David Cameron fails to persuade Polish PM over EU benefits proposals
Let’s get this straight: Cameron has been traipsing his miserable, restrictive plans around Europe like a beggar, courting refusal everywhere he goes – and back home, George Osborne wants us to think he’s well-respected?
It would be risible if it wasn’t so damaging for the UK’s reputation in the world.
The Polish prime minister said Warsaw did not “see eye to eye” with the UK over plans to restrict access to in-work benefits.
In a sign of the deep unease in eastern Europe at the proposed restrictions, Beata Szydlo warned David Cameron that the “basic principles” of the EU’s rules on freedom of movement must be respected.
Cameron has agreed to delay the final round of negotiations until the next EU summit in February after Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, said EU leaders had failed to agree to the plan to ban EU migrants from claiming in-work benefits for four years.
Poland and other eastern European countries, whose citizens would be hit harder than citizens from wealthier member states, believe the ban breaks the EU’s laws on discrimination.
The Polish prime minister warned Cameron not to infringe the EU’s rules on free movement and said she had raised concerns about the UK’s proposals on “the welfare system and child benefits”.
In addition to the proposed ban on in-work benefits, the UK is attempting to ban EU migrants working in the UK from sending back child benefit for children at home.
The ban on in-work benefits would require a treaty change because EU citizens are entitled to be treated in the same way as UK citizens in the workplace, including topups to their wages through tax credits. Szydlo, who became prime minister last month, said: “There are also discussions and issues about which we do not see eye to eye today.”
Source: David Cameron fails to persuade Polish PM over EU benefits proposals | Politics | The Guardian
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I suspect that European leaders see Cameron for what he is, an extremely unpleasant and lightweight politician.
You could tell they didn’t see eye to eye as there was no “eye contact”in the photo! He does make us all look like donkeys they way he smarms his way round Europe popping up like an uninvited guest at a wedding. Traipsing is an apt description. Still he probably likes using his new AirDick One plane with all the flunkeys ‘flunkeying’around him. Where shall I go tomorrow? Angela is a bit off with me. I’ve visited Hollande enough already. Hmmm. How about Bulgaria? Haven’t been there yet. Bulgaria it is then.
He’s a pompous, rich, little posh boy who’s completely out of his depth and Europe already knows it, he has no competition back home so that is why it makes him look like he’s strong but in reality if he had stronger opposition to go toe to toe with, someone who could really challenge him, he’d fold like a hand of cards and be sweating bullets in next to no time, he’s a weakling and you can see it and Europe sees it too, he wants to hope he has to butt heads with any of them because they’ll tear him apart!
Cameron is a total embarrassment for Britain. It was obvious from the start that he wasn’t going to get what he hoped would convince us all to stay in the EU. Beggering himself with as much smarm as even Tony Blair oozed does not fool the EU leaders and he still hasn’t figured out that only as long as Britain serves a useful purpose, are we tolerated. We reduce their welfare bill by allowing them to offload jobless to the UK, we import far more than we export from and to them and we serve well as a free health service for many of their citizens. When Cameron is trying to close down the things the EU finds useful to them, what did he really expect? The man’s a total inept fool and the leaders he has been trying to woo are laughing behind his back as well they might. He really does think of himself as a high flyer rubbing shoulders with the likes of Obama, never realising they consider him a buffoon. We would have done better sending JC, straight talking, non obsequious and a good what you see and hear is what you get, no frills or flattery, just business. A far cry from the tawdry car salesman that is Cameron’s slick tongued approach.
No, we DON’T cut their welfare bill by allowing them to offload jobless to the UK. They continue paying the benefits of any EU citizen who migrates to the UK. We don’t pay a penny towards it.
Meanwhile, foreign nationals are a net benefit to the UK’s economy.
We must all get our heads around these figures and understand that the drivel talked against immigrants is utter nonsense.