If there is anyone out there who hasn’t seen the M.P. Daniel Hannan speech on BREXIT two weeks ago, it’s worth your 6 minutes. It’s articulate. Compelling. Why would any great nation vote to give up their right to set their own laws and negotiate their own deals?
The EU is it’s own best example of big-government grown too big. As Hannan says, the “Every continent on this planet has grown over the past decade except Antartica and the European Union.” And it is so much more than just economics, but economics is the main reason given to stay.
“It’s not just the financial price of EU membership – it’s the democratic price.
We fought a civil war in this country to establish the principle that laws should not be passed nor taxes raised except by our own elected representatives. And now supreme power is held by people who tend to owe their positions to having just lost elections: Peter Mandelson, Neil Kinnock and what have you.
No one is talking about drawbridges or isolation. Nowhere else in the world do countries apologise for wanting to live under their own laws. New Zealand is not about to join Australia. Japan is not applying to join China – and do you hear anyone complaining about these bigoted Sino-sceptics in Tokyo?
It is a natural healthy thing for a democracy to live under its own laws whilst trading with every other country in the world.
The United Kingdom is the world’s fifth-largest country, its fourth-largest military power.
How much bigger do we have to be before we have the confidence to raise our eyes to more distant horizons?
— Daniel Hannan
The other argument to stay revolves around solving “global” problems like climate change. But since these are global, not European, it’s a non-argument (and about a non-problem). Brexit in or Brexit out, it won’t change China’s emissions.
In the West everywhere we need better public debates — we need a discussion of the dangers and costs of big-government.
UPDATE: See Brexit The Movie.
(H/t Steve Kates and Catallaxy)
Hear James Delingpole — “The single most important political decision any of us will make in our lifetime.”
This movie is excellent, ominous, frightening — how did this bizarre faceless elite layer of unaccountable power come to be?
…
Nigel Farage – the EU is not undemocratic. “It’s anti-democratic.”
As Hannan says, the “Every continent on this planet has grown over the past decade except Antarctica and the European Union.”
Slight correction: Antarctica is growing:
NASA Study: Mass Gains of Antarctic Ice Sheet Greater than Losses
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Where’s Craig?
On the post, its time to leave the restrictions of Europe. Great speech.
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The Russians openly call the EU the “European Soviet”…
That should tell you everything you need to know….
Having said that, in the Bible book of Daniel and Nebuchnebezzars dream – interstingly the EU Parliament building in Strasbourg in Brussles looks just like the Tower or Babel. The tower of babel was built as a direct challenge to Gods sovereignty…..see image below and note its shape..and unfinished tower….
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5384397/MPs-expenses-Labour-MEPs-to-publish-receipts.html
Its also intesresting to note how Europa, the female “mascot” of the EU is depicted as a woman riding a bull ( beast )
http://www.thenewfederalist.eu/Europa-and-the-bull-The-significance-of-the-myth-in-modern-Europe
Another biblical prophecy talks about a woman riding a beast in Revelation 17:3
Back to Daniels prophecy , which talks about how in the end times that there would be 10 “toes” to the statue of world powers, and interstingly the toes would be an amalgum ( mix ) of clay and iron….in effect lots of different stuff cobbled together…..hard and soft…but ultimately can clay hold iron together and keep it strong?
You can see the world moving together to Super States ( eventually 10 super states )
of EU, eastern europe, china, Australia/South africa, Japan, NAFTA ( US-Canada-mexico ) , ASEAN, AU etc. Syria is all about merging recalcitrant Syria with the rest of the wider mid east super state…arab spring and all that….
So the EU makes sense in this respect.
00
We here in Australia would like to see a tax on extinction of biodiversity that are of species in areas of know providence. For example, a tax on plantation forestry if a plantation would result in the loss of biological diversity of know providence as a result of that activity.
Thanks for listening to my compilation/rant.
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* ..known providence.
18
Providence or provenance?
50
I am sacking the speech writer. You are correct Annie. *Known provenance.
10
I am sacking my rant/speech writer. You are correct Annie, thanks. *Known provenance.
10
Extinction has a specific meaning, you are not using it correctly.
And please don’t use “We” when asking for more taxes.
Thanks for listening to my rant….
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Hiya Greg. We live in a pluralistic democratic society in such a way that to say “we” always makes a statement sound more authoritative. Like an electric switch.
Which gives me a new idea to sound even more authoritative …. Thanks for listening to our compilation/rant, instead of “Thanks for listening to my compilation/rant.” 🙂
06
From: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-05-12/texas-secession-looms-independence-resolution-nears-vote
“The resolution calls for allowing voters to decide whether the Lone Star State should become an independent nation.”
