Looking back 9 years, I don't think much has changed in Brussels; other than the UK's exit!
I really don't know if England's membership of the EU was advantageous or not, if it was it was at a very high price; however, certain facts are inescapable.
Let's compare the UK's annual contribution to the EU, with tiny Luxembourg's. Each year the UK contributed €103 Billion, and Lux' €2.3 Billion. UK received back €4.6 Billion, and Lux' €10 Billion. The net benefit per capita was MINUS €937 for every UK resident, and PLUS €16,170 for every Luxembourg resident.
OK, the UK is a wealthy country, and Luxembourg is a tin-pot state filled with multi-millionaires. But what the hell is going on here? I fail to understand why each and every UK citizen should be out-of-pocket by €937, whilst each super rich resident of Luxembourg benefits to the tune of €16,170 (maybe that's WHY they're so effing rich).
You may wonder why I've chosen to compare the UK to Luxembourg. Well, according to the IMF Luxembourg is the second richest country in the world (after Qatar), by GDP per capita.... Don't you, like me, get the impression that something's gone seriously wrong in all this?
Or could it simply be because Jean-Claude Juncker was Prime Minister of Luxembourg from 1995 to 2013; and maybe had some influence?
And people still wonder why the UK voted to leave.
Juncker always looked after his own country first.
ReplyDeleteI suspect Juncker comes first and his country a poor second.
DeleteHe certainly rigged the country's rebate. Why did this not become a scandal?
DeleteYour last sentence sums it up well. What you describe and a very long list of extraordinary imbalance is why so many, especially the working class in Britain had a chip on their shoulder about the EU. That the EU 'never realised this'. Cross that out and say never sorted itself out is why Britain has left the EU. I saw a Twitter comment today from and English person in Spain who is now worried about their status and whether they will be kicked out, and the person voted to leave the EU.
ReplyDeleteWhy someone living in Spain should have voted 'leave' I can't imagine. We voted to 'remain' as did every other Brit I know who lives here. We were looking after our own interests rather than making a statement.
DeleteI have always struggled to identify anything positive about the EU.
ReplyDeleteIt has meant that WE were allowed to enjoy our lives here for the past 47 years; mostly without any paperwork.
DeleteA very good friend of ours took on the role as an auditor to the European Parliament back in the 1980s. The stories he related about the sharp practice and rampant "fiddling" of the books made our hair curl.
ReplyDeleteThat doesn't surprise me.... or anyone else, I should think.
DeleteSo the reason you voted to remain was to secure your residency in France?
ReplyDeleteOf course. I wouldn't have voted against my own interests.
DeleteI thought that a Juncker was someone who regularly visited dump-it sites (i.e. "Household recycling sites"). I wish we had figures for the unearned billions poured into say Romania and Lithuania. There's a sense in which the EU have sought to sponsor a form of equalisation without even asking if that would be okay.
ReplyDeleteThe hierarchy simply do as they wish; the MEP's are just there for window dressing.
DeleteA friend went of a cruise on which there were a lot of folk from other European countries - chatting none of them could understand why we had voted to leave. But I have watched Ed Balls in a recent TV programme touring round some Euro countries and it seems to be that they are all dissatisfied with being in the EU - so what to believe.
ReplyDeleteSorry Cro - obviously I meant 'on a cruise'
ReplyDeleteI don't doubt that for one moment. You only have to look at our local farms and farmers to see what a mess they made of things. People are not happy with Brussels.
DeleteI would have voted remain had I had the vote (I'm now totally disenfranchised!!!) but I agree Brussels needs a damn good shake up and let's hope Brexit is the start of that. As for Juncker, he was probably just worried about keeping his booze money coming in!
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