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Discussion > EU must be joking

The American Conservative Union's discussion of Brexit (pro-Brexit, 85 mins long), with:
Moderator: Matt Schlapp, Chairman of The American Conservative Union
Nile Gardiner, Director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at The Heritage Foundation
Steve Hilton, Senior Advisor for Prime Minister David Cameron
KT McFarland, ACU Foundation Senior Fellow for National Security and FoxNews National Security Analyst
ACU:: Brexit: The Collapse of the EU and Its Impact on America!
(jump to 12 mins, as the sound is bad before then)

Jun 14, 2016 at 10:26 PM | Registered CommenterRobert Christopher

George Osborne has just remembered something he forgot to say
..'If we vote for Brexit you will have to pick which one of your children will be executed ...to appease the gods"

... Funny how he forgot to mention these serious points before the polls go against him ..it makes him seem desperate or something.

Guido "This is the political equivalent of Schrödinger’s dead cat. When we open the Brexit box it won’t even be there"…

Jun 15, 2016 at 10:00 AM | Registered Commenterstewgreen

I'm not sure if the Leave campaign could have paid for better press than the stunt Geldof put on today.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/sir-bob-geldof-brands-nigel-farage-a-wanker-in-a-flotilla-face-off-on-the-thames_uk_57614152e4b03f24e3dafc3f

A bunch of elites harassing a brave little fishing fleet. Are they unhinged?

Jun 15, 2016 at 1:34 PM | Unregistered CommenterTinyCO2

I wonder if any of the politicians have started negotiations on trade tariffs when we exit the EU as they seem to have already sorted out income tax etc.............


George Osborne will threaten today to put 2p on the basic rate of income tax, raise fuel duty and slash spending on health, education, defence and pensions in an emergency budget in the weeks after a Brexit vote.

In the Remain campaign’s most explicit ultimatum to voters, the chancellor outlines tax rises and cuts to frontline services of £30 billion, which are being readied in case Britain opts to leave the European Union next week.

He will also say that the Treasury could be forced to increase the higher rate of income tax by 3p, raise inheritance tax by 5p

Jun 16, 2016 at 12:39 PM | Unregistered CommenterMartyn

This single reason is enough to vote for Brexit:
Why Europe is to blame for the UK's acute energy policy failures
Too much electricity in the summer and too little in the winter. Fifty-year-old coal plants being paid tens of millions of pounds to stay on because replacements aren’t being built. Electricity prices more than double those in the US. Panic measures to buy in more and more foreign electricity.

These acute failures in British energy policy go to the heart of the EU referendum debate. How can a country once heralded for its energy market liberalisation, its balanced electricity generating grid and comparatively low prices face such a crisis? What has gone wrong and why?

In advance of the EU referendum this week, it is important to understand and detail the extent to which Brussels’ diktat, with Whitehall acquiescence, has fundamentally undermined British energy security and blurred the investment case for long-overdue new power stations.

Jun 20, 2016 at 11:42 PM | Registered CommenterRobert Christopher

To all those waverers, think of all your pension contributions being put to better use, propping up the Euro!

Funny that Cameron, Osborne, BoE Carney, IMF Lagarde and so many more haven't told us about this risk to our pensions.

Express:
Staying in the EU will be CATASTROPHIC for state and private pensions, expert warns

Professor David Blake, Director of the Pensions Institute at the Cass Business School, has written a paper outlining 10 reasons why staying in the EU ranges from "pretty bad to very, very bad" for pensions.

His devastating analysis came as new research by Vote Leave has revealed that just one EU directive due to come in shortly will increase the cost of British pensions by £328 million a year.

But even this figure is dwarfed by further proposals put on hold until after the referendum which will cost pension funds in the UK by a massive £500 billion.

In a detailed analysis of the EU's plans and policies, Prof Blake has warned that a vote to Remain on Thursday will be catastrophic for the pensions system.

Among the reasons are the EU plan to take control of pensions through its new social charter, the new EU rules which will starve pension funds of hundreds of billions and "an overwhelming volume of law and regulation issued by the EU every year" which is unfairly applied to the UK.
...
He also warned that if the UK remains in the EU it could become liable for pensions in other countries such as Greece, Italy, Spain and France where the economies are failing and the countries are unable to meet their vast pensions obligations.
...
He said: "There is no serious recognition of the enormous size of the pension obligations being built up on state balance sheets in all EU member states.

