EUtopia?

[duffistuta]

Fair enough mate - from what you've said there I believe you when you say you're not a racist, but I guess you can see why one might have believed that you were from your earlier posts...


...though if I were being quarrelsome, I would argue that the BNP does not actually have any policies, not real ones anyway, in the sense that any of them are implementable.

If they were by some bizarre twist of fate to come into power and try to do what they say they will do then, civil war notwithstanding, all economists agree that our economy would collapse because quite simply, none of their policies stand up to even the vaguest sort of critical evaluation.

And I would still say I think it's very strange for a non-racist individual to support an openly racist party, and that there are other parties whose views would seem to match yours that do not have any of the BNP's hate-filled doctrines.

It's a good job I'm not a quarrelsome individual

 

[Hotpoint]

Originally posted by Baca Loco
Hotpoint--characterizing the EU as nothing more than an "integrated trade block" is, coming from you, more than a little disingenuous. But at least it's on topic.

I didn't mean the EU was merely an "integrated trade block" that is just one of its attributes.

And I have been known to stay on-topic on occasion

 

[duffistuta]

Originally posted by Baca Loco
Regardless, if Brussels is prepared at this stage of the game to attempt to use naked power to hide their own corruption does that make you feel all warm and fuzzy about the future?

No, it just reinforces my view that a lot of politicians are corrupt individuals more concerned with their own jobs, power and influence than they are about doing the right thing for their constituents - whether that constituency is in their own country or not makes little odds.

I think the major problem with the EU at the moment is information, or the lack of it - the amount of media spin, both positive and negative, has made a full and frank debate impossible. Too many people are reacting on vague feelings like 'We want to keep our own currency cos it's got the queen's head on, God bless her' or 'Anyone who doesn't rush into Europe headlong is a xenophobic fascist'.

The debate has been so polarised that all the issues are basically buried and it's been turned into God fearing, monarchy loving, cucumber sandwiche eating pearly kings and queens versus tree hugging, snail eating pinko hippies, and that's not the case. I hate snails.

 

[Hotpoint]

Originally posted by duffistuta
The debate has been so polarised that all the issues are basically buried and it's been turned into God fearing, monarchy loving, cucumber sandwiche eating pearly kings and queens versus tree hugging, snail eating pinko hippies, and that's not the case. I hate snails.

To quote one of my lecturers in European Politics "The Far Right and the Far Left have long been the most strident opponents of the European project... lets face it anything the commies and the fascists hate has just got to be a good idea"

Simplistic but funny nonetheless

For the record I do eat snails on occasion but I'm very far from being a tree-hugger and I'm not particularly lefty either despite Baca's jibes. As for being a hippy... I just don't have enough hair for that look

 

[stongle]

Originally posted by Hotpoint
There are advanatages to belonging to an integrated trade block that go beyond the benefits of free trade.

As the Economist Lester c Thurow pointed out "He that controls the largest trading block gets to write the rules of world trade". As part of the EU Britain gains a great deal more influence in the world from a economic power perspective.

For example: When the USA backed down on its illegal Steel Tariffs this was not because we asked them nicely but because the EU as a whole let them know if they wanted a trade war "bring it on" (to coin a phrase ). Britain on its own had insufficient economic muscle to make the USA back down but the European Union together did. This saved British jobs.

I'm pro-EU for non-idealistic reasons. In the real world might is right and since belonging to the Union increases our power resources it is in Britains interests to be in.

Don't need a single currency or political union to act as an integrated trading block.

Still being as the only way our of the Euro is to effectively go to war with each other, I'm sure we can put Duff's and Robbo's theories to the test.

 

[Hotpoint]

Originally posted by stongle
Don't need a single currency or political union to act as an integrated trading block.

But political union helps establish the block into a cohesive body.

The EU is far more effective and has a higher international standing than NAFTA or Mercursur for example.

 

[stongle]

Actually I think the term you were looking for was "Self interest".

Hey I'm all for immigration, settle where you want, free trade blah blah, but large scale government corruption and creative accounting I am not.