A vision of Britain outside the EU - confident, successful and free
- Thread starter Blackleaf
- Start date
One thing I like about British politics. Each MP is free to express his beliefs.
In Canada, few MPs would have the courage to vote against the party leader.
In Canada, few MPs would have the courage to vote against the party leader.
Welcome to Britain in 2020, a confident, successful, free and wealthy nation that is thriving now it is out of the EU....
A vision of Britain outside the EU - confident, successful and free
Released from our Eurochains, pessimism withers and the economy grows as we become great again
Outside the EU, Britain would forge a distinctive foreign policy, allied to Europe, but giving due weight to the US, India and other Anglophone democracies. Photo: ALAMY
By Daniel Hannan, Conservative MEP for South East England
02 Jun 2015
955 Comments
It’s 2020, and the UK is flourishing outside of the EU. The rump Union, now a united bloc, continues its genteel decline, but Britain has become the most successful and competitive knowledge-based economy in the region. Our universities attract the world’s brightest students. We lead the way in software, biotech, law, finance and the audio-visual sector. We have forged a distinctive foreign policy, allied to Europe, but giving due weight to the US, India and other common-law, Anglophone democracies.
More intangibly but no less significantly, we have recovered our self-belief. As Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the European Federation, crossly put it: “Britain has become Hong Kong to Europe’s China.”
Part of our success rests on bilateral free-trade agreements with the rest of the world. The EU has to weigh the interests of Italian textile manufacturers, French filmmakers, Polish farmers. Even Germany likes to defend its analogue-era giants against American internet challengers such as Google, Amazon, Facebook and Uber.
Once outside the Common External Tariff, the UK swiftly signed a slew of free-trade agreements, including with the US, India and Australia. Our policy is like Switzerland’s: we match EU trade negotiators when convenient, but go further when Brussels is reluctant to liberalise, as with China. Following Switzerland, we forged overseas relationships while remaining full members of the EU’s common market – covered by free movement of goods, services and capital.
Non-EU trade matters more than ever. Since 2010, every region in the world has experienced significant economic growth – except Europe. The prosperity of distant continents has spilled over into Britain. Our Atlantic ports, above all Glasgow and Liverpool, which were on the wrong side of the country when the EU’s customs duties were imposed in the Seventies, are entering a second golden age.
London, too, is booming. Eurocrats never had much sympathy for financial services. As their regulations took effect – a financial transactions tax, a ban on short-selling, restrictions on clearing, a bonus cap, windfall levies, micro-regulation of funds – waves of young financiers brought their talents from Frankfurt, Paris and Milan to the City.
Other EU regulations, often little known, had caused enormous damage. The Reach Directive, limiting chemical products, imposed huge costs on manufacturers. The bans on vitamin supplements and herbal remedies had closed down many health shops. London’s art market had been brutalised by EU rules on VAT and retrospective taxation. All these sectors have revived. So have older industries. Our farmers, freed from the CAP, are world-beating. Our fisheries are once again a great renewable resource. Disapplying the EU’s rules on data management made Hoxton the global capital for software design. Scrapping EU rules on clinical trials allowed Britain to recover its place as a world leader in medical research.
Universities no longer waste their time on Kafkaesque EU grant applications. Now, they compete on quality, attracting talent from every continent and charging accordingly.
Immigration is keenly debated. Every year, Parliament votes on how many permits to make available for students, medical workers and refugees. Every would-be migrant can compete on an equal basis: the rules that privileged Europeans over Commonwealth citizens, often with family links to Britain, were dropped immediately after independence.
A shale gas exploration well at Barton Moss, near Manchester, in 2013
Britain has been able to tap into its huge reserves of shale gas and oil, which came on tap, almost providentially, just as North Sea gas was running out. At the same time, the free-trade deal with China has led to the import of cheap solar panels, which the EU had banned. They are now so integrated into buildings and vehicles that we barely notice them. Cheaper energy means lower production costs, more competitive exports and a boom all round.
Unsurprisingly, several other European states opted for a similar deal. Some (Norway, Switzerland) came from the old European Free Trade Association; others (Sweden, Denmark) from the EU; yet others (Turkey, Georgia) from further afield. The United Kingdom leads a 21-state bloc that forms a common market with the EU 25, but remains outside their political structures. The EU 25, meanwhile, have pushed ahead with full integration, including a European army and police force and harmonised taxes, prompting Ireland and the Netherlands to announce referendums on whether to follow Britain.
