Can we afford the EU?

[Hugh Spencer]

Can we afford to stay in the EU or tolerate the many, many orders we are obliged to obey?
The government says that Britain's membership since 1973 has cost us �56,000,000,000 after allowing for the grants we received.
The cost to the UK is close to �100,000 every minute.
Only 16% of our economic activity is with the EU.
The UK is the fifth largest economy in the world. We have more overseas assets than all the other EU countries put together.
Would we be better out of the EU?

[Gromit]

No

[Gromit]

Sorry, you asked 2 questions...

Can we afford the EU? - YES

Would we be better out of the EU? - NO

[Lonnie]

Yes

[delboy3]

No! There are far more expensive yet far less worthy things we are paying for via taxes. Per capita it costs us �100 per year but we each get back �300. Sounds like a decent investment to me.

[Hugh Spencer]

delboy3 - not true!

[Hugh Spencer]

From the website - www.speakout.co.uk - our net contribution to the EU is constantly increasing. In 2005 it was �6.1 billion. These are direct payments - hidden costs bring it up to �52.5 billion. Is this a good deal? Pay out, pay out, pay out all the time.

[Whickerman]

According to your govt, there are roughly 50% of jobs in the UK dependent on continuing EU membership.

Personally, I couldn't care less about the UK staying in as I'm not from there, but believe me, your 'special relationship' with the US would be bloody well tested if you depended on them for export sales.

[Whickerman]

Oh, and 'SpeakOut' is an anti EU site. If you can bring reasoned argument to the table people might listen.

[Hugh Spencer]

Of course people and organisations are anti-EU, that's why they want the people of the UK to know the facts. If you can prove the facts given are false, I will concede.
Also, I have given up believing what ministers of this government tell us. Most of the 50% of jobs reliant on being in the EU would still be there.

[dancunian]

One thing that has never been answered by the so called facts of "Speakout" and the eurosceptics is *why* Ministers (both Conservative and Labour) seem to hand over the money without complaint.

Unless you know better than they do, in which case I shall stop wasting your time.

[Hugh Spencer]

Hi dancunian,
I wonder whether a truly honest person can do an honest job representing his constituency? There appear to be so many entrenched ideas permeating the policies of the main political parties that if your local MP had doubts about them he couldn't do anything about it because he is under control of the party whip. Just like the huge question about contributing to global warming. I reckon that if a main political party decided to change some of the UK laws and financial decisions made for unworthy causes, they would lose thousands of votes at election time.