Should the UK remain a member of the EU

[No2]

16 minutes ago, AngryofTuebrook said:

Flashback to Referendum Eve - 22nd June 2016.  The Telegraph published 20 reasons why we should all vote Leave.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/22/20-reasons-you-should-vote-to-leave-the-european-union/?fbclid=IwAR1YonZ2kWQa-NY4ABenlbCz3qR9wPXvP6R_SKMSVhxKFXCNoFffRr2EvBw

 

1) We’d get our money back  

Some of your taxes go the European Union. Some, but not all, of that money comes back to Britain in subsidies to farmers, grants to universities and so on. How much? In 2015, our gross contribution was almost £18 billion, but a budget “rebate” won my Margaret Thatcher in 1984 reduced that to £13 billion, around £200 per person in Britain. The Treasury says around £6 billion comes back to the UK in subsidies and grants, meaning our net EU payments are worth a little over £100 per head. In cash terms, Britain is the second biggest contributor to the EU budget after Germany.

2) We could decide who comes into our country

EU members must allow all EU citizens to enter their country and work without restrictions. The “right of free movement” has allowed hundreds of thousands of Europeans to live and work in Britain. In the 12 months ending in September 2015, an estimated 257,000 EU nationals arrived in the UK. The Office for National Statistics estimates that there are more than 2 million EU nationals working in the UK.

3) We could make our own laws again

Some British laws are passed and implemented because of decisions made at an EU level.   Business For Britain, a pro-Leave group, reckons 65 per cent of new British laws are made in Brussels.  The House of Commons Library says that between 1993 and 2014, a total of 231 Acts of Parliament were passed because of EU membership, 24 per cent of the total. In 2010, the UK government estimated that about 50 per cent of UK legislation with “significant economic impact” originates from EU legislation.

4) Our courts would have the final say over those laws

When Britain joined the EEC in 1972, Parliament accepted that European law could have primacy over UK law. That law is ultimately overseen by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. The court’s power has grown steadily, and the Lisbon Treaty gave it power over 135 areas of criminal justice policy; Britain has opted out of all but 35 of those measures, but participates in the European Arrest Warrant scheme, which gives the court the right to order EU nationals (including Britons) be extradited to face trial elsewhere in the EU.

5) We wouldn’t have to accept decisions forced on us by other countries

Many EU decisions are taken under “qualified majority voting” rules, where countries’ voting weights depend on their size. That means countries can be outvoted, forced to accept decisions with which they disagree. Britain is outvoted more often than any other country. Between 2009 and 2015, Britain was on the losing side of 12 per cent of QMV decisions. By contrast, France was on the losing side of less than 1 per cent of votes. The areas where Britain was most often outvoted included the EU budget and EU foreign and security policy.

6 )We wouldn’t have to listen to lots of European presidents

The EU is not a country but it has no fewer than five presidents. Donald Tusk is president of the European Council, the group comprised of EU heads of state and government. Jean Claude Juncker is president of the European Commission. Martin Schulz is president of the European Parliament. Mario Draghi is president of the European Central Bank. Jeroen Dijsselbloem is president of the Eurogroup of countries using the single currency. They wrote a report last year calling for much greater integration of the euro countries, another step on the road to a superstate.

7) We wouldn’t have to listen to, or fund, the European Commission

The European Commission is more than the EU's civil service. It also has the right to propose new laws and regulations. It employs around 23,000 officials. In 2011, a think-tank estimated that more than 10,000 Commission staff were paid more than £70,000.

8) We could have proper vacuum cleaners

Under an EU regulation that took effect in 2014, vacuum cleaners with the most powerful motors (1,600 watts and above) are banned. The European Commission says the ban will save energy and encourage more efficient devices. Which?, a consumer group, says it prohibits some of the best machines currently being made. Sir James Dyson, the British industrialist, says the efficiency rules were skewed to favour German vacuums over his products.

9) We wouldn’t have to worry about Turkey

The EU wants to grow even bigger. There are five official candidate countries: Turkey, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Albania. To get in, each has to adopt all EU rules and political standards, then “accession” has to be approved by the leaders and parliaments of every EU member. The Commission says there's no prospect of any new members before 2020; many European politicians believe Turkey will never qualify, though both sides say they are committed to its entry.

