OT: dear limtex,
...I think if you add up what Gt Britain pays against what it receives you will find that Britain is in no need of financial assistance from Europe ...
Sorry, that's wrong. GB has always been a net receiver. Remember the infamous discount Iron Maggy enforced for England ? From the early stages of the EU the mid 80's Germany was the only net payer. Then France joined, and now Austria. Yep, "The Continent" picks up the british tab.
...a comment that we have enjoyed protection from Germany and France isn't quite the way we see things...
I meant that Britain enjoyed the protective economical environment that the EU/EC had built over the years. Sorry if that wasn't clear.
Examples ? I think British Steel and Krupp/Hoesch and alikes wouldn't have survived without the EC
In fact Jurgen if you don't mind my saying so we have had just about a belly full of Europe and especally Germany and its new found French friends ever since August 1914
How come i knew you would bring that up ?
No, i don't mind. But what's the point ? What does WWI/II have to do with the economical challenge that Europe faces today ? The war is long over, you won. Get out of your Supermarine Spitfires. The British Empire is ancient history.
I personally would prefer if the Brits could make up their mind. Get in or get out, but get away from the door. The current situation is bad for both the EC and GB.
BTW, even Mr. Winston Churchill knew that GB needs Europe.
Read his famous speech "The United States Of Europe", given in The Hague 1946:
winstonchurchill.org
Here's what historians think:
...Winston Churchill's call in 1945 for a "United States of Europe," a federation of European states to promote harmonious relations between nations, economic cooperation, and a sense of European identity, has caused him to be regarded as the father of European unity...
(from Mauter, Wendell: "Churchill and the Unification of Europe" in The Historian, 61(1), Fall 1998, pp. 67-84)
Jurgen |