The EU is just kicking the can down the road - in the hope that no one will notice.

He notes that the European Central Bank's program of printing money to try to save the euro will significantly reduce pension yields.

The analysis reveals that Britain's pensions system is under serious threat from the EU's economic failings and bureaucratic plans.

In a chilling warning Prof Blake said: "We are in very real danger that we will end up with no secure pensions in either the state or private pension systems - with increasing burdens passed to future generations.


The demise of our fishing and agricultural industries, our fine art business, our industries penalised due to artificially high energy costs and the corruption within the motor industry with damaging legislation on bio-fuels and emissions might not move you to Leave but surely, the very real threat to our pensions industry and those with a British pension will at least help you come to the right conclusion in the next couple of days.

Jun 21, 2016 at 10:05 AM | Registered CommenterRobert Christopher

First 10 minutes of this clip is about what needs to be done, if the vote is for Brexit, to set the scene for the future:
The Spectator:
Brexit strategy: the first 100 days

Jun 21, 2016 at 5:26 PM | Registered CommenterRobert Christopher

I see the migrant riots in Calais have not featured on the BBC news, I wonder why?

Jun 21, 2016 at 5:45 PM | Unregistered CommenterRoger Tolson

The UK is now an 'undeveloping' country. Please do not try and deny it, I live here, I am experiencing it.

Help stop this unnecessary demise, vote leave on Thursday, you all know it makes long term sense. The FTSE and £ may dive for a year or two, so what? There is no price to be put on responsibility, democracy. Those that say there is are simple selfish souls. Willing to sell the birthright of their children/grandchildren to ensure their own present day, warm slipper, lifestyle is not perturbed in anyway.

The vote on Thursday is not about the numbers, any numbers, it is about having the ability to elect somebody responsible for the numbers. If you do not retain that ability then somebody beyond your collective control will set the numbers and you, and yours become irrelevant.

Is the EU responsible for the demise of the UK? No! Only the UK 'guardians' can be held responsible, they and they alone have let it happen. Therefore surely it must be in their ability to stop the demise? But they say it isn't, they say there are issues outwith their control, therefore they are no longer responsible?

Well why not help them along the way, give them back the ability to respond - responsibility!

Jun 21, 2016 at 11:49 PM | Registered CommenterGreen Sand

Just as VW helped the EU to corrupt the car market with their diesel emissions legislation, resulting in deaths and ill health, the electric light market is being manipulated. We have had the 100W bulb banned and now we are being forced to avoid the traditional incandescent bulb and replace them with fluorescent bulbs and LEDs:

Express:
Now EU targets halogen bulbs: Brussels could BAN light used by millions by next year

The European Commission and green campaigners claim halogens are not much more efficient than traditional bulbs and are calling for Britons to replace them with fluorescent bulbs and LEDs

However, compact fluorescent bulbs contain mercury, so you would think that LEDs are the answer but it ain't necessarily so:
Modern Farmer:
Those LED Lights in Supermarket Dairy Cases are Making Milk Go Bad

It’s been known for decades that light can negatively affect milk’s flavor, bacterial decay, and even color—really, decades! That, along with weight and durability, is one of the reasons milk is no longer as commonly stored in transparent glass bottles. But this new study shows that despite all this knowledge, milk is still being degraded right in the supermarket.

The market might need regulation, but it doesn't need ignorant bureaucratic politicians or ignorant political bureaucrats specifically telling us what we must buy.

I also hear that incandescence bulbs haven't been standing still either:
JoanneNova:
“Nanophotonic” incandescent light bulbs that are more efficient than LEDs

Jun 21, 2016 at 11:58 PM | Registered CommenterRobert Christopher

Green Sand

A good piece.

Successful schools give their pupils responsibility, and they respond by being responsible: the converse is also true! You can see it at Westminster, particularly in the Cabinet.

So, return responsibility to Westminster, and there will be a better environment to produce MPs of good standing, if only because they will be judged on their performance, not in the eyes of the Masters of the EU, but in the eyes of the British public.

Jun 22, 2016 at 12:08 AM | Registered CommenterRobert Christopher

Robert Christopher

Thank you sir. I have tried very hard to stay away from commenting on this subject because I find it very hard to keep my, no, sod it, disgust of people who constantly and to my mind deliberately attempt to bring this priceless issue down to numbers.

