http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35160080 In an article (1 Jan 2016) by their chief correspondent, Gavin Hewitt, the BBC described 2015 as ” … the year when crises came in waves pounding the shoreline and prompting leaders and officials to fret over the future of the European project.” The focus of the article is migration and the EU’s inability … More Is breaking-up so hard to do?
http://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/674092/Eurozone-Spain-meltdown-shares-plummet-EU-Spanish-banks In another Express article (May 27) the rattling of investor confidence in Spanish banks is linked to similar recent experiences in Italy and Germany. Low, indeed negative, interest rates are cited as responsible for a rash of selling of bank shares by investors. What has this to do with the EU? Well, we’re not … More Spanish Bear, or Bull
G7 leaders in Japan Francois and Jean-Claude are comparing relative sizes – what are they boasting about? Meanwhile, has the G7 sacked Dave? Leaders of the G7 countries met recently in Japan. To no one’s surprise they issued a final communiqué: apparently they believe, without offering us the evidence, that Brexit would pose a serious … More G7 versus Brexit
A frequent complaint about the EU is its obsession with regulation. Is this necessary and are the regulators qualified to set the rules? Not always. To enforce greater energy efficiency on small appliances Brussels intends to limit the power of kettles (the plan has been delayed until after the UK referendum so as not to … More Regulation, Regulation, Regulation
“I have never understood why public opinion about European ideas should be taken into account.” Attributed to Raymond Barre, former French premier and European commissioner For us this quotation accurately, honestly and succinctly characterises both the original and the current attitudes that underpin the whole European Union project. From the Home page we discuss in … More Why Not Reform the EU?
Lies, damned lies and hardly any statistics! A response to the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign leaflet. “Over 3 million UK jobs are linked to our exports to the EU.” What do they mean by “linked”? Will there be 3 million additional unemployed if we leave the EU (or anything like that)? This is typical … More Britain Strangled in Europe
National sovereignty cannot always be exercised without harm to others so some compromise and pooling of powers is necessary to achieve peace, harmony and wealth. Although senior politicians and civil servants have long been aware of this implication of the Project, they have consistently disguised the truth, deliberately leaving the British public ill-informed about the … More Sovereignty
…and changing accordingly The current EU/EMU projects are justified by the belief that economic, political and social development can (only) be achieved from the top down. This cannot be proved since the belief is false, defying both logic and experience. The claim that the Union can deliver desirable outcomes better than individual nations is unproven. … More Learning from experience
EU/EMU haven’t been tried on anything like this scale before. History, experience, common sense tell us that this should be an experiment, with diverse sub-experiments. Complaints from citizens against EU/EMU are getting louder because, for them, the imposition is not working What we have in Europe is a massive bureaucracy, top-down control and corrections to … More A playground for squabbles and cheating
The European Union is an experiment, though not acknowledged as such, for the good reason that most people would be horrified to know that they are guinea pigs. “Power corrupts”. A feature of such corruption is that the basis of power is deliberately obscured so that it will not be challenged. This is a weak … More Ideology versus Pragmatism
This EU Won't Work 