10) We could set our own tax rates

 The EU wants to “harmonise” the rate of VAT and the goods to which it applies. VAT must be at least 15 per cent but can be cut to 5 per cent on certain specified items. EU-wide consent is needed for any changes, which is why George Osborne needs European permission to reduce VAT on tampons and sanitary towels.

11) We could support British companies in trouble

EU single market rules discourage governments from giving financial support to private companies, to make sure “national champions” do not have a commercial advantage over rivals. Those rules meant that ministers couldn’t directly bail out Tata Steel’s UK plants.

12) Fish!

 The EU’s common fisheries policy attempts to manage and share EU fish stocks by giving each nations’ fishermen quotas for what they can catch. Critics say that forces up prices for consumers, forces fishermen to dump millions of dead fish back in the sea, and decimates national fishing fleets.

13) We could get rid of windfarms

 Wondering where all those wind turbines come from? Brussels, of course. EU members have agreed to increase the share of their electricity generated from “renewable” sources. By 2020, Britain is supposed to get 15 per cent of its power this way and could in theory face legal action if that target is missed.  

14) We could have blue passports again

  Your passport is red because Britain is in the EU, and EU members have standardised their passports, and agreed that “European Union” is the first thing written on the cover. The red passport replaced the old blue document in 1988.

15) And our own entry lanes at airports

 Remember when you came back from holiday and there was an entry lane marked UK PASSPORT HOLDERS? It’s not there any more because EU rules oblige members to treat all EU nationals in the same way, so Britons have to queue up with their fellow Europeans when they want to come back into their own country.

16) We wouldn't have to fund EU foreign aid

The EU has its own foreign aid programme to give away your money. In 2013, it spent almost €15 billion (£11.8 billion) on foreign aid, almost exactly as much as the UK Government.

17) It would be easier to get rid of fridges 

The EU has a say in how you dispose of white goods through Directive 2012/19/EU. Before the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive came in, you could dispose of your fridge in your local landfill to be destroyed by a giant metal crusher. But now fridges are deemed hazardrous, so have to be disposed of safely in special closed units ("approved authorised treatment facilities"). This has spawned a new industry disposing of Britain's old fridges, and irritated a lot of householders.

18) No more stupid recycling bins

Local councils’ drive to get you to recycle more of your rubbish is partly driven by the EU. The European Commission wants much less rubbish to go to landfill, and its Landfill Directive sets tough targets for councils. As a result, the UK Government imposes heavy fines on councils for landfill use, adding to council tax bills and encouraging the proliferation of different household bins

19)  British MEPs would be sacked

Every month, the European Parliament – hundreds of MEPs, their staff, translators and other officials, 10,000 people in all – moves from Brussels to Strasbourg, where it sits for just four days. This “travelling circus” is widely regarded as being hugely wasteful: the Conservative Party has estimated the cost at £130 million a year.

20) Finally, we could have proper lightbulbs again

 In possibly the most infamous EU instruction in recent years, traditional incandescent lightbulbs are restricted in favour of low-energy alternatives, which many people feel do not offer the same level of illumination.  

 

 

The telegraph is not so keen on the enviroment. They were right about number 15 though.

[SasaS]

And on lightbulbs. That's a disgrace.

[Mudface]

Can't wait until we leave and I can dump my fridge full of low energy light bulbs in a lay-by, as God intended.

[Creator Supreme]

I'd think that list was a parody, except I know where it's from so it must be real!

[Pidge]

10 hours ago, SasaS said:

And on lightbulbs. That's a disgrace.

Not to mention those steeeeewpid recycling bins...

[Jairzinho]

FUCK OFF WINDFARMS!

[SasaS]

Ah, the spirit of Don Quixote lives on.

[Jairzinho]

10 minutes ago, SasaS said:

Ah, the spirit of Don Quixote lives on.

There should be an updated Brexit version.

 

 

[Scooby Dudek]

1 hour ago, Jairzinho said:

FUCK OFF WINDFARMS!

