EU in or out

[CLPete]

anyone been swayed by DC’s deal?? …

• Child benefit - Child benefit payments to migrant workers for children living overseas to be recalculated to reflect the cost of living in their home countries

Should have held out for a complete ban, it’s outrageous that our tax pounds can be sent overseas when there’s children in this country living at or below the poverty line

• Migrant welfare payments - The UK can decide to limit in-work benefits for EU migrants during their first four years in the UK. This so-called "emergency brake" can be applied in the event of "exceptional" levels of migration, but must be released within seven years - without exception

I don’t like ‘can’ decide, to me that means it may not happen, and what’s all this 7 years / 13 years Bananarama!, should be indefinite, if someone wants to come to live here they should have the ability to attain sufficient employment to sustain them and their families without the need for benefits, I have no problem with people coming here as long as they don’t have to sponge off of the state

• Eurozone - Britain can keep the pound while being in Europe, and its business trade with the bloc, without fear of discrimination. Any British money spent on bailing out eurozone nations will be reimbursed

Null and void in my opinion, we would never give up the pound anyway

• Protection for the City of London - Safeguards for Britain's large financial services industry to prevent eurozone regulations being imposed on it

Only 1 way to prevent eurozone regulations being imposed … out

• Sovereignty - There is an explicit commitment that the UK will not be part of an "ever closer union" with other EU member states. This will be incorporated in an EU treaty change

Don’t think this would stop the gradual creep that we’ve seen toward this over the past 40 years

• 'Red card' for national parliaments - It will be easier for governments to band together to block unwanted legislation. If 55% of national EU parliaments object to a piece of EU legislation it may be rethought

Only 1 way to prevent unwanted legislation being imposed … out

• Competitiveness - The settlement calls on all EU institutions and member states to "make all efforts to fully implement and strengthen the internal market" and to take "concrete steps towards better regulation", including by cutting red tape

Isn’t that the idea of a ‘common market’?? so at present it’s not working then …

• Some limits on free movement - Denying automatic free movement rights to nationals of a country outside the EU who marry an EU national, as part of measures to tackle "sham" marriages. There are also new powers to exclude people believed to be a security risk - even if they have no previous convictions.

‘some’ limits, hmmm, all sounds a bit woolly again. Not sure why this needs to be part of the deal, shouldn’t be allowed to happen anyway!! Almost as bad as when some scrote gets a 12 month driving ban when they don’t have a license anyway, FFS

I’m out

Question I've got is - what makes anyone think that our elected MP's would make a better deal than the EU?

I would hazard a guess that if we go it alone, we'll still end up with some muppets in charge at the end of the day, and decisions they make irritating us.

[ScottyDave]

I would hazard a guess that if we go it alone, we'll still end up with some muppets in charge at the end of the day, and decisions they make irritating us.

I guess at least they'd be our muppets

[latil]

At least we could vote them in or out,unlike the EU which is not elected or accountable for it's actions.

[CLPete]

At least we could vote them in or out,unlike the EU which is not elected or accountable for it's actions.

But can we? Both teams seem the same to me - choice between muppet A and muppet B!

And hardly anyone turns out anyway, so it only takes a small group to win it for one team (take retired folk voting more than youngsters). Plus, bad luck if you happen to live in a "safe" seat for the opposite team!

[Dave81]

At least we could vote them in or out,unlike the EU which is not elected or accountable for it's actions.

But can we? Both teams seem the same to me - choice between muppet A and muppet B!

And hardly anyone turns out anyway, so it only takes a small group to win it for one team (take retired folk voting more than youngsters). Plus, bad luck if you happen to live in a "safe" seat for the opposite team!

Have to say that the EU referendum is a hot topic wherever I go. More so than any general election in living memory.
I don't know of anyone young or old who hasn't got an issue\opinion about it.

I actually think it will be one of the biggest votes for a very long time, with the majority of the eligible public putting pen to paper.

With it being such a huge event that could/most probably will have a huge Impact on all our futures, I think you'd have to be crazy not to...........

Time will tell.

[Steve]

What have I missed? Has there been a bun fight?
Always Bananarama! miss em

You sound like me Ade!!! Ha Ha.....Im reaching overload on this now to the point where Ive stopped watching the news (again) and Im going to go for a blast in my Polara tomw to remind me what is great in life and much more interesting than any of this stuff.

Im off to Bruges, Ghent and Brussels for a few days OTP from Thursday and to catch the start of the Belgian Clkassic bike races so I will pass on everyones best wishes to DC if I see him!

[MilesnMiles]

Belgium Steve, chocolate and lager. All you need

[Steve]

Yeah....some great, hardcore road races, great beer (especially the fruitbeers), culture, food and my first ever 5* hotel!! Fantastic!

Cheers Steve

[Super Sloth]

At least we could vote them in or out, unlike the EU which is not elected or accountable for its actions.

I don't think that's the case for a lot of people. The voting system in this country stinks.
I live in Bolsover, so I get Dennis Skinner whether I vote for him, someone else, or simply decide to stay in bed that day.

You only have to look to the last general election results for further proof of how skewed the system is. SNP and Green got roughly the same number of votes each. One party has 1 MP the other has 56
UKIP on the other hand had more votes than both of these parties put together and only have 1 MP to show for it?

So there's two ways to look at it; either circa 5 million people are currently under represented (total votes for green and UKIP) or 1.4 million are over represented (approx. total for SNP).

For all the democratic debate the real elephant in the room is whether we live in a democracy at all or is it just a smoke screen?

[cadboy]

there is nothing perfect in life.....................................

or is there?

[morgan]

You only have to look to the last general election results for further proof of how skewed the system is. SNP and Green got roughly the same number of votes each. One party has 1 MP the other has 56
UKIP on the other hand had more votes than both of these parties put together and only have 1 MP to show for it?

Wow. Now I'm annoyed again. Thats some crazy stats.
Makes me all the more thankful though that we at least had the sense to vote in a majority government. Scary to think how close we came to a hung parliament which would have effectively given the SNP the controlling vote...

Have to agree, lots of people talking about it. Not met anyone that really knows much though ! I know I dont.

there is nothing perfect in life.....................................

Oh I dunno. You've seen a '68 Charger right ?

[Dave999]

proportional representation is held up as the cure for the issue highlighted in respect to the greens SNP and UKIP

however its has a huge potential to create hung parliaments.

last thing your want when your economy is built on financial services.
people stop buying and selling during uncertain times.

first past the post has served us reasonably well over the years but assumes a 2 or 3 party system. it is biased deliberately to avoid lots of seats going to parties with marginal interest or extreme agendas even if they are the big NEW thing for the year in question.

people power is strange, look at the number of Jedi's now live in this country according to recent census.

first past the post guards against such stupidity in politics.

until someone comes up with something better it does the job.

dave

[Carl]

Belgium Steve, chocolate and lager. All you need

He's going for the lace Miles.

[Carl]

The referendum will be a fix anyway, we wont be going out, even though im voting out.

[latil]

It will,like the one in 73,when not one person my father spoke to had voted in. He ran a shop and saw a lot of people.
A few bundles of no vote papers thrown in the yes box after counting,blantantly obvious something goes on sometimes.