To make a case, for or against, on a number, amount paid, amount returned, number in, number out, is bollocks. This issue is simply who is charged responsible for the numbers. He who has the ability to respond!

Nothing else will ever work and historically has begat political extremes.

PS Robert - Me and mine have been threaten by my own elected government. It will last very long in my memory

Jun 22, 2016 at 12:30 AM | Registered CommenterGreen Sand

Thanks to G.K Chesterton for his thoughts on tomorrow.

They have given us into the hand of new unhappy lords,
Lords without anger or honour, who dare not carry their swords.
They fight by shuffling papers; they have bright dead alien eyes;
They look at our labour and laughter as a tired man looks at flies.
And the load of their loveless pity is worse than the ancient wrongs,
Their doors are shut in the evening; and they know no songs.

We hear men speaking for us of new laws strong and sweet,
Yet is there no man speaketh as we speak in the street.
It may be we shall rise the last as Frenchmen rose the first,
Our wrath come after Russia’s wrath and our wrath be the worst.
It may be we are meant to mark with our riot and our rest
God’s scorn for all men governing. It may be beer is best.
But we are the people of England; and we have not spoken yet.
Smile at us, pay us, pass us. But do not quite forget./

Jun 22, 2016 at 8:59 AM | Unregistered CommenterMessenger

Well who'd have thought?

Jun 24, 2016 at 6:12 AM | Unregistered CommenterTinyCO2

Well since the polls were predicting "stay", I reckoned "leave" was the probable result, because of the bias of the polls in the direction of their sponsors' wishes.

So what happens now?

Jun 24, 2016 at 7:04 AM | Registered CommenterMartin A

I think that the pollsters tried to be accurate but the tone of the Remain message scared a lot of people into hiding their intentions. The vote to leave would have been a lot bigger if they hadn't used insults, threats and moral blackmail.

Jun 24, 2016 at 7:52 AM | Unregistered CommenterTinyCO2

UK politicians have to start working?

Jun 24, 2016 at 7:53 AM | Unregistered Commentermichael hart

MH, yes, that will be a shock to them. They'll have to stop making promises they intend to blame the EU for being unable to meet them.

Jun 24, 2016 at 8:09 AM | Unregistered CommenterTinyCO2

The BBC were very confident in the Consensus to Remain they helped to create and reinforce.

Jun 24, 2016 at 1:37 PM | Unregistered Commentergolf charlie

TinyCO2
Yep the EU was a good scapegoat for unpopular policies and broken promises. For the next couple of years they can blame people like Hollande who want he UK out as soon as possible on not very good terms to solve their own political problems. After that Nicola Sturgeon and Sinn Fein for creating uncertainty by wanting to break up the UK.

And don't worry some other scapegoat will appear after that.

Jun 24, 2016 at 1:58 PM | Unregistered CommenterSandyS

SandyS. On the basis of the News at One today it sounds like it will be the Germans who will get some of the early blame as Frankfurt wrestles some financial clout away from London.

Jun 24, 2016 at 3:00 PM | Unregistered CommenterAlan kendall

Alan Kendall, German companies may see the UK as an Offshore EU Carbon Tax Haven

Jun 24, 2016 at 3:18 PM | Unregistered Commentergolf charlie

The Eurocracy is going to be blaming the UK Electorate for not listening to what it was told to believe in.

The Eurocracy never listened to the needs of the UK electorate and Political leaders.

If only the Eurocracy had listened, there would never have been a need for a referendum.

Cameron thought he had secured some kind of deal with Juncker. Juncker laughed at Cameron and the UK. Juncker blew the EU's last chances of peace in Europe.

Jun 24, 2016 at 4:14 PM | Unregistered Commentergolf charlie

SandyS on Jun 24, 2016 at 1:58 PM

But they would be British scapegoats, and that makes all the difference! :)


Alan kendall on Jun 24, 2016 at 3:00 PM
"News at One today it sounds like it will be the Germans who will get some of the early blame as Frankfurt wrestles some financial clout away from London."

The Times is free online today, and there is plenty of doom and gloom there from the columnists for you to appreciate. :)

Jun 24, 2016 at 5:59 PM | Registered CommenterRobert Christopher

Robert Christopher
Hollande, Juncker and Sinn Fien wouldn't count themselves as British, but I hope that it works as planned though.

Jun 24, 2016 at 6:43 PM | Unregistered CommenterSandyS