The Euro Crisis Explained...

[Rusty]

Europe can't set global emission targets, but yes lowering emissions, energy conservation and a Euro energy grid are important steps towards a cleaner Europe, and again underlines the importance of the EU.  Working and H&S directives are all part of protecting ordinary people and creating a level playing field and common standards, you can't have an open market without this stuff. 

All this is based on an assumption.  It is the assumption that the majority of people are happy to pay higher bills for cleaner energy, or that they can afford to heed the regulatory advice of the numerous quango's.  Not only were the electorate not consulted on these matters, but their views are held in contempt. I don't agree in the slightest that you can't have an open market without having to comply with EU directives, if that were the case international trade would be very difficult, yet I see no shortage of Japanese goods in Europe.

 
And of course all this saves money.

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Nothing about the EU saves money! 

Consider the spectacle of packing up and moving the entire government of Europe from Brussels to Strasburg once a week, then back to Brussels the following week.  Not only poorly thought out in terms of waste emissions, manpower, and EU funds, but a sillier notion I've yet to hear of. The EU is simply a bunch of bureaucrats playing with other peoples money, which they consider to be an endless supply.  I find it breathtaking that once much of Europe suffocated under the Soviet system, only to be consigned to what amounts to a modernised Soviet style system.

I agree that this country has been mismanaged and run down, which is the result of a similar set of politicians not listening to the wishes of the electorate.  People in power always display a 'we know better than you' attitude, then fuck the job up and go play golf in retirement. That's why the country is where it is today, and the very last thing we need is an unelected set of overseas politicians that consider they know better than us too.

All these EU trade limitations and working directives are nothing more than smoke and mirrors, as Switzerland and Japan have proven.  Switzerland is in the heart of Europe, it exports very little, but has a hand in banking as does the UK. Japan has nothing whatsoever to do with the EU, yet it is allowed to set up factories there to create jobs for Europeans.  Those factories on foreign soil may have to comply with EU directives, but at home in Japan they don't.  Therefore I see no reason why we should either.