The European Union part 3

A short while ago I was talking to someone who is very close to me about how I feel about the EU and about the facts I give out about this organisation. They said to me "how do I know that you are telling the truth or just believing someone's propaganda"? I suppose that is a fair question, and to answer that I would say this, as I have stated in my previous post; the EU have a 2.6 billion Euro propaganda budget and it is very difficult for most people to find out what the truth is. Because our Government and all Government's of the EU are totally sold into the dream of a united Europe it will always be very difficult to find the truth. I would recommend this blog site, written by a very intelligent journalist : http://synonblog.dailymail.co.uk/

I wanted to write about another part of the EU and another so called benefit that the EU is supposed to have to this country; and that is the economic benefits. In 1973 The United Kingdom joined what was then called, The Common Market, it was sold to the British Public by the then Prime Minister Edward Heath as a purely economic entity. The simple truth was that Edward Heath lied and he knew that the ultimate goal was total political union. Whether you agree with the EU or not I am sure you would agree that you should be told the truth about what you are voting for. I am not going to go into the rights and wrongs of Edward Heath, but what I did want to do is look at the economic benefits to this country.

In 2005 the then Prime Minister Tony Blair stated that 60 per cent of the UK's trade and three million jobs depend on our EU membership, this has also been stated most recently this year in the House of Lords by a Labour Government peer, and I am sure if you spoke to a Tory minister they would still be stating this today. I just want to take a closer analysis at these two misleading claims.

Sixty per cent of our trade is dependent on the EU!
The first problem is that this statement refers to 'goods' and not 'goods and services'. About 59 per cent of UK exports of 'goods' were exported to the other EU countries. However it is more usual to count exports of both 'goods and services', UK export of goods and services to the EU comprised 52 per cent of the UK total. This figure needs to be adjusted for what is called the Rotterdam-Antwerp distortion. These two huge ports are transit points for the whole of the world, but official figures assume that goods sent there are going to the EU. After adjustment, 48 per cent of UK exports of goods and services go to the EU.

Sixty per cent of our economy is dependent on the EU!
The second misconception is that 60 per cent of our economy depends on the EU, the true figure is more like 10 per cent. Exports of goods and services only account for 21 per cent of our total output. If exports of goods and services to the EU account for 48 per cent of total exports, then 10 per cent of GDP is currently the result of exports of goods and and services to other EU members. In other words, about 79 per cent of our economy is the result of domestic activity, involving buying and selling to each other, and exports of goods and services to the rest of the world account for another 11 per cent. As you can see statistics can be easily abused.

Three million jobs would go if we left the EU!
Again we need to look at this statement and see what the reality is. The simple truth is, if we left the EU there would no detrimental affect upon our economy. Currently we have a deficit with 24 out of the other 26 member states of the EU, basically they export more to us than we do to them. It might be said that they need us more than we need them, moreover countries as diverse as Switzerland and Gambia, plus many more have free trade agreements with the EU. The World Trade Organisation would prevent any retaliatory action by the EU if we left. A report by the National Institute for economic and Social Research, the US Congress and the US International Trade Commission stated there would be little impact on jobs in the UK if we left. Over the years we have seen a huge influx of immigrants come to the UK and they have brought very little economic benefits (I have discussed this in previous posts), if we left we would be able to control who come into this country. Last year net migration to this country was over 178,000 from the EU, unemployment has reached 2.5 million, the facts speak for themselves. There are now many people both UK citizens and EU citizens living in this country who are not working and drawing benefits, personally I think this is wrong that someone can come to this country and get paid for doing nothing.

On the 1st January 1993 'The Maastricht Treaty' become law in this country, this meant 1000's of regulations had to be adopted overnight by British business, and believe you me when there is regulations to be adopted there is no one better than British officials at enforcing them. Let me give you 2 examples of the stupidity of the regulations.

In the first weeks of January 1993, Nigel Batts chairman of Reading abattoir, assembled his 17 employees to tell them that, although the business had been doing well enough to warrant expansion, the excessive cost of the new inspection regime was forcing its closure.

In Farcet, Huntingdonshire, Tom Chamberlain ran a butchery business, owned by his family for 100 years. In 1992 he was named Champion Sausage Maker at the East of England Show. Soon after he was informed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food that under the Fresh Meat (Hygiene and Inspection) Regulations 1992, implementing EC directive 91/497, he must make extensive structural changes to his premises, if he did not, on 1 January 1993 he would lose his licence. He was told he was no longer allowed to carry meat a few feet across the yard from his slaughterhouse unless he built a refrigerated tunnel. He was told he would have to build showers for visiting lorry drivers even though most meat was only travelling from farms within a five mile radius. Contemplating the cost of these changes, he concluded over the Christmas that he had no option but to cease trading.

I could go on and on. Let me say this in finishing, as you have realised I am against the EU and all it stands for. One of the problems I have is how officials in this country follow, and add to the regulations with a zeal that is totally blind to the affect they have upon those they are enforcing them on. In what other country would public officials be willing to close down three quarters of its abattoirs for no other reason than their inability to comply with absurdly misconceived rules . No other country would have been willing to close down much of its fishing industry; or to drive thousands of other firms out of business in the name of enforcing EU regulations which bore no relation to practical reality. In no other country would officials have been prepared to bring criminal charges against a market stallholder for selling 'a pound of bananas' (the stress of this eventually caused him to die of a heart attack). All polls showed that 90 per cent of Britain's population where opposed to the law which made it a criminal offence to sell goods in imperial measures.

I could give you many examples and proof that there is no need for us to be part of the EU. I only hope that the British people one day realise that we could survive without the interference and over regulation of Brussels. I do not think it unreasonable to ask those that govern us to give us the chance to choose by giving us a referendum on whether we stay in the EU. It has been 35 years since Edward Heath gave the people of Britain a referendum on whether they should stay in The Common Market (the British people were told it was an economic organisation). As I have said above he lied, no one in this country has ever had the opportunity to decide whether they want a political Union, surely if we are going to be ruled by unelected bureaucrats let us, 'THE BRITISH PEOPLE' decide.