Britain and the EU

Just watched the second Nick Robinson BBC2 programme about Britain and the EU. Some decent information in this series. If you are looking for real information,and NOT spin, I suggest you watch this on iPlayer or Catch-up if you can.

The EC and the UK

When it comes to our UK national referendum on whether we should stay in or leave the EC, I am undecided. In many ways the EC is a good thing. On the other hand it is a creaking bureaucracy in great need of reform. I like that Europe has been (largely) at peace in my lifetime. I like free trade in Europe. However, we are a small island running out of room, with creaking services and the UK should have the final say over who lives and works here.  I am in favour of a common market. Why do we need more?

I really feel for the genuine migrants fleeing conflict. Having had a nasty tummy bug in the comfort of my own home, I cannot help thinking how much worse this would have been if I was also cold,wet and hungry and thousands of miles from home. Even worse if you are a child who does not understand. Personally I think we should take more real refugees but not economic migrants.

No, there is still a great deal that needs fixing. Mr Cameron has NOT basically changed anything his recent negotiations. We are being asked to stay, when really very very little has changed.

So, in summary, I am undecided which way to vote. At the moment I am voting to leave, but I may well change my mind.

Will we leave the EU?

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29874392 .

So Germany would rather see us leave the European Community than modify immigration rules. It now looks quite possible that, following a David Cameron referendum in 2017 (assuming he forms the next government) we could exit the EC/EU. We have always been "on the edge" in more than just the physical sense (as an island). I have no idea how this would impact the UK. We may end up better or worse as a result. For good reasons, the UK has never quite got on board "the European experiment". On this issue, I really have no idea how such a referendum would go.

Recent history might suggest we might be OK, but really no-one knows.

From the BBC website:

This is the first time that Mrs Merkel has acknowledged that the UK's exit from the EU is possible, Der Spiegel said.

According to the Sunday Times, Germany has already rejected a proposal to impose quotas on low-skilled EU migrants by limiting the national insurance numbers issued to them.

Der Spiegel reported that Mr Cameron was now looking at a plan to stretch the EU rules "to their limits" in order to ban migrants who do not have job, and to deport those who are unable to support themselves after three months.

On Sunday, Conservative MP and former justice secretary Kenneth Clarke defended EU migration.
"If you're going to have a sensible single market, if we want to compete with the Americans and the Chinese and so on and modern world, we need the free movement of labour," he told BBC's Sunday Politics.

A Downing Street spokesperson said: "The prime minister will do what is right for Britain, as he has repeatedly made clear."

More money to the EC?

So, because our economy is doing well we owe the EC billions more? This seems unfair and plays right into the hands of those in the UK who are anti-Europe. The question is did we agree to this before it all happened? I suspect we are moaning now, but this clause has been in place for years!

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-29754168 .  UK PM David Cameron says we are not paying next month, but what's the betting we soon have to pay up?

Extract from the BBC website:

David Cameron has angrily insisted the UK will not pay £1.7bn being demanded by the European Union.

"If people think I am paying that bill on 1 December, they have another think coming," the prime minister said in Brussels. "It is not going to happen."
But Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the demand should "not have come as a surprise" to the UK.
He said it was made under a system agreed by all the member states and based on data provided by them.
EU finance ministers have agreed to the UK's request for emergency talks about the top-up payment, which would add about a fifth to the UK's annual net EU contribution of £8.6bn.

Mr Barroso's speech today

So the outgoing EC president, Mr Jose Barroso, thinks we will make an "historic mistake" if we leave the EC.  He may be right, but staying within the EC at any cost to the UK is not an option, The UK is keen on a single common market - a level playing field - but seeks ultimate control over its own borders and laws. These are aspirations shared by many EC countries. They are reasonable wishes for our parliament to reign supreme in the UK.

Personally I hope we don't leave the EC, but that the EC will change somewhat.  If the EC does not change we may have no choice but to leave them to it.  I cannot imagine the EC not changing. Were we to leave, I bet we won't be the last.  I cannot see it being a disaster for the UK. Other countries manage. The benefits of membership have to outweigh the downsides.

By the way I am not a UKIP supporter. I am very much a floating voter and have no idea who I shall be voting for in the UK General Election next spring. It will be a difficult decision.

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-29684585 .

D-day celebrations

The TV is full of D-Day anniversary celebrations from the Normandy beaches It is 70 years since it happened.  It must have been a day filled with unbelievable fear, on a level I cannot begin to imagine, with the fear of being shot at any moment.

My stroke has left me more emotional than before: the thought of these brave men moved me to tears, as did thinking of my dear dad flying Lancasters in Bomber Command. In his lifetime I never once told him how brave he was, one of my greatest regrets.  I do so hope their efforts were not in vane. We have had 70 years of peace in Europe, just about, with a few exceptions.

I do not have bad feelings towards the German people. Mankind has a nasty side and it could so easily been the other way around. We have all to work towards peace and reconciliation.  The EC has a good side by helping to keep the peace.

I must stop bursting into tears.