eurealist.co.uk

Britain in Europe the “Fat Cats” Europhile pressure group, has what they laughingly describe as a “Fact Sheet” on the EU Constitution.
In the sheet (please excuse me for not using the word “Fact”)
They make several claims but offer no evidence I suppose they will assume the evidence is self-evident or that just because they say so it must be so.

Europe has been a resounding success for Britain, bringing:
• peace and prosperity across the continent;
• a single market of 450 million people that provides 60% of our trade, keeps
over 3 million British workers in jobs and brings lower prices and more
choice in the shops;
• European laws that protect workers, consumers and the environment;
• more influence in the world over vital issues such as world trade, global
warming, cancelling Third World debt and human rights.
Britain is £20 billion a year better off thanks to being part of the EU – that is
over £300 a year for every British person.

There are many who would disagree that the EU has been a resounding success for Britain, or the British people, we have to pay the massive cost of our membership though our taxes, and the EU then passes some of our money onto the big business run by these fat cats to help them become even bigger and more successful, the EU is continually bringing in new restrictions with disproportional affects on small business, many of them then go have to close, which also helps the Fat Cats and their international conglomerates.

Peace in the EU is an old chestnut, I do not know how many time we need to point out the obvious, that peace in the EU has not been brought about by anything the EU has done. Where were the peace-keeping qualities of “Europe” when the Berlin blockade was defied, when Eastern Europe rose in revolt, when the Berlin wall went up, it was NATO, led by the Americans that imposed some kind of a solution in Yugoslavia. Peace was kept only in a small part of Europe, which happened to be under NATO protection and the nuclear umbrella. This part of Europe also had American troops stationed in it and was amply provided with American military hardware Whilst the union was busy discussing the finer points of the CAP other were making sure that there was peace in Europe.

Prosperity: Britain has always been a trading nation, the EU is in fact making that trade harder to achieve, with its multitude of ever increasing regulations increasing the costs of doing business. A country does not need to be a member of the EU to export to the EU. The USA, not an EU member, does not impose one iota of EU regulation on its domestic economy, yet it exports more to the EU than the UK does.

60% of our trade and 300 million Jobs:
60% of our exports of goods goes to the EU. Only some 40% of our total exports goes to the EU (goods plus services plus investment income). 10% of our Gross Domestic Product, are involved in trade with the EU (declining and in deficit). Rather more than 10% of our GDP goes to the rest of the world (growing and in surplus.) The remaining 80% of our jobs and GDP depend on our domestic economy. We do not trade with the EU we trade with the individual countries of the EU, and do more trade with the USA than we do with France and Germany combined. It is silly to pretend that our 3 million or so jobs which support our trade with the Single Market would be lost if we left the EU. The trade would continue, and so would the jobs, this statistic was from a report which has been jumped on by the Europhiles, but they fail to point out that the author of the report is on record denying this figure or anything like it.
European laws that protect workers, consumers and the environment:
Were are laws so lacking that we need an unelected unaccountable commision to impose the laws and their associated costs on us. Many of these laws were already in place the only reason the EU wishes to claim them is the EU laws are for one reason and that is to increase the power of the EU over the nation states, at the same time removing our rights to elect the people who make our laws and deny the people of this country any say in those laws.

More influence in the world over vital issues: We only have more influence if Britain is in agreement with the general EU view, if we feel that the common agreement amongst 25 states reflects our own wishes, then speaking as one voice could have more influence, however if we are not in agreement then in fact we have less power on the world stage because we will no longer have our own separate voice.

Britain is £20 billion a year better off thanks to being part of the EU: As the government has refused to do a cost benefit analysis with regard to the benefits of membership this figure is pure hokum. Those who have look at the likely costs against the benefits are in agreement that Britian at worst would not loose anything by leaving the Union some suggest that we would in fact be £20 billion per year better off.