil stopped being a Commissioner as long ago as 2004. Still, why trouble oneself with facts (or indeed research) where the EU is concerned?

Steve Donnelly ● 5021d

I've had lunch with a couple of old friends lately. These are sensible, educated people in their 50s -- teachers, lawyers ... -- who all voted yes in the 1975 referendum, and all have brought up the subject of the EU and said that they are no longer sure that it's in our best interests to stay in.It's not just the swivel-eyes loonies who are questioning it these days.

Susan Kelly ● 5021d

During the 70s I was stationed in Osnabruck and Munster, I said NO then and NO now.  Having gigged in France Belgium and Holland, I could see no advantage then and, definitely none now.  Did I get it right then?

Nicola Howard ● 5021d

I was 16 in 1975 and thus too young to vote.My taxes are paying for this fiasco and I would like my vote now.

Keith Iddon ● 5021d

No argument there.  I was 29, a little wiser and older, but being abroad I was unable to vote.  I feel cheated!

Nicola Howard ● 5021d

Keith your parents and grandparents generations were so traumatised by the wars that it seemed a very good idea to vote us into a situation which promised a much lower chance of war breaking out between the major powers -even if it was going to cost more.No one then could be certain that Germany would not come back yet again in revenge. There were then (1974 and 1975) still at least two dictators still in Europe Portugal and Spain. The Iron Curtain stood and it was relevant to consider binding Europe together to make us feel stronger in the face of the Russian bear.So in a way your vote was cast then and for extremely good reasons. It may be that you have greater freedoms than would have been the case has the Common Market not been formed. Further the sun had set over the Empire and perhaps we believed that our trading position would again have become strong.No one could have believed that we would have another 1929 crash as we didn't believe anyone could have been so stupid for a second time. Also we had recently been reminded of such dangers due to the markets crash in 1972.40 years ago joining Europe seemed to many to be the more sensible option.People now say we should wait to get out until after this crisis is over.Born free (before we joined) is an interesting notion. Mores in the 1950's I suspect were much tighter than now.

George Knox ● 5021d

George,You probably may not have intended your post to sound quite so condescending George but it does.I know the history of Europe thanks and the reason for the inseption of the Common Market.For me,free trade yes,economic,fiscal, administrative and political union,NO! It is a club for Germany to dominate Europe using France as back up.Why else did DeGaulle refuse us entry for all those years?It may well be George that we would be more free without the union.It has almost turned into a giant 'rotten borough'with all the mutual back slapping and subterfuge going on.It seems that we have come to the point where the Common Market(as it was called when I didn't get the vote)is now the cause of many tensions and disagreements.

Keith Iddon ● 5020d

After WW11 we were bankrupt but still managed to put on the Olympics.  Well into the 50s we were still on rationing.  we still traded with our Commonwealth countries and we survived.  Along came Captain Beakey (Ted Heath) and the whole issue was pushed and pushed.  It was only de Gaulle, who kept us out for so long.  Non, Non, Non., (even after all we did for France but, there again they are a historical enemy.)  Who will be the next Euro currency country to fail?Post war Germany was not such a threat, (they was occupied,) it was Russia.  I can remember being rudely awoken at 2 or 3am, for exercise Qu*** Tr***, which was 2 hours to prepare for war. Locked and loaded.

Nicola Howard ● 5020d

Croatia is joining in 2013 and already has the begging bowl out for its wrecked economy. Don't we have enough of those?

Susan Kelly ● 5020d

I suppose an influx will come here, thinking the streets are paved with gold, or, they will scrounge off the benefit system.  Better they go to Germany or France, no soft touch there.

Nicola Howard ● 5020d

Apols Keith if that is how you felt. I don't what you know and what you don't - and likewise. The difference is that I was very aware of politics and history when the referendum was held. That made me much closer to the feeling on the street and in the media. I suggest that you understand the mood but as historical fact. It was a mucch more difficult decision than the AV vote we had recently.I should have clarified that I do not support the present arrangements. I don't know about leaving altogether because I just cannot understand the arguments well enough. Frankly I wonder if anyone does. The safer option would probably be to withdraw in steps.I support the principle of Human Rights but part needs to be adjusted so we don't get such silly outcomes and I certainly don't accept that cases should be allowed to drag out year after year. I don't support the present immigration laws which need some radical overhaul. I don't support Strasbourg having any rights over our sovereign law.  There should be some kind of law which compels us to be more responsible. That would have to reviewed over say 15 year periods to keep abreast of changing values. I don't support the benefits entitlements as they are now as regards people who do not have a British passport.And no I don't support us now having to contribute to yet another country with such debt problems.Apart from some businessmen and the fear of the unknown of probably all national governments I would find it very difficult to believe that many people in this country support staying in.But the issue is now becoming more frenetic because the Liberal party has lost it and the void is being filled by UKIP.

