The people of Northern Ireland could see how leaving the EU would create problems, which is why they voted to stay in. It has become twice as difficult to solve since the DUP became the Tory party controller. Ireland is gaining from UK business moving there, so to believe that they will want out anytime soon is just wishful thinking. Meanwhile there is still no plausible suggestion from the UK how to resolve the border question.
The Irish would not agree with you that they have a 'tax oasis'. They have desired to use their discretion, whilst they are allowed, to lower corporation tax to a level whereby they have attracted a large amount of investment. France has chosen for many years to implement policies which ensure outside investment is rare, one of the reasons unemployment is so high in France. Hopefully your new superstate, which will control such matters, overrides the opinions of member states to such an extent they will leave. Ireland will not allow one of their main advantages to be eroded. It is typical ant- business Euro thinking to make all member states equally unattractive to outside investors. Europe is competing with the rest of the world not just within itself. No wonder Macron's long term plan to reduce France's high unemployment is markedly unambitious.
I do not think that this is just the opinion of Macron, but rather that of the majority of EU. citizens who want Ireland to stop using low tax rates to steal jobs and investment from their own countries - I suspect the Americans feel the same way on this. Ireland has also been able to shift profits out of Ireland to zero-tax jurisdictions like Bermuda. Allowing for the fact that Ireland has been a major receiver of EU. funding in the past (and still is) this is not much to ask. Nobody in Europe wants to see neighbours, and partners, engaged in a 'race to the bottom' - as if attracting investment were the only thing which mattered in life, at the cost of environmental protection, worker's rights, and the overall standards of living in the EU. which are the highest in the World.
Ireland is now a net contributor based on per person. It will not allow interference with its right to set its own tax rates. Due to the likely extra hassle dealing with its largest trading partner, the UK, it would not be too difficult to imagine huge pressure building to leave the EU. It will not want to be forced to be as unattractive to outside investors as other EU examples.
Where do you get the info. that Ireland is a net contributor SH ? The latest figures I have are for 2015 and in those they still received more than they paid in. The net payers in are Germany, the UK. France, Italy, The Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Austria (just) - the highests payers in per person are the Netherlands. The British figure has to be readjusted to allow for the two thirds rebate which the country receives back - paid for by the other 26 countries (maybe the EU. should ask for some of this back !) - so, in reality, the UK. is only marginally a payer in.
Interesting figures SH. Do they include the British rebate ? There is no mention of it. As for Ireland, they may have turned the corner in the last year, or so - my figures were from 2015. However - since joining they have taken out more than they have put in, so my point still stands. As for the British rebate - has this ever been fair ? When it was first obtained by MT. in the eighties Britain really was the poor man of Europe, and it would have been unfair for Britain to pay its full wack when 70% of the EU budget was spent on the CAP - something which Britain, having a small agricultural sector, did not benefit from. But things have changed - CAP. now only accounts for 38% of the budget, and there are now a lot of countries poorer than Britain in there - many of them also don't get much back from CAP. Do they get a rebate as well ? The theme of the British rebate vs CAP has been a hot theme for many years. On the face of it Britain only gets 9% of the money from CAP compared to 22% for France - which appears unfair. CAP divides itself into 2 sectors - the first being direct payment to farmers (about 80% of the total) to 1. Increase productivity 2. Ensure standards of living for farmers 3. To stabilize markets. 4. To ensure availability of supplies at an affordable price. The result being massive fields full of cows giving cheap milk and cabbages being sold for a quid - all of which leads to a monotonized landscape in many parts of Europe, with no hedges left. But that is only one side of it. The role of agriculture in our industrialized world is to keep prices down in order to stimulate spending power in other areas. If the cost of food (relative to income) rose to the 30-40% of income, which was the case in pre war Europe, then the economy would collapse overnight. So, CAP keeps prices down which creates customers to buy British and German products and services. So is the rebate really justified after all these years ? And having been on the receiving end of those rebates for so long is it now fair to be using words like ransome about the leaving bill ? Just stop and think - even Greece has been paying more in order to cover Britain's rebate.
Nobody was denying how much financial support Ireland had received in the past. We were discussing Ireland's potential response to future damaging fiscal control by the eurocrats. The EU have tried to tie Ireland's hands as part of previous bailouts, Ireland has always told them to get stuffed. Ireland does not need the support now as it implemented proper austerity to get its financial house in order. It will NOT accept its financial edge being taken away especially once the difficulties start after Brexit. The UK has consistently contributed much more than it has annually received. It is entirely fair to call the EU financial demand a ransom. It is bullying especially when disconnected with the other issues. No wonder the Italians had a mass demonstration at the weekend calling the EU The Mafia.
