Thursday 31 March 2011

ONS reports on EU

Helen, Your Freedom and Ours, reports on the Independent article of this version by the Daily Telegraph and quoting from the Independent, writes:
"Nice to have those official figures, though we know that HMG will not have a cost/benefit analysis of the country's membership of the EU because, as so many Ministers have pointed out over the years, the benefits are too obvious to need enumeration. Or words to that effect.

One of those benefits is supposed to be trade though why we should lose that if we were outside the EU is a mystery nobody has been able to solve. On the other hand, if we were outside it we might decide not to trade with the rest of that shower anyway.
" The ONS also revealed that the UK's trade deficit with the EU ballooned from £14.3bn to £46.6bn last year.

The UK Exchequer is further exposed to rescuing distressed members of the eurozone via a small European Commission fund and Britain's contributions to the IMF, which is also helping fund eurozone bailouts. In all, this could amount to around £10bn in rescue loans."
Well, goodness me, those benefits are all too obvious, are they not?"
Which is exactly why there never will be a government cost/benefit analysis and for the Treasury, in the Daily Telegraph report, to  react with dismay to the increase in payments and say they were working to restrict further rises is totally laughable - just how do they intend to do that? 

Cameron may wish the EU would disappear off the political agenda (much as we wish Cameron would disappear off the political scene, taking MiliE and Clegg with him - but again I digress) however it is doing just the opposite - an increase in public awareness aided and abetted, no less, by the EU Commission.

To mis-quote Churchill:  both at home and within the EU, never have so few brought so much misery to so many.

7 comments:

Tufty said...

One character in last night’s Midsomer Murders was a would-be MEP. A casual comment made about this fact was ‘so he must be bent.’

A common enough comment these days, but casual awareness of ingrained EU corruption is now part of our culture even in the mass media. Needless to say, the character was in fact bent.

The Gray Monk said...

One major reason for the increase in the deficit is that almost all our heavy manufacturing is now done in the EU. Having sold all our industrial companies to Offshore Investors, they've moved the jobs to where there are workforces that are more willing to work, less expensive and far, far less likely to cause trouble using the wonderful new powers to troublemakers in Harman's "Equalities Act."

HMRC used to say that 80% of our exports went to the EU, true, as long as you realise that this figure included everything loaded for transfer and reshipping from the Europort in Rotterdam. Now, of course, we don't export much because we don't make it anymore...

It's all a matter of perspective, and Whitehall never looks outside of their Ivory Tower.

Jacobite said...

The tipping point of this EU totalitarian state will eventually come to a head, people I think are getting better informed through the internet, I hope that point comes sooner rather than later.

WitteringsfromWitney said...

T: Hardly watch tv and def not MM, however at least the character involved was ''typecast'!

TGM: Personally I am of the view that heavy industry was run down as part of the plan to weaken this country.

WitteringsfromWitney said...

J: Hopefully you are right - I am fed up greasing the piano wire to ensure smooth working!

TomTom said...

China has all the benefits of tariff-free access to the EU thanks to William Clinton.

By granting China MFN Status the EU was obliged under the US-EU Treaty to grant the same and so China has no EU Social Costs to bear but has Tariff Free Access to compete with local producers.

So Britain could leave the Eu with the USA granting MFN Status.

The fact is British politicians are incompetent and have never understood that an offshore island can never have enough influence to pivot policy on a continent.

Had Britain been allied from 1870 onwards with Germany it might have worked, but Britain is a peripheral counterweight to Continental European politics - a flywheel if you like and flywheels do not drive but balance

WitteringsfromWitney said...

TT: As usual you hit the nail on the head with your comment.

Re UK and MFN - exactly!!