Brexit or not ?

[girlracerTracey]

Too much free wine for lunch at the U.K. tax payers' expense Jean-Claude? 

https://www.youtube.com/v/XPgiI46FCDU

grT

[HornetMaX]

Drinking to forget maybe

[h106frp]

Like he forgot to complete the investigation into organised tax avoidance in Luxembourg? 

[HornetMaX]

Like he forgot to complete the investigation into organised tax avoidance in Luxembourg?

Do you mean it would be nice to have a common European tax policy ?

[h106frp]

It would be nice if the guy preaching to the rest of us was not responsible for the largest organized tax avoidance scam within Europe where the investigation was stalled the day he became supreme ruler.

[HornetMaX]

While the UK is still in, your MEPs could use their time in the parliament to raise that interesting objection, instead of ... less productive chat.

But curiously I've never heard the UK even barely comment stuff around taxation or fiscal policies ... wonder why ...

[h106frp]

They did and tried to stop the presidency but got sidelined, the UK closed the loopholes while Luxembourg sent the whistle blowers to prison and carried on as before

[HornetMaX]

Closed the loopholes ?  But if just a few weeks ago Cameron tried to get a "London exemption" for any current and future EU fiscal/tax policy ?

But yes, the Luxleaks stuff is very fishy at best. But don't worry, the thing is not over. In the recent past some very good progress has been made by the EU with respect to evasion in some countries (e.g. Switzerland, I know first hand I have an account there, with little to no money, but still ...). Of course, fighting that battle is much easier if you're a union of 20+ states ...

[Napalm Nick]

Yeh I know it isn't funny to post press stuff so I went to the EU website:

3rd Main Aim of the EU:

3.Citizenship, freedom, security and justice

3a. Freedom, security and justice 

– justice and home affairs, border protection, immigration and asylum policy.

3b. Citizenship 

– public health, consumer protection, culture, youth, information and dialogue with citizens.

Part of the EU 144bn budget : 1.3%

5.Administration

Covers the administrative expenditure of all the European institutions, pensions and EU-run schools for staff members' children ("European Schools"), +health care, travel, and Leisure expenses (includes free Viagra).

Part of the EU 144bn budget : 5.8%

Nice ! I expect a lot of people would object to that but don't bother complaining cos you aren't allowed to. You could take a vote against it...oh wait. Why can't these people just go to work every day and pay their way like the rest of us do?

Just thought I would pop back and stir the pot a bit.  Now I will pop off again until I read something else shocking.

[Hawk]

Nice post Nick..... What lepers they are.... It's a shame part of the leave campaign didn't concentrate on the MEP expenses scandals as I think even more people would've come over to the leave EU campaign.... but then they were probably afraid of rebooting the still disgusting expenses claims from themselves too?

On another note: If the Tories vote in that typical remain voter Tory bitch(Theresa May) then mark my words - when it comes to the negotiations the UK will end up with a deal that will basically make leaving the EU and having the referendum having been a pointless task..... We'll end up with an EU market access deal which is basically the same as we already have now in the name of supposedly "what's best for the UK and business".... You mark my words guys because this is what the Tories are trying to do now.
If they had any intention of fulfilling the result of the leave campaign then they'd make sure that a true believer in leaving the EU was at the helm. If you've noticed they have conveniently manoeuvred any leave campaigners out of real contention for the Tory leadership.

Hawk.

[Stout Johnson]

@Nick: You did something very tabloid-ish... you wrote down some info - out of context, without providing the whole information, mixing source text with your own edits - supposedly providing hard facts and proving something. For someone who is (rightfully) criticizing the methods of the majority of the media you do not seem to follow your own principles very strictly.

[Napalm Nick]

I agree Hawk. How can someone who voted to stay in be considered as the right person to take us forward? Makes no sense whatsoever.
I admit this is my single and most worrying thought now. Who the feck do I want to lead us on?
Actually can't think of anyone.
Time to put myself up for election I think!    whatdya say? Are you with me or are you part of the problem! Vote Napalm, the non beaurocratic/ intelectuals  choice, referendums about all major political decisions guar-an-teeed. 

