Is this country in a worse mess than the government are letting on?

[barney15c]

A simple question, like most governments really bad news is kept from the electorate, do you beleive things are a lot worse than is being stated. Also is the EU in such a state that to tell the truth would threaten to break up the european Union.
My own opinion is a categorical yes, what has happened is the tip of the iceberg there is worse to come which ministers knew about. What do you think?

Oh and happy new year ;)

[TTG]

I think this country is in a fine state. We seem to give away millions to other countries without a thought.

[jno]

are you talking about the eurozone rather than the EU?

As far as the UK is concerned it is in the government's interests to overstate the mess rather than udnerstate it, while they still have time to blame it all on Labour.

[VHG]

>>>>>>I think this country is in a fine state.

Not accordng to this graph. This says we "owe" about 1.7 trillion Euros, about 117,000 Euros for each person in the UK. That is more than any other country on the graph except Ireland.

Does not sound "fine" to me

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15748696

[VHG]

>>>That is more than any other country on the graph except Ireland.

I mean "individual" debt is more than everyone else but Ireland, not total country debt.

[emmie]

I reckon it is, but i do think that it hasn't been largely kept from us, it's been a topic from the government, opposition for a while.

[barney15c]

I think TTG's answer may have had a touch of irony, he makes a good point though, apparently we are still giving money to brazil which has overtaken us to become the worlds 5th biggest economy. also we give money to India which as it is one of the fastest growing economies should be doing more to help their own poor rather than relying on countries like ours.

[Gromit]

I do not feel we are being kept in the dark about the state of the country, but I think we are being kept in the dark about how bad our prospects are for the next 18-24 months.

The country is not in that bad a mess. For most of the last 250 years, the country's debt has been much greater than it is now. We should worry people are unwilling to loan to us. That is when things will be bad. At the moment, the opposite is true.

The Eurozone has problems, and some adjustments may need to happen. But it is not in anything like the kind of mess that Murdoch and the other right wing press would have us believe. It will get sorted, but it may be a bumpy ride for some.

The EU is in fine health. It is highly successful. It is a shame we have sidelined ourselves, and become a dormant force, just to placate the editor of the Daily Mail and a handful of looney backbenchers.

[weecalf]

Just the lib/con setting up the country for the labs to win next election so some one else can get the blame .We will be okay always have always will be .Have a happy year.

[barney15c]

I find it hard to believe the EU is in fine health save Germany and a few other countries. Countries are going to the wall through their own greed or were growing far quicker than they should. Greece for christ sake blatently lied about their finances and were still lent money without som much as a slapped wrist. Look at the building sites in Ireland and Spain of houses / buildings only half completed and in all likelyhood will have to be pulled down as they have decayed because people cant afford them. Vast amounts of money wasted. The EU is nothing more than a cozy club for self interested politicans out to get what they can and line their own pockets. If thats fine health im a dutch uncle.

[ichkeria]

The EU IS in fine shape. If it wasn't then you wouldn't see countries queueing to join. And even if you subscribe to the argument that the countries queueing to join are only doing so to sponge off the wealthier countries then that doesn't negate the fact that it's an organisation that has been extremely successful.

[New Judge]

“The EU is in fine health. It is highly successful.”

How would anybody know? Auditors have refused to sign off the accounts for at least fourteen years.

The EU has been extremely successful – in spending other people’s money. Like most governments the EU measures its success by the amount of cash it can extract from its hapless contributors and squander. But it pays scant regard to how it is wisely it is spent. It is no wonder countries are queuing to join. The next candidate to join the trough (Croatia) has a per capita GDP of $19,500 – less than two thirds of the EU average and about half that of the UK. The next two – Macedonia and Montenegro – have per capita GDPs of $11,000 and $12,600 respectively. Just what are they looking to get from EU membership? And when the UK’s considerable contributions are divided among the needy, just how much is going to be returned our way whilst there are countries with such low GDPs as these candidates? Of course, the “massive opportunities” that will be opened up in these huge new market places cannot be over emphasised.

The EU has succeeded in nothing that individual nations could not have achieved themselves. And without the EU those nations would have saved huge amounts of cash and enormous aggravation caused by the preposterous notions of much of the EU's aristocracy.

[VHG]

>>>>The EU IS in fine shape. If it wasn't then you wouldn't see countries queueing to join.

They want to join because once you become an EU member you get given billions of Euros.

Poland has been given billions to improve its infrastructure (motorways etc) and all that does is allow them to get their goods OUT of the country quicker and into Germany, France. UK etc.

How many UK companies have closed down factories and moved them to Poland because it is cheaper.

You only have drive up any motorway nowadays to see it full of lorries from Poland, Latvia and other Eastern european countires, all bringing goods here from their factories.

All we are doing in the so called "rich" west is giving out money to "poor" Eastern Block countires in the EU so they can take business away from us.

Sheer madness.

[barney15c]

If there was ever an arguement not to be in the EU then Judge has hit the nail squarely on the head. If Switzerland and some other Nordic countries can prosper without being in it why cant we. the EU is a big sponge soaking up large amounts of cash we havent got and distriburing it with scant regard as to it being wisely spent. the EU and bureaucrats have shown themselves to be what the really are, self serving incompitent fools who couldnt organise a p1ss up in a brewery.