Sæl öll. Cappuccino, coffee, tea donuts and fruit are on the bar. Frothy cappuccinos for for al, HH, and W_Y Coffee and cramel frapachino for IB Coffees for COYH, Frenchie, Kev rob theo vic-rijrode and kiwiqpr Strong coffee for Sandy Milky coffee for Yorkie Espresso for SuffolkHorn Strong black coffees for Bragi Norway and zen Black coffee half hot half cold and no sugar for Charlie A peppermint latte for DanH Tea for BHD Cornish Mark jsybarry jerzeypie Lloydinio NZ and BCFCRed Tea with skimmed milk and no sugar for GG and Leon Hot chocolate with marshmallows for BBW Caramel latte for Hornette Scullion Canary Dave Fossefilberto and Maestro Una paloma for Mexican Hornet
Morning all, glorious late summer day here. Hoping to get some grass seed sown later so that it can get on with growing while I am away.
Morning all from a brightening West West London - still very mild for the time of year. Thanks for the frothy AK
Dave, this is important news. The EU want to take Ãsland to court because we prohibit the importing of raw meat. I think they might find that difficult as we are not a member, but they want to do it by using EFTA court which we are a member instead. All because we do not want to be in the EU. Britain left EFTA to join EEC/EU and look at the problems they cause you, we are not even in this club and they want to cause problems for us.
The EU seem to think that just because we're between England and France, and a British Crown Dependancy, they can force the island to change it's immigration and employment laws just because the people it was affecting most are from an EU country (Portugal). They didn't mind that they were only allowed here for 9 months of the year on a work permit but had to return home for 3 months as they were earning more here in those 9 months than they would in Portugal, and most of them were using the extra to build themselves a nice house back home. The EU said that was illegal and we had to allow them to stay permanently, which caused a big fuss with the locals which has never fully gone away to the point that when England played Portugal in the match Rooney got sent off, there were riots afterwards in St. Helier town centre. To show you how long that ill-feeling has stayed for, I've been here 17 years and it happened before I moved here.
That simply makes a mockery of the term 'Free Trade' - who do they think they are that they can dictate to 'non-club members'? Sounds like they are having trouble getting rid of a Horse Meat Mountain. It wouldn't surprise me to find that they are simply testing the waters - pre-empting possible ways of getting back at the UK should they leave the EU. Rumour has it that the UK would be applying to rejoin EFTA if they did leave.
If the UK "left" the EU, then there are a number of possible options that could be pursued by a UK government. The first and most obvious would be to join the EFTA - whose members have access to the EU "Single Market", but, like Iceland, are bound by most of the EU rules put in place to ensure that they do not enjoy an unfair trading advantage over EU members. So in order to continue trading with the EU Single Market, the UK would have to continue to abide by these rules - without being able to affect them as it can (and does) do now as an EU member. The EU would be very unlikely to relax any of these rules for the UK, especially after if we left it! Not much advantage there! A second option would be to resume trading with the rest of the Commonwealth, who we virtually abandoned in the 70s when we joined the "Common Market". However, as a majority of our current export trade is with the EU which would highly likely be mostly lost, there would have to be a significant increase in trading with the Commonwealth to make up for this loss. As countries like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India etc. now belong to their own trading blocks, would the UK really be in a position to replace much of the trade lost to the EU? Unlikely! A third option would be to join the North American Free Trade Organisation and increase our export trade with the US, Canada and.....Mexico! However, would the US be at all interested in having the UK join? The US spent much of the first half of the 20th century manoeuvering (successfully) to replace the UK as the world's most important trading nation - would they welcome us into their "Free Trade" area with open arms. Again, very unlikely. The so-called Special Relationship between the US & the UK only exists now to facilitate US involvement in Europe - they do not see the UK as an equal partner now - still less if we left the EU. So do we go it alone and hope to negotiate with these massive trading blocks for access to their markets from a position of "strength"? Would China and Japan be inclined to enter into trading agreements with the UK? Doubtful! I know that this is not really a political thread but with the EU bashing recently indulged in, I would be interested in what thoughts other Hornets might have.
Evening all A rather dull and cloudy day so Mrs H and I went to the garden centre and bought plenty of colourful bulbs to brighten up next spring. Back home for tea and home-made blueberry and lemon curd muffins.