Here is the/a possible thing…
According to my/our theory 🙂 , and your discomfort with my use of the word “we”, It might be possible to do/construe something like this….. If for 90% of the time, my common presence is fine with borrowing money from the local private finance/lending shark, putting both me and my dependents into risk, and 10% of the time it is definitely not fine to borrow more money from a lending shark, will-it -work-to-allow-the-90%-of-my-common-presence-rule?
Clearly i will collectively be in trouble if i do not allow my better 10% common presence make major decisions when it comes to borrowing from the future to pay for the present, 90%.
What can ‘we’ 10% or ‘we’ 90% hope to achieve here, 10% or 90% respectively?
Notes and errata:
“If for 90% of the time, ‘the’ common presence/constituents ‘are’ fine with borrowing money from the local ‘private’ bank putting both ‘Texas’ and ‘its’ dependents into risk, and 10% of the time it is definitely not fine to borrow more money from a lending shark, will it work to allow the 90% of ‘the common presence/constituents rule?
Questions (amongst many others yet to be asked):
What is the alternative to ‘mob rule’ and those who understand ‘mob psychology’ for the purposes of exploitation?
06
The semantics i used here are full of holes. Hope all is not lost and something of the logic comes through.
A practical example might be if 90% of me wants to smoke and 10% of me does not. 90% of the time i will smoke and 10% of the time i will not.
How do i educate or perhaps govern what happens 90% of the time using what little 10% of the time is left within the collective duration of my common presence in this example?
07
Under our new “Fair Emissions Tax” (FET) all emissions are taxed according to the harm they produce to the environment, the nuclear industry would pay a tax for the privilege of radioactive emissions and the emissions of dangerous chemicals during the enrichment of the nuclear product….
The pesticide industry would pay a pesticide emissions tax.
Herbicide industry would pay a herbicide emissions tax.
The cost of the tax would be associated with the emission and the industry which produces it.
15
If an industry is unfairly targeted, the Beer Gas Industry for example, and pays a tax that is not proportional to the harm to the environment that it produces, a new Molecular Discrimination Act (MDA) will be created, and a special court system to handle those cases would make sure all industries are fairly taxed and not discriminated against under the new Harmful Anthropogenic Molecular Emissions Taxation Scheme (HAMETS).
14
How much tax are you paying for your brain emissions?
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🙂 LoL
01
C02 is a harmless gas. Its a gas of life and no man should never be allowed to put price on life.
00
June 23rd: UK Independence Day
120
There are only two arguments of any consequence,against Brexit, they are:
Oooh, oooh, oooh, if we have Brexit, the French and Germans will be beastly to us – so nothing new there, and
Having David Cameron negotiate a new trade treaty with the EU. Like this February, he will walk into the negotiating room talking tough, but waving a white flag, which will be a bit of a giveaway about his negotiating strengths and skills.
Just about the only scary thing the UK government has not yet said would happen in a post-Brexit world is a giant asteroid strike, although I believe this is now under consideration.
170
I am curious.
If the UK leaves the EU, the EU will presumably just continue as usual, interferring with everything, to the west of the English Channel (soon to be renamed, “The Eurochannel”)
But what will happen to all of those British Eurocrats who are presumably currently living the high-life in Brussels or Strasburg? Will they have to return to an impoverished United Kingdom, to spend the rest of their miserable lives living on tripe, jellied eels, and kippers?
120
The UK sends the worst of its failed politicians to the EU to get them out of the way.
Basically, it is a payoff for being smug and utterly incompetent – the Kinnocks are a classic case in point.
Why does the UK do it?
No idea, but it is just another good reason to vote leave.
70
So europe becomes Australia MkII? A new penal colony?
he he
20
Well, no. In Europia, the crooks are in charge.
30
If the other constituencies of Europe do likewise it also be a good thing. Down with quangos.
70
So many of the big government concepts start of as fora of cooperation then morph into over bearing dead weights that try to solve problems only big government can dream up, invariably at hugely increasing cost. The EU and UN are prime examples.
160
Hayek predicted that, on page after page.
20
The EU, a machine from hell, run by
unelected Brussels-Philosopher-Kings.
Get thee gone one time great Britain,
creator of Magna-Carta limits to the
divine right of kings, nation that created parliamentary democracy.
What would Winston Churchill say?… BREXIT!
231
As I was just commenting elsewhere…
What’s the EU but another rickety German Empire? How it melds with the neo-Ottomans should be interesting to watch. The two parties have gotten on okay before, of course.
The empire which dares not speak its name uses democratic-seeming institutions and soothing renditions of the Ode to Joy to persuade us that it’s just about happy families not grim compulsion. But the compulsion is starting to show more and more, isn’t it?