Britain's capital is the world's greatest city
Best of all, we have cast off the pessimism that infected us during our EU years, the sense that we were too small to make a difference. As we left, we shook our heads, looked about, and realised that we were the fifth largest economy on Earth, the fourth military power, a leading member of the G8, a permanent seat-holder on the UN Security Council, and home to the world’s greatest city and most widely spoken language. We knew that we had plenty more to give.
A vision of Britain outside the EU - confident, successful and free - Telegraph
This vision, is that like their navy that exists only on computer models?
In the run up to the Scottish independence referendum on 18th September 2014 we had two groups battling each other to win the referendum - the anti-independence "Better Together" vs the pro-independence "Yes Scotland." As the referendum drew nearer the war between these two foes grew fiercer and fiercer until, in the end, "Better Together" won.
Now all eyes are on the upcoming referendum on whether or not Britain should leave the EU. The warring factions this time will be the anti-EU "Vote Leave" and the pro-EU "Britain Stronger in Europe."
And, already, before we even have a date for the referendum, it seems that "Vote Leave" is already on top.
But with months and months of lengthy TV debates to come, expect both sides to be on top at some point until decision day looms.
The 'In' campaign isn't even trying to keep Britain in the EU
It’s difficult to imagine anyone being impressed by the team trying to keep Britain in Europe
Former Marks and Spencer chief executive Stuart Rose Photo: David Rose
By Toby Young
12 Oct 2015
The Telegraph
1403 Comments
And they’re off. The Britain Stronger in Europe campaign has finally launched, following the launch of Vote Leave last week and, so far, Vote Leave looks much the stronger of the two.
I’m a staunch Eurosceptic, so find it hard to be objective, but it’s difficult to imagine Europhiles being impressed by their team.
For one thing, the people running the “In” campaign – Roland Rudd, Peter Mandelson, Danny Alexander – are exactly the same people who were behind the Britain in Europe campaign, which lobbied for Britain to join the Euro. As this attack video assembled by Dan Hannan puts it, “Wrong then, wrong now”.
Rather comically, the i has splashed today on Ken Clarke’s support for the “Remain” campaign. Quelle surprise. If Mr Europe ever expressed the faintest trace of scepticism about the EU, that would be a story.
To make matters worse, this group of masterminds has made exactly the same mistake it made in 1999, accepting money from the EU to fund its campaign. Not exactly a group of independent-minded businessmen and politicians deciding to do what’s best for Britain, then. More like a group of lobbyists being paid by Brussels to advance the interests of the EU.
Then there’s the fact that Britain Stronger in Europe has decided to base its campaign on scare stories about the consequences of voting to “Leave”. If you watch its first campaign video, it contains all the familiar lines about how Brexit will lead to our exclusion from the single market, with catastrophic consequences for British business, etc, etc.
Not only is that patently untrue – Norway has access to the single market, in spite of not being in the EU – but the campaign’s front man, Stuart Rose, rubbished these claims last year as a member of Business for Britain. Until recently, Rose was one of a group of businessmen attacking the government’s renegotiation strategy for being too weak. Now he seems to be saying that the risks of leaving the EU are so great, we should remain in at any price.
Indeed, the Britain Stronger in Europe video is much weaker than Vote Leave’s first campaign video, released last week. The latter had a simple, effective message – our continuing membership of the EU costs the British taxpayer £350m a week. No doubt the “In” campaign will point out that that’s our gross contribution, but arguing that the cost is only £241m a week once the rebate is taken into account isn’t a very strong rebuttal.
It’s early days and the “In” campaign will probably get its act together. If it can frame the debate as a choice between sticking with the status quo or taking a leap in the dark, the battle will be half-won. All things being equal, electorates usually vote to stick with the devil they know. The task facing the “Out” campaign will be to point out that remaining in the EU on the present terms isn’t an option, let alone renegotiating the terms of our membership in any meaningful way. Rather, the choice is between two alternative futures, one in which Britain regains control over its own destiny or another in which we are gradually absorbed into a European superstate, with all the big decisions taken in Brussels.
The 'In' campaign isn't even trying to keep Britain in the EU - Telegraph
Now all eyes are on the upcoming referendum on whether or not Britain should leave the EU. The warring factions this time will be the anti-EU "Vote Leave" and the pro-EU "Britain Stronger in Europe."