Of course the rebate was fair. We were paying far too much. What the CAP does by subsidising food is to disadvantage the third world producers. It is also skewed to vastly benefit the French in return for allowing and assisting the Germans to dominate and control the main bodies of the EU. With Macron's emergence the stitch up between the two will actually increase. Germany's inability to form a government after such a long time shows a real weakness in it's electoral system and the EU in general.
a sensible article forecasting a return to normality in 2019 with the UK growing faster than the eurozone once the Brexit uncertainty is out of the way. UK growth to outstrip eurozone's by 2019, claims Fitch - The Telegraph
Not the best of afternoons for the government. Boris well and truly skewered until he almost admitted that he had made a mistake. Despite having some of his mates to support him, he had the most uncomfortable session for a Minister I have seen for a very long time. He is probably safe for now, but just how long the government will survive is open to speculation. The PM had a meeting with business leaders from the UK and EU and afterwards we hear that even if an agreement were agreed today, a two year transition would be totally inadequate. Multiply by two or three and it might be more realistic. Later we see Davis reporting on his trip to Brussels last week. The problem was he had little to report, so announced that there would an additional bill for MPs to debate. It was clearly something that had been cobbled together quickly as the whips said that the withdrawal bill would be taken apart, and when asked questions by back benchers could not answer. As he is supposed to be in charge of withdrawal matters it was deeply embarrassing.
'Third World producers' - actually all but 4 African countries export food to the USA. and to Europe, using their most arable land land which would be better employed growing staple products to feed their own populations. Subsidized food means more spending power for other products - cars, computers etc. etc. which, in turn, stimulates the economy. Anyone who has ever grown vegetables in their garden knows that the price of a cabbage is in no way representative of the work needed to grow it. Rising food prices means a drop in other areas of spending - it is as simple as that. It is also clear that Europe cannot import more than a certain percentage of it's own food - the environmental aspects of importing more food could not justify that. As for German dominance - please spare me all of that rubbish from the war comics. The country pays 22% of the EU. budget, is underrepresented in both the EU. Commission and the EU. negotiating team and can be outvoted by any 2 nations in the EU. Parliament. Time to get wise on that one - a good working relationship between the UK. and France could have left Germany in the cold at any time over the last 30 years. Germany has a government ie. the existing one rules until a new coalition is formed to take over. As it happens I doubt that we (The Greens) will join such a coalition (I hope not) but, in that case there would either be new elections or Merkel would form a minority government. At any rate, until then, the existing government (ie. from before the election) rules as normal.
Rather than coming out with soundbites (as always) wouldn't it be better to come up with some evidence.
Far from it. It is often been said here that if the UK and France had got their act together they could have directed the way that the EU evolved. Of course it was the UK that pushed like mad to grow the EU, trying to get the eastern European countries to join. If it has grown beyond the size that England wanted, then it has no one to blame but itself.
Simon Coveney Ireland's foreign minister speaking at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, has stated that unless Davis comes up with some proper proposals over the border issue by December, then Ireland will not approve of moving the talks on. Listening to Davis this afternoon he assumed that talks on trade would start in December. He is caught between a rock and a hard place. Ignore the DUP and come to an agreement, or see his view of a final deal by October come unstuck. We can see that the government is going to cave in on money and citizens rights, so it is safe to assume they will find a fudge over the border.
If anyone thinks that the whole problem surrounding customs is easily solved they should take into account that if it goes wrong there are problems as shown here. Honda UK have been telling MPs it imports 2 million components a day from Europe on 350 trucks and holds 1 hours worth of stock. It would take 18 months to put customs admin in place but every 15 minutes of delay would cost £850,000 a hour. That's not including WTO tariffs of 10% and 4.5%. They went on to say that they rely on EU workers who are not certain about their future. 40% of extra workers hired to build new Civic at Swindon were EU workers, 30% at Bracknell HQ
Who ever thought the French would have less faith in a new president than the hapless Hollande? Members of Macron's party have resigned due to its "arrogant" and "undemocratic" methods. please log in to view this image
I would have thought you might have had rather more interest in Brexit and the problems for companies like Honda. 26% of people have confidence in this government to handle the negotiations with the EU compared to 44% three months ago. It should really be more of a concern to you why so many have lost faith with May in such a short period.
