Johny

I have been interested in UKIP for quite a long time now, but, as with entering INTO phpbb_anything, doubt and unsurity need to be removed. So i've compiled a few questions, which i'd like forum members who have a detailed understanding of the topic at hand to kindly address.

Thank you in advance.

So my fellow Englishman & European residents, how do you think the EU has progressed/regressed since it's conception?

Do you look at it as a social entity or an economic one?

Has it benefited our lifestyle/pockets/sense of well being?

Do you see a future for the EU and particularly EMU and the Euro?

Are we kidding ourselves or is it something worth preserving/furthering/reforming?

Is there any more cohesion as a group of countries and are we adequately meeting our economic, political and social targets?

What does the European Union mean to you?

B.A.Ware

Johny wrote

.

Thank you in advance.



Firstly welcome to the forum from a fellow midlander.

The concept of the EU was sold to us as a market of trading nations it has progressed to be a federal state of nations with the sovereignty of each country gradually being devolved to the European commission. This is not what we signed up to and had the truth been told we would never agreed.

The idea of a social entity is great (all Europeans on the same level) but this was never what the EU was about, it was about huge corporations having accesses to huge markets with no restrictions

NO It has done the opposite our pockets have been drained to pay for infrastructures in other countries at the cost of decent roads, hospitals and schools in our own country.
YES we do get some benefits but none that we could not implement ourselves at a far less cost than it takes through the EU

I see a future for the EU in the guise of EFTA, trading agreements with no political ties. As for the Euro its ideals are admiral but its practicalities are not.
With each country having its own problems with economics and fiscal policy it would be complete madness to tie each one together.

No we are not kidding ourselves it could be reformed back to what it should be a group of country’s trading with each other with no restrictions. Even then it would be a club that excludes the African and Asian nations

As a group of countries we are not, certain countries like Britain are doing better than most EU countries, Switzerland who is not in the EU is doing better than any of them.

Political and social targets.
Britain is one of the European countries that rubber stamps most European legislation this has the effect of a cost on British business and leaves us with a less competitive edge. We pay the price for implementing stringent health and safety policy then we buy our goods from sweat shops in china because as a group of nations we can do that (great for big business)

The EU had admiral ideals but in reality the EU wants to compete as a nation against America and Asia it was not set up in the best interests of the European people.

C_steam

Basically I'm with BA on this with the addition that SOME of the regulation is a good idea - I'm talking here particularly at harmonising standards for things that really matter, ie BS/EN standards, not cucumbers and bananas, and also some of the safety related legislation - which I believe the UK was very close to, and in fact most of the regulation in this area stems from UK practice anyway.

mkpdavies

BA said most of it for me.

The fact our political leaders have tried to push the United States of Europe in via the back door annoys me immensley. When people said yes to the ECC, they were clearly mislead INTO phpbb_thinking it would be a commonwealth style arrangement. The fact Brussels tells our business what to do, is removing Britains voice slowly from the world stage and is clearly a self-protectionist block means it is bad of Britain on the global stage.

Undemocratic, wasteful, beaurocratic and run by failed/corrupt politicians who couldn't even hack it in their own countries. The question isn't whether it is worth saving, but why are we in this position in the first place?

We should join EFTA AND any other free trade agreements that we can! Including NAFTA for my part. Then we should look at areas where we might want to cooperate on a volutary basis. Things like the European Space programme (which I believe should now be a world space programme!)

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Paul Birch

It has remained on course towards the same goal it has always had: an ideological European superstate.

Neither. It is a political entity.

None of them.

Yes. I do not see the EU disintegrating in the forseeable future (though a few peripheral states like the UK may withdraw, and a few would-be members drop their applications). Nor will monetary union be permitted to fail. At a guess, and by analogy with the USSR, the coming superstate may start unravelling fifty years or so from now.

It is not worth preserving, furthering or even reforming.

There is little cohesion or voluntary convergence below the level of the europhile establishments. It is folly for governments to set economic or social targets, and when they do they almost invariably fail; the EU brand of central planning is no exception.

Tyranny.

kernow

In my opinion the EU was set up tp compete as a "Nation State" against America, who the leaders of the EU ie the Franco-German alliance have loathed since WW2. A major part of their loathing has been jealousy.

Percy the Poodle

The very concept of 'Europe' being embodied in a Union is outdated.

The continent must face up to the fact that since the end of the Cold War it has and will continue to become an irrelevance. It will not be one of the world's great economic or military powers in this century and its disunity is such that it cannot even decide where its geographical borders should be (eg. the disagreement over whether to admit Turkey).

The EU power structure was imposed from above and has not developed from below so its people have no ownership of it or its ideals. It dilutes the robust democracies of its nation states and its harmonisation of economic an social practices is limiting the ability of citizens in different member states to direct their governments to act in their own best interests.

Its lack of democratic mandate is stopping it from achieving the level of military and foreign policy integration necessary to stand up to the one nation superpowers.

Its economies are regressing and its populations are shrinking. The lack of enthusiasm that its people have for it, means that they will not fight to save it. In short, the EU is doomed. The quicker we come out the quicker we start to change our country for the better and address our own longterm problems.

In the long-run we will come out whether or not it is nything to do with UKIP, but the longer we stay in the more damaged our country will be.