And, already, before we even have a date for the referendum, it seems that "Vote Leave" is already on top.
But with months and months of lengthy TV debates to come, expect both sides to be on top at some point until decision day looms.
The 'In' campaign isn't even trying to keep Britain in the EU
It’s difficult to imagine anyone being impressed by the team trying to keep Britain in Europe
Former Marks and Spencer chief executive Stuart Rose Photo: David Rose
By Toby Young
12 Oct 2015
The Telegraph
And they’re off. The Britain Stronger in Europe campaign has finally launched, following the launch of Vote Leave last week and, so far, Vote Leave looks much the stronger of the two.
I’m a staunch Eurosceptic, so find it hard to be objective, but it’s difficult to imagine Europhiles being impressed by their team.
For one thing, the people running the “In” campaign – Roland Rudd, Peter Mandelson, Danny Alexander – are exactly the same people who were behind the Britain in Europe campaign, which lobbied for Britain to join the Euro. As this attack video assembled by Dan Hannan puts it, “Wrong then, wrong now”.
Rather comically, the i has splashed today on Ken Clarke’s support for the “Remain” campaign. Quelle surprise. If Mr Europe ever expressed the faintest trace of scepticism about the EU, that would be a story.
To make matters worse, this group of masterminds has made exactly the same mistake it made in 1999, accepting money from the EU to fund its campaign. Not exactly a group of independent-minded businessmen and politicians deciding to do what’s best for Britain, then. More like a group of lobbyists being paid by Brussels to advance the interests of the EU.
Then there’s the fact that Britain Stronger in Europe has decided to base its campaign on scare stories about the consequences of voting to “Leave”. If you watch its first campaign video, it contains all the familiar lines about how Brexit will lead to our exclusion from the single market, with catastrophic consequences for British business, etc, etc.
Not only is that patently untrue – Norway has access to the single market, in spite of not being in the EU – but the campaign’s front man, Stuart Rose, rubbished these claims last year as a member of Business for Britain. Until recently, Rose was one of a group of businessmen attacking the government’s renegotiation strategy for being too weak. Now he seems to be saying that the risks of leaving the EU are so great, we should remain in at any price.
Indeed, the Britain Stronger in Europe video is much weaker than Vote Leave’s first campaign video, released last week. The latter had a simple, effective message – our continuing membership of the EU costs the British taxpayer £350m a week. No doubt the “In” campaign will point out that that’s our gross contribution, but arguing that the cost is only £241m a week once the rebate is taken into account isn’t a very strong rebuttal.
It’s early days and the “In” campaign will probably get its act together. If it can frame the debate as a choice between sticking with the status quo or taking a leap in the dark, the battle will be half-won. All things being equal, electorates usually vote to stick with the devil they know. The task facing the “Out” campaign will be to point out that remaining in the EU on the present terms isn’t an option, let alone renegotiating the terms of our membership in any meaningful way. Rather, the choice is between two alternative futures, one in which Britain regains control over its own destiny or another in which we are gradually absorbed into a European superstate, with all the big decisions taken in Brussels.
The 'In' campaign isn't even trying to keep Britain in the EU - Telegraph
Britains debt cripples Britian. Britian will have to borrow to sustain it's illegle wars in the ME.
constant chaos and turmoil eva whar ya look . Perpetual whining too. seem like the anglish whine more than anyone blackster.
A big chunk of the Middle East has already located to Britain, but you're correct on the debt thingy hence the reason that they were trying to sell that stick covered in some ratty old copper... A scepter is what I think they called it
With there being no gap between the poor and the wealthy things should work out as well as the last has for you.
Queen speaks on broken system, while wearing diamond crown
Queen speaks on broken system, while wearing diamond crown
and what would you expect her to do with that diamond crown?
What illegal wars are those?
Well, she can't sell it and give the proceeds to charity because the crown isn't hers. She just wears it as part of her job. The crown is part of the Crown Jewels, which are owned by the government and usually kept in the Tower of London under great security. It was her great-great-great-great-grandfather, George III, who gave virtually all royal property to the government in order to get taxpayers to forever pay to maintain them.
