Quote: Originally Posted by Niflmir
I'm not exactly sure what Cameron thought was so unacceptable about a tax on financial transactions.
He thought, quite rightly, that such a tax would destroy the City of London, the world's financial powerhouse, which makes up 10% of the British economy (and over half of the EU's entire financial services sector). And, because of Britain's large financial sector, Britain would have had to pay a whopping 80% of an EU financial transactions tax.
I know the EU is set up only for the advantage of France and Germany and the French and Germans would like all member states to do things that favour only France and Germany, but I'm afraid Britain is different. Cameron was standing up for British interests - which is what the British people pay him to do - and not the interests of France and Germany. He also has the support of the British people - 62% support what he did with only 19% against what he did.
Basically, the French and Germans are jealous of the City of London's worldwide power and influence and want some of that for Paris and Frankfurt. They are trying to do everything that can to take power away from the City of London - which makes up a tenth of the British economy - to hand over to Paris and Frankfurt. The French and Germans thought the City of London would lose its influence when Britain declined to join the Euro. They were hoping that Paris and Frankfurt would therefore overtake London. This never happened and London merely pulled further ahead of Paris and Frankfurt and still has a bigger financial services sector than both of those pygmies put together. Now they are coming up with every trick in the book to take power off London to give to Paris and Frankfurt. Frankly, that's disgraceful and Britain showed them what for.
Britain's Chancellor, George Osborne, recently said something along the lines of: "Having the British accept a financial transactions tax would be like having the French accept a tax on cheese."
Quote: Oh right... the LSE is the only thing allowing Britain to hang onto its dwindling influence.
I would wager £100 that Britain is far more influential in the world than Germany is. Not only does it export more goods and services to the vast world outside the EU than Germany does (and Britain has a trade surplus with the EU but doesn't with the rest of the world) but Britain has played a leading role in bringing democracy to Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. Where was Germany in those countries? It did zilch in Iraq and Libya. In Afghanistan it has troops but, whereas the British are fighting the Taliban and being killed and maimed, the German soldiers (who aren't allowed out at night) sit on their arses in their base all day drinking beer, watching TV and playing table football. It's no accident that Britain has lost more troops in Afghanistan than the other 26 nations of the EU COMBINED.
Not only that, but whereas Britain's population is rapidly growing (it is expected to be ten million people bigger in about 15 years' time than it is now) Germany's is rapidly shrinking and, in the not-too-distant future, Britain will overtake Germany as the largest nation in Western Europe and, therefore, most likely , as Western Europe's largest economy. (It must horrify the Germans to think that Britain is on its way to becoming the EU's largest member state and economy).
Yet, despite all this, you have a cheek to that that it is Britain with a dwindling influence in the world.
Last edited by Blackleaf; Dec 14th, 2011 at 05:32 AM..