A very good setting out of the options there Vic. I agree with them wholeheartedly. The trade that the UK does with the EU is immense and to put that in danger would be foolhardy in my opinion. The view of people on this side of the channel is that the UK wishes to cherry pick the things that suit them and make a fuss when they don't like something. The whole EU set-up is designed to find compromise solutions with all members having a say, which is why it creaks along so slowly a great deal of the time. The UK joined the 'club' because the government of the day could see the economic advantage of being part of a large market, and while I see no reason why policy and method of working should not be queried, if the others disagree it is not a reason to throw the toys out of the pram. Maybe instead of getting out, the case for better integration should be heard more loudly. The extreme right wing party of Marine le Penn would like the French to withdraw, and if you look at the poll results that come out every month there are very few who support her view. Equally there are very few who now want the left wing Hollande as President, but there seems to be an opinion that some of the EU laws are reigning in some of his more crackpot ideas and teaching him a bit about global economics.
Sadly, that probably is the view that folks in every member country of the EU thinks about all the other countries! There is another factor which, although possibly a minor consideration, would presumably affect you ofh. If the UK was to quit the EU, its citizens would no longer have the automatic right to reside in France (or indeed any other EU country). I'm not sure what the immigration rules are currently in France or Spain, but I assume that UK residents would enjoy the same rights (or lack of them) to reside as citizens of Paraguay, Kenya, Myanmar, South Korea and Papua New Guinea enjoy. I await with interest the long queues of ex-pats currently living in France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece etc. etc. returning to the UK in 2017 after selling their properties.......
I couldn't agree more OFH. It annoys me that when the debate on EU memebership comes up all we ever seem to hear is either the negatives of being in or a doomsday scenario if we leave when I genuinely believe the truth lies in the middle as it usually does. It's about time that the "stay in" lobby spent more time explaining the huge benefits and also shooting down the more ridiculous untruths that the Mail, Express and, God help us, the Sun trot out every week. All of that said i do sympathise with countries like Iceland who find themselves being threatened over trade issuesparticualrly when there is an issue of protecting public and animal health at stake. With apologies to AK and with no desire to argue about this particular kettle of fish , i suspect that may be part of a bigger battle on another area of international policy where the EU (especially ourselves and the Republic of Ireland) currently have a huge disagreement with iceland and the faroes. If that is the case I don't agree with the tactic.
Well I could apply to become a French national, and that can take years. Rather too extreme for me, but it would be an option. Not too sure, but I think I have lived here long enough for them not to throw me out. The whole business of immigration is as much of a hot potato here as in the UK. The latest purge is against Romanies who the government want to remove to where they came from. The trouble is that they don't know just where they do come from. There is a 'class' of people in the country that are described as having no papers. It covers people who have the right to be here, but the system is so slow that they cannot get a job without the official papers. They are completely stuck as they cannot work, so cannot get housing and rely on charity to keep them going. There was a case in the local paper recently about two families that had taken over an empty municipal house as a squat due to their lack of papers. The council asked the court for an order to have them removed. The court said yes, in eight weeks, but providing that proper accommodation was found first. So the government wants to reduce immigration, but the French law gives people rights that often go against it.
Just to add some different arguments. I see no reason why the UK cannot leave the EU and continue to trade with the EU just in the same way as Switzerland, Norway and Iceland, why would the UK seek to change any of those trading rules? Yes, the trade the UK does with the EU is immense, but as the UK imports more from the EU than it exports, then it is equally in the interest of both parties to continue these trading relationships. I do not see that because Brit's have gone to live in EU countries this would be at risk in Britain left the EU, again what is the advantage of an Idi Amin style deporting of huge numbers of Brit's who add a lot of wealth to the areas they have moved to? Just as I would not expect a mass exodus of EU citizens living in the UK. My dislike of the EU is an extension of my dislike of all huge undemocratic and unrepresentative organisations, of which the EU institutions are just beyond belief. Massively corrupt and hugely inefficient, they introduce rules, regulations, directives just to make the government of the masses easier for them. The Euro is a classic example and one that they now call a project! - tell that to the poor buggers in Greece. They allowed these countries to join the currency when they clearly did not meet the criteria to do so and billions have to be loaned (from EU bankers!) to keep them afloat. To now protect the "project", they want to harmonise the tax regimes across the EU....just more government. Another one is the SEPA regulations coming into force in Feb next year, another regulation just for the regulators. I cannot see why the EU cannot exist as a trade region without the massive apparatus of the EU institutions playing at government. BTW - I also favour getting rid of Trident and would cancel HS2 tomorrow and I rarely read any newspapers, so please do not go down the road of labelling me a rabid Daily Heil or Sun reader..
If you have a look at the GDP of the UK and the three countries you mention w_y you will find that you are comparing oranges with lemons, totally different scale of economy. UK: €2,054,238M Swiz: €317, 222M Norway: €287,712M Iceland: €14,932M I would agree that it was a mistake to allow Greece to join the Euro when their economy is similar in size to that of Norway, but their problems came about when they tried to get their economy into something approaching normality. Social benefits were beyond belief.
