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Should Britain leave the E.U. ??? Should Britain leave the E.U. ???
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View Poll Results: Should Britain leave the E.U. ?
Yes 109 50.00%
No 46 21.10%
No.. But things MUST change 38 17.43%
I don't care 14 6.42%
Undecided 11 5.05%
Voters: 218. This poll is closed

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  #1  
Old 28 Feb 2016
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Originally Posted by Wildman View Post
Status quo. The existing state of affairs.

Nope. I've got it.
For just 50 years or so which makes the EU a Johnny-come-lately to my mind.

Either way, Our PM needs to get his referendum of the way before the Euro crashes and burns for the 19 countries involved in that (with 3 of them also in the G20 setup it will give the EU more to think about than the £ zone).
Will Pending Eurozone Bank Crisis Take Down the Euro (EUR)? | Currency News UK
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  #2  
Old 29 Feb 2016
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Originally Posted by Walkabout View Post
For just 50 years or so which makes the EU a Johnny-come-lately to my mind...
The status quo is the current state of affairs. Strange that you feel that the status quo is the state of affairs 50 years ago.

Each to his own, I guess.
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  #3  
Old 29 Feb 2016
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Originally Posted by Wildman View Post
The status quo is the current state of affairs. Strange that you feel that the status quo is the state of affairs 50 years ago.
Not 50 years ago, but over many centuries of "development", the latter in all areas of activity undertaken by mankind - that is the real status quo.

For instance, I am somewhat surprised that there has not been more discussion in here about our system of law compared with mainland Europe, but that may arise when the undue influence of France is mentioned, again.
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Old 29 Feb 2016
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France, again
The EU was founded on the Coal and Steel community as a means of stopping French occupation of the Ruhr and Saar region at the end of WW2 (peeved because they really wanted massive reparations à la WW1) and the French coal piracy from those areas and getting some fair and efficient economic cooperation between 2 nations who needed each other to resuscitate a base industry.
Monnet (rather out of guilt), Schumann and Adenauer.
Strasbourg is where the French 'demanded' (French verb – demander) the ECB to be situated. Remember EU Parliament caravans each month between Brussels and Strasbourg and, you'll love this, the parliament secretariat is in Luxembourg.


The EU was forged out of the Coal and Steel Community which the French were forced to accept when their post-war plans to annex the Saar and control bits of the Ruhr were scotched by the Brits and Americans.
It started as the second best option for France's interests, but led to France creating a union in its own image.

Just a bit of 50-60-70 year old history.
"Countries have no friends, only interests".
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  #5  
Old 29 Feb 2016
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The talk of official data, statistics, interpretation and the like reminded me of this piece of EU harmonisation from 2014:-

Drugs and prostitution add £10bn a year to UK economy - Telegraph
It's hard to keep a straight face at times, especially when driving past all the hookers hanging out on the main highways of Strasbourg, or Rouen for that matter.
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Old 29 Feb 2016
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Europe today
Before looking further at the case of France in greater detail, it is worth considering just a few, almost random, points about how the EU is lined up at present.

The Visegrad nations: yep, up to now they like the EU, especially in the case of their un-reconstituted politicians. They recognise the same system of direction given to them as they were all too familiar with when part of the USSR; centralised 5 year plans that never quite seem to work out but, hey, there is always the next 5 year plan to keep us busy and the people don't seem to mind.
Meanwhile the populations have been kept content and relatively quiet with major handouts of largesse from you-know-where.
But, they also know how to rise up and revolt.
Hungary: 1956, short, sharp and brutal.

Checho-lands: 1968, ditto.

Poland: Solidarity for years.



France: keep buying/paying off the farmers via the CAP and all is well with the world.
Wales: ditto.


Germany: is it really possible that Frau Merkel is a reformed communist from the late-lamented DDR? (The DDR never did revolt in the manner of the Visegrad nations).
(one of the Ds in DDR relates to "democracy")
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  #7  
Old 29 Feb 2016
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Originally Posted by Walkabout View Post
(one of the Ds in DDR relates to "democracy")
And quite right so... albeit the concept of "democracy" in that context is not the same as used by the rest of the people. The D for "Democracy" in the DDR along with several other similar cases in other communist countries refers to the Leninist-Stalinist concepts of democracy which has nothing to do with the concept of democracy in civilized world. One word, two whole different meanings. To the current systems in most European Countries they refer as "Burgeois Democracy", something to abolish under communist doctrine for they don't consider it to be a democracy at all.

The Leninist-Stalinist concept of democracy is still used by some extreme left parties nowadays such as Podemos in Spain, Syriza in Greece (although these had to cave to proper democracy or risk bankruptcy) or Bloco de Esquerda in Portugal. Unfortunatelly the vast majority of people don't know enough about the history of communism to understand that the democracy to which these parties refer is not the same currently in existence in these countries and, of course, the parties themselves are quite happy to keep the fiction. Otherwise the people would understand that these parties' concept of democracy equates dictatorship in layman terms or "Dictatorship of the Proletariat" as defined by Marx and Engels.
  #8  
Old 29 Feb 2016
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European Economic Area
Quote:
Originally Posted by Walkabout View Post
France: keep buying/paying off the farmers via the CAP and all is well with the world.
We could ditch the CAP and the common fisheries policy tomorrow by leaving the EU and remaining in the EEA – discuss???
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Economic_Area




Probably not - This doesn't get publicity because the UK government don't like it.
Broadly, it is nick named as "flexit eureferendum" for favourite search engines.
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