George Knox ● 5020d

We made plenty of mistakes in the '70s but one of the biggest was that we spent far more time looking back to the '40s than forward to the 2000s.  And faced with the perception of a renewed threat from Germany, going into a united Europe appears to have been a stunningly attractive option at the time.  But, as so often in the '70s, the longer-term implications were brushed aside.  We are now reaping what we sowed.I speak 4 European languages ; French, German, Italian and my native English, yet I would happily stand as a UKIP candidate tomorrow if I were younger and had more time and energy.  I recently read an article (in Italian!) about Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank.  He claims that the Eurozone could be saved if people would take Norman Tebbit's "on your bike" philosophy a stage further and seek work across this fantasmagorical single labour market that he sees the now almost 30-state EU as being. There is nothing like a 30-nation single market, comprising different states, with different languages and economies in a variety of conditions (many utter basket cases), to generate truly mass unemployment from Dublin to Athens.  Even if the language barriers could be overcome (which they never will be), all the movement would be one-way, to the countries with the lowest unemployment rates, probably Germany and France.  And in no time, guess what, their unemployment rates would go shooting up.  Where are the new unemployed French and Germans supposed to go? Greece? Croatia?In the same Italian magazine I read an article about the economy of just about the only European country that's not in the EU ; Switzerland.  Quite simply, they are one of the most competitive in the world.  Not immune from recession, certainly, but far from being in crisis like Greece, Italy or the UK.  But then they can slam their doors on all these Tebbit "bikers" riding in from Greece, Croatia and the like.  Their single labour market is..well, Switzerland.  And they have their own currency and contribute nothing towards Eurozone bailouts or the expenses of MEPs.

David Lawes ● 5020d

Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank.HELP!Always thought Italian bankers were either corrupt, hanging themselves under bridges, or just lost the plot.Put Gordon Brown in charge, get back our gold reserves that he sold off, and scupper the E.U.If imigrants want to come to this country, there should be rules/laws that prevent them sending money to their homeland, also prevent them taking money out of the country when they leave.  Earn it here, spend it here.

Nicola Howard ● 5020d

That's a step too far, Nicola. Many immigrants come here to work precisely so they can support their families at home. That seems to me admirable.My biggest problem is with the determination of the empire builders to drag in more and more countries which are not a good fit, as they are very poor, corrupt and -- sorry if this offends anyone -- not civilised by our standards. Romania and Bulgaria should never have been let in and now it's Croatia and then, presumably, Serbia. God forbid that we let Turkey join.

Susan Kelly ● 5020d

"I have just ordered my new car, (just under 20K inc VAT)...etc....etc..."- I take it you intended this discussion as a satire? Unfortunately others seem to have missed the point and taken it seriously.

Chris Veasey ● 5020d

My word, you are a miserable!  You should just read back through your posts. It is either slash your wrist or an advert for UKIP! Being a European, who likes to keep her children living with her amongst the more cheerful international members of the Acton society, I would find it very sad if the U.K. decided to pull out of the E.U.  My late father, who used to love Britain, used to joke and say "Mark my words, one day they will out the plug and let it sink!"

Ireen Esmann ● 5020d

It's being in Europe that makes some 'miserable'as you say.Native Brits who have lived here since before we joined the Common Market as it was then named,remember when we did not feel as though we had to refer to another country to make our decisions.I am not anti the people of Europe in any way,just anti being under the auspices of their politicians.

Keith Iddon ● 5020d

Unfortunately the plug was let out almost exactly 40 years ago, when Ted Heath took the UK into the Common Market as it was then.  He had assumed, very naively, that we would be a major player with a healthy economy and a competitive industry ; effectively what Germany is today.  Just look what happened to the UK car industry (British Leyland, Chrysler UK, De Lorean, etc) over the subsequent 10 years or so!  Since then the UK has been sinking by the day.  We are bailing out countries like Greece who have debt/GDP ratios of 175% despite far from being in the best of economic health ourselves.  If you were an unemployed German, would you relish competing for jobs with an influx of unemployed ex-public sector Greeks "getting on their bikes", whether or not they could speak German, which I doubt is true in most cases?  Where could you go for work when everywhere else is in a worse state than your country? Trust me, a single European labour market is an unemployment generator, big style.  As for Turkey joining the EU, it's not a European country, nor has it ever been.  They don't call it Asia Minor for nothing.  It's precisely at times like this that individual nation states need to lock down their doors and deal internally with their problems, of which the major one is now unemployment, even for Germany.  Charity, in the kind of times that most EU states face, must necessarily begin at home, and end there.

David Lawes ● 5019d