Is being in the EU necessary or desirable? Convince me of either and i shall cease to be a eurosceptic! I will argue that it is neither.
1- Necessary for what?
We can have free trade without EU membership via EFTA/EEA or associated status (Channel Islands and Isle of Man). Sure we wont have any vote in common market regulations but if you read John Major's (former British prime minister) autobiography you will see that common market regulations are decided by the bigger countries. We can have free movement of people without EU membership via EFTA/EEA. Your Norwegian friend has all the benefits of Europe that you do (except he cant aspire to a cushy job in Brussels!)
2- Desirable for what? Now we don’t need it why should we want it? Why do we want to hand over our independent foreign policy. Remember us courageously opposing the British on the Falkland’s, what chance of that happening now? An independent foreign policy is an essential component of a proper independent country. Unless you are one of those few people who believe that Ireland can veto EU foreign policy, how can we be independent and be in the EU! Why do we want to hand over our independent justice policy? Ireland has the highest standards of civil liberties in Europe, why drag them down to continental European standards with ID cards, trial by judge, conviction by 7 jurors, no right to silence, police raids on immigrant quarters, stop and search. While our Amsterdam treaty opt-out insulates us from much of this we are committed to giving it up in 3 years after Lisbon comes into force (buries in the referendum question and NOT on the ballot paper!).
Why do we want to hand over our independent monetary policy? Yes the euro gave us 10 years of get rich quick schemes. It made bankers, builders and politicians very very rich indeed. The euro creates the property bubble that has spectacularly burst and left us unable to devalue our currency to kick start the economy. We are now fairly stuck as reinstating the punt carries big risks too.
So i ask you to read up on EFTA/EEA and associate status. You might come round to my thinking. Just one small problem, there will be no more cushy jobs for our politicians!!!
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Hi there
My name is James Harrod and I work for a BBC News programme called "World News Today", which is broadcast on BBC World News globally and BBC Four in the UK.
In the run up to the European elections, we are inviting a select group of bloggers onto the show to give their thoughts.
This may take the form of video diaries or "lives" from our bureaus across Europe.
I have been reading your excellent blog and was wondering if you would be interested in taking part.
If you are then please contact me at james.harrod@bbc.co.uk, ideally with a phone number and I can give you some more details.
Many thanks for your time,
James
It was heartening to read during the week about a survey throughout the EU that found more than sixty (60%) per cent or some 210 million people out of a possible 350 million eligible to vote regard Politicians as liars; and especially so when it comes to EU matters!
The Irish people have been lied to for so long that unfortunately some now believe what they hear! We are bombarded daily by misinformation about how beneficial the EU is and how much money we have received and how it (the EU) is necessary for our economic recovery! Yes some people have benefited to the tune of billions, farmers yes; but they are not the only inhabitants of the island! Very strange too then considering all the billions they have received that they are still whinging and crying about how poor they are and how they can not afford to live even on their subsidy's! Ask any fisherman what they have received from the EU and I expect that the answer you will get will not be very complimentary to either the government or the EU!
What have the majority of the population (politicians apart that is) received from the EU; why nothing of course unless you count bullshit talk! Are we to conclude then that the EU has destroyed the farming industry just as it has our fishing industry; and I almost forgot the destruction of our democracy too! Does any of this seem beneficial to us? Well not to me anyway I does not!
The reality is that when it comes to trade more than fifty per cent (50%) of our trade is conducted with the USA while about another thirty per cent (30%) is with The United Kingdom; the remaining twenty per cent (20%) or less can be attributed to the the rest of the world and this of course includes the EU! This less than 20% however includes both imports and exports; with the probability being that we actually import more from the EU than we export there! To find our the true extent of our trade with the EU is rather difficult as our “Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment” are rather coy when it comes to answering questions on the matter! I expect that they just like the government would prefer that the public remain in the dark about that subject also! We have however imported quite a lot of “red tape”; no economic benefit there what so ever I am afraid though! Not much to brag about there after more than thirty (30) years EU membership! After thinking long and hard I have also failed to come up with the name of any large EU corporation or industry that has invested in Ireland and why would that be I wonder; probably because none actually have invested her! So therefore we could honestly conclude that we don't actually reap any economic benefits from the EU at all!
How very strange then that we are being told by our politicians that our economic recovery depends on the EU when the EU itself says that its recovery depends on China; mystifying as I did not even know that China was a member of the EU! Anyway China does not seem to think so either because they have ordered them to keep their dirty little EU pigs noses our of China's business; bang goes another mythical EU solution then!
I often wonder what Eurosceptic's smoke before they start writing/typing about the EU: take wiggy's post for example. Aside from the bizarrely convoluted and nonsensical arguments (which I have neither the time nor the interest in refuting), his facts are totally off.
1) DEPFA Bank, a major German bank, invested heavily in Ireland.
2) Irish trade with other EU countries is almost as great as with the US and the UK COMBINED- and the balance of trade is much more strongly in our favour when its with the continent.
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