Mythbusters – facts and fiction about Britain in Europe | Richard Corbett
This article turned up on Yr Obdt srvt’s feed today, so I’m passing it on.
There are a lot more points than I’m quoting here, so please visit the page for further reading.
If you were told that 80% of our laws were imposed upon us by an unelected foreign bureaucracy, you would of course consider it to be a democratic outrage. If, on top of that, you heard that it cost us billions of pounds per day for the privilege, you would probably be apoplectic.
Yet this is exactly what certain politicians and several newspapers repeat again and again to the British people. And it is a load of nonsense.
“Most of our laws come from Brussels”
Not true. The independent House of Commons library found that the real proportion is just 13.2% of our laws. And these figures include everything that even mentions the EU, even if it’s just a “passing reference” or a definition, according to the researchers!
“The EU forces its will on member countries”
Not true. Firstly, we don’t decide anything at EU level unless all member countries have explicitly agreed by treaty to do so — and even then, the actual legislation needs an overwhelming majority of national governments in the EU Council to approve it. For sensitive matters like tax and foreign affairs, all countries need to agree. As even a minister in our current UK eurosceptic government admits, “It is very hard to find an EU regulation of significance that has been forced on an unwilling British minister who voted against it”!
“EU membership costs us a fortune.”
Not true. In fact, our own (rather eurosceptic) government estimates that EU membership is worth £3000 a year to every British family. And the budget for the whole EU is just 1% of GDP — that’s just about 2% of our national public spending!
“Britons lose out because of EU migration”
Not true. In fact, British people are the EU’s biggest beneficiaries of the right to settle anywhere in the EU: more British people live in other EU countries than any other nationality! There are as many Brits living elsewhere in the EU as there are other EU nationals in Britain.
“EU migrants are a drain on our resources”
Not true. Firstly, most migrants in Britain are from outside the EU. Secondly, those that come here from our European neighbours pay far more in tax than they take in services and benefits. Most EU citizens living in the UK are young and contribute to our economy, having been educated and trained recently at the expense of their own country’s taxpayers. They have no right to jump the queue for benefits of any kind, and they can only come to Britain to work or if they’re self-sufficient.
“British businesses are drowning in EU red tape”
Not true. After all, most EU legislation actually cuts red tape by replacing 28 divergent sets of national rules with a single set of pan-European common rules for the common market. This saves businesses from duplication and compliance costs. Just one example: it’s now possible to register a trademark once, valid across 28 countries, instead of having to do 28 different sets of form-filling, registering, troubleshooting and fee-paying. Moreover, as the Federation of Small Businesses argued recently, EU-wide rules actually protect British businesses from competitors abroad who might undercut our high standards if they could.
“We were told we were only joining a free trade zone”
Not true. We actually left a free trade zone (EFTA) to join the EU, specifically because we felt free trade was not enough. The Wilson government, setting out its reasons for applying in 1967, stressed that “Europe is now faced with the opportunity of a great move forward in political unity and that we can — and indeed we must — play our full part in it”.
Source: Mythbusters – Richard Corbett
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There is always a …Yes but, Mike. What about the recent laws passed whereby Bankers are to be permitted to steal the funds of their depositers/customers. What devious spin could have possibly enabled such base chicanery you ask…By renaming “customers” as “investors”. What about corruption: SOCA was forced to admit that the EU’s audit failure for…What is it? 14 years…15 years? means that the EU Corporation is functioning illegally as a criminal enterprise. Well, slush funds, and lobbying scandals aside, we have a US Corporation compliant trojan horse in place of our quasi federal NGO the EUCorp. Yes things are distorted Mike, but crikey the media lies about everything nowadays, and even stands accused of making stories up. We are drowning in lies. For an example:-
http://anticorruptionsociety.com/2016/02/04/there-is-no-national-debt-owed-by-americans/
The facts in this article too apply in large measure to Great Britain trading as UK Incorporated. We are defrauded into paying debts that are not our own. The Trusts created latterly upon the back of some rather arrogant and very nasty Papal Bulls serve to defraud every commoner within western society. We have a government responsible for homelessness starvation and even the death of its citizenry, what does our vaunted Pan European bureaucracy say about this Malthusian holocaust against the poor whose tax base is considered not profitable to the Psychopaths that inhabit Westminster, so that their means to life are systematically and unlawfully removed. Plus, there are some incredibly nasty powers within the EU treaties, especially as related to protest. Pity none of our squalid politicians read them before signing.
I can’t help but notice that you aren’t responding to the points in the article but are putting forward alternatives of your own.
Do you accept what the article states?
Can you put up a link that isn’t broken to support your comment (this anticorruptionsociety one doesn’t work for me – and what is ‘anticorruptionsociety’ anyway)?
You make assumptions you cannot support: That the EU is a corporation. That it is a Trojan horse for the US. That we are being defrauded by Papal Bulls(?). That our politicians did not read the EU treaties before signing.
You mention “nasty powers” related to protest. Have you missed the powers that protect ordinary people like us?
This article would have much more impact if it were referenced. Where can we find the proof of the above claims/statistics? Thank you.
Ask Richard Corbett, perhaps?
I think that you should be more correctly named Alan PEDANT. For goodness sake what is wrong with the referencing of this article. Just click on the highlighted tags for a reference.
No government should be allowed to make false comments in order to get its own way. A government should serve its electors not deceive them for its own benefit.
I have re posted the above on my Facebook page and added the following personal comment; “Here’s a thought if we could mobilise ordinary people not to buy a Newspaper for a week would we then get told the truth?” Just saying!
The main problem here is that CaMoron is playing to the right wing of his party at this countries expense. When you look at the right wing Tory “Outers” I despair that such a rag bag of idiots, Gove, Johnson, Rees-Mogg, Patel and Farage should even be involved in power in this country let alone at the head if they win.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the EU could get its accounts signed off.I suppose thats not true either.
What’s not true?
What are you saying? That it’s not true the EU can’t get its accounts signed off? That’s it’s not true the EU can?
The main reason that the EU have not been able to get its accounts signed off (which is true) is because over the years a number of member states have not been able to account for some of the loot they are GIVEN by the EU, mainly that in support of local development campaigns, for tourism, small businesses, educations, etc., as to identifying where it has gone or what it has been used for… Italy and the Maffia come to mind.
But that is also true in other EU activities, where national accountability does not fulfil EU requirements… or would you prefer the EU to have less stringent controls? It is also like the Council of Ministers, when each member state sends its Minister responsible for a specific sector, e.g. Agri or Fish, to discuss matters related to their responsibility, but behind closed doors, to arrive at a unanimous agreement to be applied across the EU… at the end of which, a goodly number of the national Ministers will leave the meeting to tell their national audience… “Look what Brussels has done”.