Conformity likes masquerading as cooperation and tolerance. Political figures of right and left stopped pronouncing that “marriage is for man/woman” and shifted to “if two people really love one another etc” almost overnight and in chorus. Very shortly after that we were hearing of prosecutions of the intolerant and the homophobic.
It’s starting now with nationhood. The moment is close when borders, integration, cohesion – the things fundamental to the nation state – will be rude notions (they’re already impolite). Then they’ll be obscenities.
I can hear it now: “If a person truly feels his future lies in another place or culture, no arbitrary line should confine etc”. (Strings softly play Ode to Joy.)
160
German Empire is a little misleading, the correct expression for the German dominated EU is the Fourth Reich.
Everyone knows about the Third Reich, the Second Reich was Kaiser Wilheim’s Germany and the First Reich was Charlemagne’s Holy Roman Empire.
80
The funniest bit was all those Henrys and Freds in medieval times running back and forth over the Alps to bring their Italian subjects to order. Never worked for long, of course. Sometimes they had to turn back round before they even got over the mountains. Occasionally they scored a sly, compliant pope to maintain their interests. (Don’t know why I’m mentioning that.)
40
Peter Miller – whether you call it German Empire or Fourth Reich is immaterial. What is almost unbelievable to me is that so many – nay, any – Britons now are content to take their orders from Germans. 70 years ago we concluded a disastrously bloody world war to prevent that happening.
I came to Australia 40 years ago and have been back to UK, briefly, only three times; and am shocked at how it has deteriorated. If I ever have to choose between my UK or Australian citizenship, that choice is already made.
90
‘…many of the leading campaigners for Brexit are sceptics about climate change. There is Nigel, now Lord, Lawson, chairman of the Global Warming Policy Foundation and chair of the Vote Leave campaign; other former Conservative ministers such as John Redwood and Owen Paterson; Douglas Carswell, the UKIP MP; and journalists like James Delingpole and Matt Ridley (once of The Economist).’
The Economist
170
There is a good reason for that.
Some people can think for themselves and are happy to take responsibility for their actions while others need to be part of a team that takes collective decisions so no-one is actually accountable. In fact, it does not actually matter if you are completely wrong.
One set are happy to go into business confident that they will get some customers while the other feel that there should be a bureaucracy to regulate who can buy what and from whom.
The lovers of bureaucracy, rules, regulations, committees, councils etc. naturally gravitate towards the many UN and EU bodies. The rest of us can manage without them.
180
When I worked in the UK, Government Ministries were staffed with Civil Servants. They are often still referred to, as that, I understand. The term means that they are servants of the law-civil, that is, the laws of the country.
In Australia and New Zealand, the term was, and still is, Public Servants, implying that they are there to serve the population.
The EU has a Bureaucracy, staffed by Bureaucrats. Bureaucrats are there to serve the needs of the Bureaucracy, and to ensure its continuation.
An analysis of the language used, often tells you more than you might expect.
130
You may have noted that the film highlights the EU largesse dispensed to wider societal intelligentsia and (even) including the Universities, thereafter disposed to loudly supporting the funding spigot. Sound familiar?
20
Great points by Daniel Hannan spoken with clarity and passion, this will be completely lost on the indoctrinated left of the UK that have been taught such patriotism is racist, sexist, fascist, capitalist, elitist and any other ‘ists’ or ‘isms’ that are NOT RELEVANT to what was orated, such is the dissonance of the afraid.
The mention of once fighting a civil war for democratic values is not far off again for the UK, a PC enforced acceptance of cultural Marxism has allowed an old enemy to entrench themselves within their borders, the idea of a “natural healthy thing to live under your own democratic values” simply will not be adhered to by those that prefer “convert or die”.
171
Taken from Piers Akerman Blog, The Daily Telegraph, a reply to a posted comment regarding the BOM and the internal audit of historical data compared to climate change media releases ….
The Bureau Sucks replied to Richard W
Sat 14 May 16 (03:58pm)
I worked in the Climate Section BOM for many years had no problems retrieving the correct data and times of the events. To me the Bureau has been infiltrated by the leftist intelligentsia and will do anything to satisfy their dreams. ( Angela. England). There should be a Audit done on the Bureau it would be interesting reading.
210
Dennis,as long as the Wentworth Waffler and Bill Shorton Brains are around,that will not happen.
10
A once again independent Britain divorced from the totalitarian trending Brussels dominated EU but still a Britain that, due to geography, can never be fully separated from the European continent and its nations and peoples, will act as a huge brake on the unaccountable, unelected, non responsible and increasingly dictatorial Brussels bureacracy.
