Why "the EU is the sick man of Europe

For some reason or other I'm not allowed to start threads in the Brexit Forum so, I'll post this here and if our esteemed Mods would care to move it to its own thread then THANK YOU in advance.

In today's D. Mail there's an essay on why "the EU is the sick man of Europe". It makes very, very interesting reading and, for once, I wish our once-resident EU-supporting semi-Dutchman wasn't MIA so he could respond to the "accusations" therein.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/a...an-Europe.html

Re: Why "the EU is the sick man of Europe

Hi Percy you can post on the main Brexit forum, you just need to scroll down the section here to where it says 'New thread ' and post your thread as normal...
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The 2 sub forums at the top of the section (in which you are unable to post without joining ) are explained here ..
https://www.over50sforum.com/showthread.php?t=41484

Re: Why "the EU is the sick man of Europe

There have been a few good reads about the EU in various places recently and if you can read The Telegraph there's a few in there, including this by Janet Daly:

"The EU’s vainglorious and arrogant behaviour is merely part of its DNA"
"They obviously don’t get it. Do they understand what the word “sovereign” means? Note: it involves electing the people who make your laws. Did they think we were just spouting grandiose rhetoric which would evaporate under the pressure of mundane economic reality? It must be something like that – otherwise they could never have gone where they went. I remember writing many months ago that I could think of only three kinds of organisation which threatened people who wanted to leave: mafia families, secret societies and religious cults - and that the EU had elements of all three."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics...rely-part-dna/

There is a free trial period for those who don't have access.

Re: Why "the EU is the sick man of Europe

Unfortunately Percy, our Pro-remain media are very slow to ever criticise their beloved EU at the best of times. One only has to watch the news on BBC, Sky, ITV and Channel 4 to see how the commentators always choose to speak to EU supporting business bosses and never businesses that support Brexit.

Again, all we seem to see and read is how badly the UK will fare, but it is a known fact that yes, we will indeed hurt in the event of a no-deal, but we can pick ourselves up, dust ourselves down and commence immediately trading elsewhere, whereas the EU are going to suffer immeasurably. 27 member states that have always done tariff-free business with the UK suddenly stopped from doing so by order of their masters, Germany and France.
How can they possibly not be in a whole heap of trouble in the frightening scenario that awaits them?

Unity in the EU? Let's see how long that lasts as they each fight for survival of their economies.

Re: Why "the EU is the sick man of Europe

Who is going to be first is the only real question.

Will it be Italy; they are in far deeper trouble that the EU and the ECB will acknowledge and they are too big for the rest of the EU to bail out.
Many respected international financiers suspect that Italy's debt will become hugely problematic in the year ahead.

Or could it be Spain who - already troubled with huge losses following the covid-inspired tourism industry collapse - could face a similar financial trap to that of Italy because of covid and the affects of hugely-reduced British income from both tourism and the export of Spanish fruit & veg?

How about an old favourite; Greece?
With a national debt ratio now expected to exceed 200% of national output and an economy still shrinking, it still faces a significan problem with migration too.

France then, with the French trusting the EU less than we British and Le Pen's popularity on the rise so that she is more popular than Macron.

Then there's the long-running disputes with Poland & Hungary as well as the usual EU problems which keep being kicked down the road.
Like corruption; like budget problems; like the increasing divides within the union together with ever-increasing populism; the Turkey and China quandries,; etc. etc. etc.

It's a good time to be outside the EU, looking at the sheer number of very real difficulties they have which are bubbling away near the surface.

Re: Why "the EU is the sick man of Europe

Thanks Meg for explaining

Italy have been in the fiscal sh!t pond since they surrendered to the Allies in 1943. The only difference between then and now is the pond has got wider, longer, and, oh boy, smellier and deeper. Even when I was living there between Jan 1984 and Oct 1997 and working for an American company (taken over by a Japanese firm) we saw so much deprivation in the countryside it was almost unbearable. Even in the city centre it was bad in some areas - pickpockets were everywhere. Even the Civil Servants were on the take AND open about it! I was earning very good money but taxed accordingly at 40%. When I left I had a leaving bonus equivalent to almost 14 months pay but that was taxed at 65%.

Re: Why "the EU is the sick man of Europe

The media get funding from the EU for promoting it in a positive way. This works out as millions of Euros for the BBC, SKY, Channel 4 etc.

They should be forced to declare their funding so the readers/viewers clearly understand why they are promoting the remain campaign and are against Brexit.

People are so worried about tariffs - its complete nonsense. We have tariffs on all sorts of products we buy such as bananas, USA apples, fruit and veg from Morocco etc - nobody bats an eyelid.

The easiest way to combat tarrifs is for businesses to improve their processes and make things more efficient to save on operating costs. My friend who has made concrete products for over 30 years gets his cement from Spain. He said even if there was a 10% tarrif his cement would still be cheaper than it was 10 years ago.

Calais is already one of the most inefficient ports in the UK (if not, the most inefficient port). We have disruptions all the time, due to weather, strikes and more recently COVID-19. The problems we had were more to do wit panic buying than anything else, but the goods still flowed into and out of the country and food was still readily available. The big tailbacks of lorries at the Calais crossing are only one way - going into France, there are never problems with goods coming into our country. There is even a name for the tailbacks on the M20 - it's called Operation Stack and its been like that for decades.