This is a list of royal assets operated by the UK government and which it loans to the royal family. The Queen neither owns them - nor could she ever sell them:
Buckingham Palace
Windsor Castle
Crown Jewels
The Royal Collection (200,000 drawings, prints and paintings - including works by Rembrandt, Michelangelo and Caravaggio - collected over 500 years. It also includes furniture, textiles, armour and one of the finest Faberge collections in the world. Valued at £10.5 billion)
The Duchy of Lancaster (A portfolio of property assembled 600 years ago. 72 square miles of farm and city land, an area about three times the size of Manhattan. Valued at £370 million)
The Crown Estate (An even more impressive portfolio of land, eight times larger, that includes iconic properties in London like Regent Street, Piccadilly and the Park Lane sites of The Four Seasons and Intercontinental hotels. 12,000 tenants are paying rent on 560 square miles of land across England & Wales. The estate even includes all UK coastal waters within 12 miles of land, where energy companies are increasingly paying to construct wind farms.Valued at £8 billion)
In 2010 the Crown Estate alone generated £225 million. But, as with virtually all these royal assets, that cash went straight to the UK government. In return, the taxpayer pays the Queen a fixed, annual allowance.
THE CROWN OF QUEEN ELIZABETH II
The Crown of Queen Elizabeth II is the platinum crown of Queen Elizabeth, the wife of King George VI and the mother of Queen Elizabeth II. It was manufactured for her coronation in Westminster Abbey in 1937. It is the first crown for a British consort to be made of platinum.
The crown was made by Garrard & Co in London, the long term manufacturer of British royal crowns, and modelled partially on the design of the crown of Queen Mary. It consists of four half-arches, in contrast to the eight half-arches of Queen Mary's crown. As with Queen Mary's crown, its arches were detachable at the cross-pattee, allowing It to be worn as a circlet.
The crown is decorated with precious stones, most notably the 105-carat (21.0 g) Koh-i-Noor diamond in the middle of the front cross, which was confiscated by the East India Company from Duleep Singh after the Anglo-Sikh Wars.The stone became part of the British Crown Jewels when Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India in 1877.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_of_Queen_Elizabeth
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Britons feel less European than the population of any other EU country, a major poll has found.
Almost two-thirds of people in the UK say they do not feel any sense of European identity – a far higher proportion than in other countries.
In Germany, just 25 per cent of people said they felt ‘only German’ and not European, and 36 per cent of people in France feel ‘only French’.
But in Britain, 64 per cent said they felt ‘only British’, while just one in six people (15 per cent) said they would describe themselves as wholly European, according to the research published today.
Quelle surprise... Britain is the least 'European' nation in the EU: Two-thirds of us say we're purely British
Britons feel less European than those in any other EU country, poll reveals
Almost two-thirds in UK say they don't feel any sense of European identity
Finding may have dramatic implications for referendum on EU membership
By Tamara Cohen, Political Correspondent for the Daily Mail
28 October 2015
Daily Mail
Britons feel less European than the population of any other EU country, a major poll has found.
Almost two-thirds of people in the UK say they do not feel any sense of European identity – a far higher proportion than in other countries.
In Germany, just 25 per cent of people said they felt ‘only German’ and not European, and 36 per cent of people in France feel ‘only French’.
Almost two-thirds of people in the UK say they do not feel any sense of European identity – a far higher proportion than in other EU countries, a new poll has revealed. Pictured: Team GB fans at the 2012 Olympics
But in Britain, 64 per cent said they felt ‘only British’, while just one in six people (15 per cent) said they would describe themselves as wholly European, according to the research published today.
The findings, from research agency NatCen Social Research, who interviewed 1,000 people in each country, could have dramatic implications for the referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU.
David Cameron has announced a vote will be held before the end of 2017, but could be as early as next year. The study suggests that those who are campaigning to keep Britain in the EU should concentrate on the economic and political benefits rather than a shared identity between EU countries.
But researchers also say the campaign to leave would be ‘unwise to pursue arguments along the lines of “We are British not European”,’ as many people who feel this way still want to stay in.
NatCen also found that half of British people who said they did not feel European still believe we should remain in the Union.
The percentage of British people saying they only identified with their own nationality – and not Europe – was the highest in the EU, with Cyprus and Greece in second and third place.
People who felt the strongest European identity were in Luxembourg, Germany and Malta.
The researchers said this clearly shows British people ‘do not appear to see ourselves as a nation of Europeans’ and that this is unlikely to change.
