They just quoted official figures..Every person in London and the South East gets 24x more spent on infrastructure than we do..For me this is just wrong, and the reason the North/South divide just keeps growing.. PS..The Guardian is not exactly a "leftie" paper, and is probably somewhere in the centre ground..
Nah. The average wage in the South East is much higher but it's not anything like that amount - approaching twice the amount but not quite (unless it has changed a lot in the last 2-3 years!!) As for other factors the business infrastructure is huge and 99 of the FTSE100 companies are registered in London (props to anyone who can tell me which one isn't) so you could argue their taxes (the stuff they pay anyway) is London based but it's a skew of the figures. Hard to quantify. Money spent on the national parliament etc is spent in the South-East but I would have thought that's going to be the same in every country, the capital gets a bit more than it pays as you have the center of the public sector there.
just wait till Greece Romania Bulgaria Ireland Spain malta cyprus all need bailing out whos gonna pay
Can't be arsed to read the whole thing. Just thought I would add my 2p worth, I will keep it short. Those on here who know me know I have run 3 different companies over the last 18 years. All in one way or another traded with other business's in other EU countries. I also trade with the rest of the world (currently sat in T3 at heathrow about to fly to Hong Kong). It has given me quite a grasp of international trade and finance. I wont go into all the pros and cons as there are lots, and most of it have been covered. The EU is not perfect not by any stretch of the imagination.I still believe an IN vote is the best vote for working class people. The normal man, the guy who pays his taxes and supports his family. Its also the best vote for SMEs and self employed people. If anyone wants more info on my thoughts I am happy to do it via PM, but unlike the politicians I am not going to get on my soap box and start ranting that the other side is ****.
Yeah but I can't really say that was the fault of the EU, mostly for the fault of our own daft governments on those ones. The steel and fishing are examples of Europe having selective protectionism and in some cases actively destroying our fishing fleets.
But they spend a lot more too, not just income tax but also VAT. Would you be averse to the North East being completely independent and self-funded? I see value in heavily investing in London and surrounding areas, economically.
Well I see more value in the wealth of the nation being shared more evenly rather than in one area.. For that to happen investment in infrastructure needs to be shared more evenly..
The EU wanted to place tariff's on the cheap Chinese steel flooding the market, but the UK Tory government vetoed it..
Fishing and agriculture is another matter though, and I think we have fared pretty badly with both, particularly with the fishing industry.
I'm an idealistic kind of person...If we don't believe in or hope to create a fairer society then we will never have one..
a couple of weeks ago the bookies were offering odds of 1/7 that we would stay in the EU, yesterday that had dropped to 2/5 with the expectation that the odds would be vastly reduced in the next couple of days. it looks like the tide has turned according to the latest polls.
i don't think that the average wage is higher, its probably on par if you take out the high earners from the city. I am paid a very similar package to others in the same trade as me up north and as many people know i live in Farnborough. Most things are costing about the same north and south apart from the housing which down here is ridiculous. My 3 bed semi which is ex council is valued at about twice what an ex council house is worth in say Hebburn where i am from. There may well be a North / south divide but as individuals i cant say that i see any of it.
i should have said "like for like jobs are paid about the same". If you take into account all the high earners from the City then yes the average wage will be higher, just look at how many footballers there are in London alone on silly money add that to the bankers and the financial institutions that are all based in or around London and it soon begins to add up.
so where's the eu stepping in to make sure this doesn't happen? they can't and won't. i have as much of a problem with the north/south divide as anyone but to suggest the eu give a **** or would do something about it is fantasy. similarly this idealised fair society you speak of. that's not the world we live in unfortunately, raw. i wish it was but it's not. the eu is run by unelected bureaucrats out to line their own pockets and act without accountability.
