« The Awful Truth About Boris Johnson | Main | New Blog »
April 03, 2006
Talk to the EU
The EU is asking you, you lucky people, what you think it ought to be doing. Here’s what I submitted. Maybe it will and maybe it won’t make it through the moderation process. You are, of course, urged to make your own feelings known.
Subject: What sort of world do I want?
In short, one where the European
Union doesn’t exist. If it does exist then the UK should not be part of
it. If it is going to exist and the UK is going to be part of it then
the following things need to happen:
1) Abolition of CAP.12 months notice then that’s it. No more money for farmers.
2) Proper free trade. Not this ersatz rubbish within the 25
countries, proper free trade across the EU’s external as well as
internal borders. This means the abolition of all tariffs, quotas and
subsidies on all products. No, not just food, or poor country
manufactures, or only if other people do the same. We’ve known since
Ricardo that unilateral free trade is to our benefit. 218 years and
counting and we still have plonkers like Mandelson pushing up the price
of shoes. Just what, in God’s name, is he playing at? How is making
shoes more expensive an advance in civilisation?
3) Abolition of the CFP. As Hardin noted you can solve Tragedies
of the Commons in either a social manner or a private one. You’ve had
30 odd years to try the social manner and you’ve cocked it up. Time to
try the private one.
4) Abolition of regional aid. Markets work better than planners. So stop planning and let markets do the work.
Those are the four things that the EU actually does at present
anyway. Stop screwing up the world with the fantastical mistakes you
make in trying to do them and the EU can become what it really ought to
be.
Nothing.
April 3, 2006 in European Union | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c2d3e53ef00d834b5936c69e2
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Talk to the EU:
Comments
Oh Dear Tim, you're at it again ... normally so reasonable and intelligent.
"In short, one where the European Union doesn’t exist. If it does exist then the UK should not be part of it."
You can't call for an independent UK then start interfering with whether others wish to form a union.
"1) Abolition of CAP.12 months notice then that’s it. No more money for farmers. "
.. yes indeed, so get stuck in rather than throwing your toys out of the pram.
"2) Proper free trade. Not this ersatz rubbish within the 25 countries, proper free trade acorss the EU’s external as well as internal borders. This means the abolition of all tariffs, quotas and subsidies on all products. No, not just food, or poor country manufactures, or only if other people do the same."
.. yes indeed, so get stuck in rather than throwing your toys out of the pram.
"plonkers like Mandelson pushing up the price of shoes. "
Get F***ed Tim, Mandy is doing the best he can, its the bloody Italians etc who are protectionist ... why do you leave your brains behind when you comment on the "Project" ? .. you start sounding like an effing campaigner - never mind the facts, feel the passion.
4) Abolition of regional aid. Markets work better than planners. So stop planning and let markets do the work.
.. yes indeed, so get stuck in rather than throwing your toys out of the pram.
"EU can become what it really ought to be. " ...
.. yes indeed, so get stuck in rather than throwing your toys out of the pram.
You seem to be making the same point as I do, that the glorious project needs is a thorough dose of Thatcherite rectitude.
Hail the Project !
Posted by: johnny bonk | Apr 3, 2006 4:11:16 PM
To Johnny Bonk and his defense of Mandelson, I was going to try to debunk but The Business have done a rather good job of this, by chance, this very weekend http://tinyurl.com/q5eep. I particularly agree with the point about the current Commission being utterly uninspiring.
Your advice of 'getting stuck in' instead of 'throwing toys out of the pram' doesn't even seem to be an answer to any of the points made. If you look at that miserable excuse for a forum then you might understand the pure frustration that people feel when trying to 'get stuck in' with the EU. Its another flimsly project put forward by Wallstrom that will provide no real input into any of the Commission or MEPs. Getting stuck in with the EU for me would be trying to implement some important structural reforms in key policies such as CAP, barriers to international trade (i.e. protectionism) and now barriers to bloody internal trade (e.g. Spain/Germany and eON, France and Suez, Dannone and Italy and the banking scandal).
Posted by: John Middleton | Apr 3, 2006 5:09:09 PM
Hi John,
"Getting stuck in with the EU for me would be trying to implement some important structural reforms in key policies such as CAP" ... yes, that's exactly what I mean by "getting stuck in" rather than trying to destroy/leave the union (throwing one's toys from the pram).
Madelson may be a good/rotten commissioner but he is not the source of the protectionist sentiment and to accuse him of such is silly. Quoting the article you linked to .."he is under intense pressure from protectionist member states" - yes indeed he certainly is.
Tim adds: But Johnny, I like being nasty to Mandy. I even get paid for being nasty to Mandy. As for the leaving thing, it is my true and honest opinion that the EU can never be reformed in the manner that I (and possibly you) would wish. Getting stuck in isn’t a possible method of getting what we want. Leaving is.
Posted by: johnny bonk | Apr 3, 2006 7:04:24 PM
Tim,
I also enjoy being nasty to Mandy (ex commie?) - how weirdly turns the World, that I should find myself supporting him now as a defender of the the freetraders faith, and on a rightwing blog!
In the dark hours just before dawn, I also wonder that the EU cannot be reformed - but I hope that the commies, nats, leftists, protectionists etc don't wreck it.
I don't doubt that the UK would continue to thrive outside the Union, but I do honestly believe that it would be a awful shame.
Posted by: johnny bonk | Apr 3, 2006 9:30:59 PM
The EU does serve a useful purpose. It provides an additional forum for politicians and bureaucrats to practice their skills, well away from anywhere they can do any real harm. In the old days, they'd just fester in their own countries dreaming up excuses to go to war.
Posted by: pete | Apr 5, 2006 1:14:12 AM