I always knew you and Trump were one and the same;

 

 

[Rico1304]

BMW rethinking mini production now. 

[skend04]

49 minutes ago, Rico1304 said:

BMW rethinking mini production now. 

Toyota too. 

[Leyton388]

I can imagine Brexit is going to be like the end of the Simon Pegg film.

 

"The world's end"

 

 

 

[skend04]

Aaaand no further investment at Ellesmere Port by General Motors. Turning out really well for Patrick Minford this.

[Nelly-Szoboszlai]

Small improvised explosive devices found in 3 locations across London. 

 

The UK police are now liaising with the Garda...

[DJLJ]

39 minutes ago, Nelly-Torres said:

Small improvised explosive devices found in 3 locations across London. 

 

The UK police are now liaising with the Garda...

The packages/letters originated from Ireland

 

 

[AngryOfTuebrook]

9 hours ago, Rico1304 said:

BMW rethinking mini production now. 

 

9 hours ago, skend04 said:

Toyota too. 

 

7 hours ago, skend04 said:

Aaaand no further investment at Ellesmere Port by General Motors. Turning out really well for Patrick Minford this.

But.... but.... it's just "Project Fear" isn't it?

 

Easiest deals in history?  No downsides?  Sunlit uplands?  Inefficient Hoovers?  We were promised the lot!

 

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/mar/05/bmw-mini-cowley-no-deal-brexit-toyota?CMP=fb_gu&fbclid=IwAR2p3TzpOjP1khfswHjB3Oocgw6Fv-0DIik3G_QZPP2RV59A1lbEYeVRM_Y

 

 

[magicrat]

[Strontium]

17 hours ago, DJLJ said:

The packages/letters originated from Ireland

 

 

 

Some people must be really keen on keeping the backstop.

[clangers]

Out of desperation in a no-deal Brexit zero import tariffs here we come. Of course the question is being asked that under those circumstances why would anyone bother negotiating a trade deal with us?

[Bobby Hundreds]

Surely a zero tarrif would be an incentive to uproot your business abroad to a place were you can exploit workers and have the benefit of zero tariffs to sell back. Unless the Tories decide the only way to make Britain attractive to business is to make the British a 3rd world workforce. All sounds a bit shit.

[M_B]

Operation Blame it on the EU is commencing

 

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/mar/07/may-to-ask-eu-for-concessions-to-get-mps-to-back-brexit-deal

 

Theresa May will make a last-ditch attempt to persuade the EU to give her a better Brexit deal on Friday, as she struggles to hold her crumbling government together following a day of cabinet embarrassments in Westminster.

 

The prime minister will plead with EU leaders to offer further concessions, as it became clear that talks in Brussels have stalled and hardline Eurosceptics in her party are likely to vote down the deal for a second time in parliament next week.

 

Senior Tory critics of May expressed astonishment that her strategy was a refusal to change course in the face of defeat, with one cabinet source saying No 10 realised it was about to lose the meaningful vote but seemed unable to make a coherent case to MPs why they should vote for it.

 

Instead, May will turn her fire at the EU in a speech delivered from the Brexit stronghold of Grimbsy in Lincolnshire, saying: “Just as MPs will face a big choice next week, the EU has to make a choice too.

 

“It is in the European interest for the UK to leave with a deal. We are working with them but the decisions that the European Union makes over the next few days will have a big impact on the outcome of the vote.”

[Anubis]

Somewhat fitting it should be delivered from a place with Grim in it's name.

[magicrat]

2 hours ago, Anubis said:

Somewhat fitting it should be delivered from a place with Grim in it's name.

Quim in Grim shocker

[Stickman]

Great stuff from Will Self as he basically get's chief tory gobshite Mark Francois in calling for an apology it's actually he himself who labels 17.4 million people racist...

Oh and I think Self wins that stare off at the end....

 

 

 

Better view of the stare off on this one from 1min 55

 

 

[Bobby Hundreds]

Christ! and that guy is a member of parliament. It's depressing.

 

Surely it would seem fairly obvious that every racist would of voted for brexit. Isolation and segregation is right up a racists street.