Stout - the facts stated are 100% and 90% copy and paste amended for clarity and expanded where I see fit in my opinion (ie to make each side have an equal number of facts, which is what forum posts are or I would have just put a link and said "make up your own mind"  People can go read up on it themselves after all.
I don't see why you have to attack peoples posts for content or the way they are expressed. We are not politicians or even semi professional journalists. In fact if we are going to start that i can reply your post is biased to try and make people believe I am trying to deceive people. Which funnily enough is a politicians trick - ignore the facts and attack the person to take the heat off. Are u an MEP? Lol. So there! 

[Stout Johnson]

I don't see why you have to attack peoples posts for content or the way they are expressed.
[...] ignore the facts and attack the person to take the heat off.

Wow.... not really sure what made you think I was attacking you? This whole topic really does make your blood boil over. Try to read my post above again tomorrow and you will probably see it in a totally different light.

All I wanted to say is, that whoever reads your post cannot distinguish which information you took from the website of the EU and what your comments are. There is a good reason why academic articles and good newspaper articles always indicate which info is cited and which is the commentation of the author. I guess it would not have been much of a hassle to make it somehow distinguishable what your comments are...

[...]which is what forum posts are or I would have just put a link and said "make up your own mind"  People can go read up on it themselves after all.

You are right, that is what forum posts are about. But with the way you wrote your post, that is not possible. People have to go and read up on it themselves to be able to distinguish what your opinion is and what really 'the facts' are...

Maybe it is now more clear what I was aiming at.

[Napalm Nick]

Sorry Stout but to imply I should calm down and read your post tomorrow as if I am impaired is frankly insulting. Maybe you could try and see that instead - I dont know lets think how.....hmm maybe go read it tomorrow after the high and mighty Sunday school teacher fog has cleared? See? Not nice is it.  Last time it was your interpretation that my comments were 'grumpy', now that my blood is boiling and after this post you will assume my head has totally exploded. All wrong and more importantly irrelevant to the discussion. Fighting facts and opinion with more facts and opinion is how a healthy fun discussion goes, I think people here are generally past the how to debate 101 classes.

It will shock everyone to know the post is a direct cut and paste with % costs of each added. Funnily enough though the administration paragraph was only a short sentence ending at "European schools" so I went to find out what else the admin expenses include and expanded more info into it to try and make it as lengthy as the paragraph they allowed on Citizenship, freedom, security and justice which is considerably longer, unsurprisingly. No doubt some of the money for admin is spent on useful stuff as well but the whole point of the post, perhaps missed or ignored, is how little is spent on this major part of the ethos of the EU - the part people believe in - even us outies!

If someone has argument to these not being facts (pretty impossible as they are their facts) then fine let's discuss it. I might even change my opinion cos Im pretty easy going and not a butt-hurt. (I believe that is a term youngsters use nowadays lol).

[h106frp]

Nice post Nick..... What lepers they are.... It's a shame part of the leave campaign didn't concentrate on the MEP expenses scandals as I think even more people would've come over to the leave EU campaign.... but then they were probably afraid of rebooting the still disgusting expenses claims from themselves too?

On another note: If the Tories vote in that typical remain voter Tory bitch(Theresa May) then mark my words - when it comes to the negotiations the UK will end up with a deal that will basically make leaving the EU and having the referendum having been a pointless task..... We'll end up with an EU market access deal which is basically the same as we already have now in the name of supposedly "what's best for the UK and business".... You mark my words guys because this is what the Tories are trying to do now.
If they had any intention of fulfilling the result of the leave campaign then they'd make sure that a true believer in leaving the EU was at the helm. If you've noticed they have conveniently manoeuvred any leave campaigners out of real contention for the Tory leadership.

Hawk.

Pretty much what happened after the French referendum in 2005 - bit of spin and enacted anyway despite a vote against