To be honest with you I think the actual amount contributed is a drop in the ocean compared to the UK's overall budget-and indeed the amount (whatever it is is) a bit of a red herring.Which is why it really means nothing whether people "lied" or not. I know we spend more in foreign aid than we do on the EU budget - and that although controversial is also pretty paltry
I would quite happily see the UK pay the entire amount with nothing back to continue access to the single market as long as it could then go do what it wanted and needed to do in it's own internal matters and external trade . It is the rest of the paraphernalia attached to the single market that is the problem
Europe has the highest unemployment rates and slowest growth rates of any major economic area and as long as the UK is effectively shackled to it it is economically falling behind the rest of the world. That will not change as long as the EU is paying the massive price of holding the Euro together.
The EU has lots of good things in the legislation- problem is in the real world we cannot afford them all !!! Real economic growth has to be through innovation and efficiency. Hammering all the wrong shaped pegs into the wrong shaped holes trying to impose a uniform standard across an entirely different spectrum of economies does not achieve that and never can.
Of course there will be a short term price for leaving, and the EU and the markets will try and punish Britain for doing so- if that wasn't the case and the benefits were instant and scot free EVERYONE would leave (probably even the Germans!!!). The terms of Article 50 mean that we get all the worst aspects of leaving before we get any of the better ones - that is all part of the entrapment process that was the Lisbon Treaty
The exchange rate is another red herring- the "best" exchange rate is one that protects jobs and promotes growth- the "worst" ones (often the" highest") do not. The higher the rate the more it benefits retired expats, the lower the rate he more it benefits British business. You are better having a job and not being able to afford a jar of imported Marmite because the exchange rate has gone down than the alternative. I'm sure the good people of Southern Europe would gladly swap a "strong" Euro for a job
In that context how UK GDP is quantified financially through exchange rate fluctuation becomes irrelevant (within limits of course and we are nowhere near in "problem" range)
I knew in leaving that my income would be cut (although the rise in the stock markets will have offset much of that)- that was a price I was wiling to pay for the long term future of the UK out of failing entity that started as a trading bloc, but has morphed into an undemocratic, unaccountable, corrupt, outmoded and self serving monster
The UK's housing stock is depleted, the NHS is at breaking point, social services cannot cope, house prices continue to rise and home ownership percentages continue to fall, retirement ages are going up and people are having to work harder and longer without bring able to attain he quality of lie I was able to enjoy at a similar age . All this despite the EU's alleged "benevolence" when it comes to dishing out what are unaffordable social provisions and unworkable "freedoms"
Sure the UK has lots of it's own self made problems, but it also has lots it cannot tackle as long as unlimited numbers can come here to work (driving down wages of course ) and unlimited capital can flow in to snap up houses for investment.
Sorting all that out is a massive task that cannot be undertaken until such time as we can determine what is best for ourselves- and as long as we are in the EU we can not do that!!!!!!
As for O'Leary- when it looks like he might be getting stiffed with a big tax bill in Ireland, he says Ireland should quit the EU. When it looks like he might be flying fewer people into and out of the UK Britain should "stay in the EU". Can you not work out that whatever he says is based entirely on what is best for him and
no one else ?
