Serbia had barely just exited from 40 years under the dominance of Soviet communism, so that's not exactly the most convincing example.

 

Nonsense. There would be repercussions for Britain, certainly, but not nearly on the scale of the $h!t that'll rain down on some of the Eurozone countries.

 

No, not quite, but the £ has slipped from €1.62 down to €1.10 and that's a 30.8% drop in value in anyone's currency.

Now, given that we IMPORT far more than we EXPORT, and that said IMPORTS come mostly from the EC and that said IMPORTS are now costing nearly 31% more..........who has been left behind? And who looks a donkey?

 

Think you need to check your sums mate.

The financial services sector needs to pay a **** load of extra tax so we get our bail out money back remember that to recover from the financial sevice sectors **** ups our entire currency has been devalued. The city needs to pay, they just need to pay the british people not brussles eurocrats. If they dont wanr to be taxed they can **** off else where, trust me there wont be too many leaving.

 

That's not how it works, we won't be "getting our bail out money back" even if you mean the UK taxpayers money to bail out the UK banks. You pay your taxes to the Government and it is up to the Government how they use it. You say the city needs to pay, fair enough, but remember the tax revenue that would have been raised by the city from the Europe's financial transaction tax will be going straight into propping up the Euro and the economy of countries that are on the brink, not our own economy and it will be decided not by our Government but by a Eurocrat in Frankfurt on how our tax revenue will be used. Also we would have also lost the right to veto any further policy changes made by the EU and would be bound by them should they were to increase the taxation or increase regulations that would not be our country's best interest for example.

ps. I meant 8% of GDP with 80% coming from our workforce in this sector from the city (still trying to get used to the Galaxy Tab keyboard )

 

The financial services sector contributes about 10-15% of UK GDP and employs around a million people.

The 77% figure is for the service sector as a whole.

 

I think Cameron has performed some political grandstanding (it worked - just read this thread). However I think this will simply be a small punctuation in the continuing decline of the British nation.

The main reason for the rejection seems flawed - the FTT argument.

If you look in the city the many millions of daily transactions are between banks who are primarily headquartered in Europe (DB, UBS, CS, BNP, etc). How will the FTT apply there.

Losers could be Lloyds, Barclays and HSBC - but what proportion of their activities in Europe are centred in the UK - Lloyds maybe the only one to really suffer.

Likely next steps, GBP rises, exports to Europe doubly decline although costs of imports we cannot afford do fall. European holidays will be cheaper though.

The difficulty with Europe is that we need to play a role, but now we can't as we are not in the tent anymore. We are outside pissing in - and to make this analogous to the Swiss situation is laughable - they were in a much better place than us but even now this is as much a burden as a benefit.

So we can dream that we missed being forced onto the Titanic - I see it differently - I think we could well be the iceberg.

 

Well I claim to know nothing, especially after reading all that.

However, put all the euro posturing to one side, if the Germans are sure all is well in the Euro, why are they apparently starting to print deutschmarks again?

Personally im sick of europe europe europe now, getting our own identity back would be great, but is just a dream these days.

*climbs back in box

 

Haha , yes i saw that on on newsnight a couple back ,too

 

I think most of us are sick of this but its something that isn't going to be over anytime soon,a lot of speculation going about but no real answers..Watch this Space

Its somewhat getting to be like WW2,Britain not wanting to play ball with ze Germans.

 

I think its great that you drive an older MG Rover car!

Ohh wait.......

 

I don't think there is any reason why we can't get our identity back Snazy. I certainly hope there isn't anyway.

I want to remain British in our own country, I think we need strong leadership which has proper loyalty to our country rather than to their own future careers.

Les

 

Les, out of interest, whereabouts in the country are you based?
How many immigrants are there, on average?
And how British do you feel?

 

Lets not turn this into another immigration bashing thread!

 

Not trying to, I'm just intrigued by what Les means by this:
Smacks of Little Englanders......

 

Just drove home from work in my MG ZS180 (British) another busy day building Nissan car seats (kind of British`ish?) had a full english breakfast from the canteen for breakfast, just going to have a nice cup of tea before i have a nice roast dinner later on.

All you foreigner lovers can bugger off



Might even nip out later on one My British MTB bike, or i might take out the USA one

 

I think it'great that you tell us this from your Taiwnese made computer.

 

A nice cup of tea eh?

Now where do they grow that - is it soomwhere oop north........

dl

 

 

Well for all the posturing and bluster, it turns out that Ed Miliband would not have signed up to the new treaty either.

 

Aye, tis that, Lad.

http://www.taylorsofharrogate.co.uk/...RT1019-120.jpg

 

But i built it myself, so its nearly British

 

Looks like skunk to me

dl

 

Well as our trade deficit is narrowing due to record exports, clearly the change in the exchange rate isn't as big of an issue as you suggest.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...orts-soar.html

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/1...7B80JM20111209

Yeah thats £4.555 billion reduction since September to £7.557 Billion.

So not us being left behind or looking like a Donkey then eh?

 

I'm still undecided on this. Ordinarily, when there are two opposing views, the truth lies somewhere in the middle, the dialectic if you'd prefer, but for whatever reason it's not appearing over this. I guess it's the paradox of wanting an independent Britain which hosts the financial services capital of the world and wanting a united Europe of which we are part. I just can't reconcile the two.

 

and wanting to keep the general populace on board who are a xenophobic bunch and haven't really got a clue about what is going on.......

dl

 

Yep. We've been up at our cottage near Ludlow this weekend and my outlaws (retired headmistress and chartered accountant) appear completely ignorant of the big picture. People seem to think that because the Poles are 'tekin' our jerbs' and the Spanish nicked some Cornish cod and because they like their bananas bendy and measured in pounds and ounces that it's good to upset the Continent. Well, it isn't, and those things are small beer. People ought to be looking 100 or so years ahead.

As far as I can see, and the numbers appear to support it, Britain would've come out of the deal very badly. Even Miliband acknowledged this, but is trying to convince us he would have negotiated a better deal (). Also, people forget that Cameron's a European and I'm not convinced he made a call of such historic importance with the sole aim of appeasing his myopic backbenchers - I think that's an attempt by his opponents to discredit what most clear-thinking people would acknowledge as a brave call.

Europe is now a country, I just hope they're not vindictive. I'm also glad I didn't have to make the decision, because vacillation would've stopped me from being able to do so.