This ‘Eurobarometer’ survey has been carried out regularly for 20 years. The level of British people who felt European has dropped from 17 per cent in 1999 – which was the highest ever level.
The UK has therefore not followed the trend of countries such as Sweden and Denmark, which have seen the number of people identifying as European soar over the past two decades.
In Scotland, where the ruling Scottish Nationalists are firmly pro-EU, 23 per cent of those who identified as ‘Scottish not British’ said they also wanted to leave the European Union.
Rachel Ormston, who wrote the report, said: ‘Relatively few people in Britain feel European, and this has been the case ever since Britain joined the EU in 1973. But those who lack a European identity are divided in their views – just because we don’t feel European doesn’t necessarily mean we think we should leave the EU.’
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker yesterday said he believes ‘the EU is better with Britain in it, and Britain is better within the EU.’ Mr Juncker, who has clashed with Mr Cameron in the past, also urged the UK to see the benefits of ‘acting collectively’ to solve the migration crisis.
Almost two-thirds of people in the UK say they do not feel any sense of European identity – a far higher proportion than in other countries.
In Germany, just 25 per cent of people said they felt ‘only German’ and not European, and 36 per cent of people in France feel ‘only French’.
But in Britain, 64 per cent said they felt ‘only British’, while just one in six people (15 per cent) said they would describe themselves as wholly European, according to the research published today.
Quelle surprise... Britain is the least 'European' nation in the EU: Two-thirds of us say we're purely British
Britons feel less European than those in any other EU country, poll reveals
Almost two-thirds in UK say they don't feel any sense of European identity
Finding may have dramatic implications for referendum on EU membership
By Tamara Cohen, Political Correspondent for the Daily Mail
28 October 2015
Daily Mail
Britons feel less European than the population of any other EU country, a major poll has found.
Almost two-thirds of people in the UK say they do not feel any sense of European identity – a far higher proportion than in other countries.
In Germany, just 25 per cent of people said they felt ‘only German’ and not European, and 36 per cent of people in France feel ‘only French’.
Almost two-thirds of people in the UK say they do not feel any sense of European identity – a far higher proportion than in other EU countries, a new poll has revealed. Pictured: Team GB fans at the 2012 Olympics
But in Britain, 64 per cent said they felt ‘only British’, while just one in six people (15 per cent) said they would describe themselves as wholly European, according to the research published today.
The findings, from research agency NatCen Social Research, who interviewed 1,000 people in each country, could have dramatic implications for the referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU.
David Cameron has announced a vote will be held before the end of 2017, but could be as early as next year. The study suggests that those who are campaigning to keep Britain in the EU should concentrate on the economic and political benefits rather than a shared identity between EU countries.
But researchers also say the campaign to leave would be ‘unwise to pursue arguments along the lines of “We are British not European”,’ as many people who feel this way still want to stay in.
NatCen also found that half of British people who said they did not feel European still believe we should remain in the Union.
The percentage of British people saying they only identified with their own nationality – and not Europe – was the highest in the EU, with Cyprus and Greece in second and third place.
People who felt the strongest European identity were in Luxembourg, Germany and Malta.
The researchers said this clearly shows British people ‘do not appear to see ourselves as a nation of Europeans’ and that this is unlikely to change.
This ‘Eurobarometer’ survey has been carried out regularly for 20 years. The level of British people who felt European has dropped from 17 per cent in 1999 – which was the highest ever level.
The UK has therefore not followed the trend of countries such as Sweden and Denmark, which have seen the number of people identifying as European soar over the past two decades.
In Scotland, where the ruling Scottish Nationalists are firmly pro-EU, 23 per cent of those who identified as ‘Scottish not British’ said they also wanted to leave the European Union.
Rachel Ormston, who wrote the report, said: ‘Relatively few people in Britain feel European, and this has been the case ever since Britain joined the EU in 1973. But those who lack a European identity are divided in their views – just because we don’t feel European doesn’t necessarily mean we think we should leave the EU.’
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker yesterday said he believes ‘the EU is better with Britain in it, and Britain is better within the EU.’ Mr Juncker, who has clashed with Mr Cameron in the past, also urged the UK to see the benefits of ‘acting collectively’ to solve the migration crisis.
I have never seen a knell spell. Interesting.
It is nice that not everyone in the UK is impoverished and that QE2 can afford to eat 3 squares.
https://www.rt.com/uk/218231-millions-poorest-britons-malnourished/