A Britain so close to Europe physically and for the most part still a major European economic and military and legal force to be reckoned with by the nations still in the EU and across the world will act as an independent non EU but still European reference source in nearly every field for all the remaining EU nations.
If the British become independent from the Brussels dominated EU, then it is possible that the EU itself will self destruct or at the very least change into a much lower level organisation that merely co-ordinates European affairs that are of a common interest to its remaining member nations.
We nearly had something similar to the EU down here in Australia during the negotiations to create the Australian Federation of States which came into effect in January 1st 1901.
New Zealand and Fiji were both part of the negotiations to form the Australian Federation but withdrew before any formal ratification was agreed to.
Maybe Fiji has suffered somewhat for not being part of the Australian Commonwealth but it seems certain that New Zealand as an independent nation has not had any consequences from not affiliating with its very large “West Island” back in 1901.
[ there are so many Kiwis here in Australia that we became somewhat sardonically known as the “West Island”! ]
The Federation negotiations in any case only just convinced Western Australia to become a part of the Commonwealth.
And that was only accomplished because of the promise/ bribe of a rail line being constructed from South Australia to Western Australia’s Kalgoorlie Gold fields to link up with the WA narrow gauge from there to Perth.
The promise to build the trans-continental rail was the bribe that eventually convinced the West Aussies to join the new Commonwealth in 1901.
A WA membership of the Commonwealth and a one continent, one nation , one peoples for which we should everlastingly get down on our knees and thank the good lord and those political negotiators of the Federation for.
There are very, very few places on this earth where one can drive or fly 3000 kilometres or more across one of the world’s major land masses and when you alight from your transport you will find the same language, the same people, the same laws , the same shops, the same vehicle licenses and the same of nearly everything.
And you might get pulled over by the cops for a drink driving check but nobody will ever ask to see and check your visa or your passport or your papers anywhere across all of that 4000 km wide land mass.
In their wisdom, our predecessors created for the generations who were to follow, The Lucky Country.
120
The Australian constitution still refers to New Zealand, at least in the preamble.
“…”The States” shall mean such of the colonies of New South Wales, New Zealand, Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, and South Australia, including the northern territory of South Australia, as for the time being are parts of the Commonwealth, and such colonies or territories as may be admitted into or established by the Commonwealth as States; and each of such parts of the Commonwealth shall be called “a State”…”
100
James, thank you. I did not know that. :- )
30
Until at least the 1960-70 period New Zealand sent delegates to Australian Constitutional Conventions as observers.
40
New Zealand was originally governed from Sydney, I understand. But don’t ask me for details – it was a little before my time.
40
On Global Warming, Daniel is an expert in bureaucracy, as anyone would be in Brussels as a Member of the European Parliament. In Melbourne about three years ago he was asked what would happen if Global Warming (now called Climate Change) was found to be nonsense and how long it would take to die. His answer was 20 years.
Too many people have done degrees in Environmentalism, Climate Change and too many people depend on Global Warming for their livings, from Solar Panel salesmen to heavy manufacturers making Australian windmills. Global Warming is a huge industry. How many councils have Climate Change people? How many universities have degree courses? Climate Change is its meaningless offspring, a generation later. It will be 2035 before both are dead, even as total nonsense.
Brussels is another group like the UN, a product of the 1950s and totally discredited, like Global Warming. The UK does not need these regional groupings any more and no country wants uncontrolled migration.
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‘His answer was 20 years.’
Only if the hiatus continues after La Nina, but if temperatures begin to fall next year then we may rid ourselves of this nonsense within five years.
On the other hand, its taken 20 years for the Klimatariat to acknowledge there is a hiatus.
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I think that is Daniel’s point. Even if temperatures fall rapidly, it will still be a self justifying bureaucracy building windmills and subsidizing solar panels. Someone will invent the reason CO2 is also responsible for the cooling. After all, they invented Climate Change without any definition.
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“”subsidizing ”
“subsidizing” is term often used to illustrate the favoritism of a creditor, usually a financial institution of some kind.
30
*is a term more often used…..
20
The UN utilises the following definition (see below). You may notice it is dependent on land usage and atmospheric composition. By definition therefore, zero ‘climate change’ = zero humans. Not an ideal scenario, unless you happen to be the sort of eco-totalitarian bureaucrat referred to in Brexit etc.
definition ‘CLIMATE CHANGE‘
00
A great speech. Totally ignored by the BBC which reports on the overpaid/undertaxed elite [snip] bureaucrats of the World Bank, the IMF etc who are paid by taxpayers to do nothing useful, but spout garbage.
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i saved the brexit film this morning to watch tonite. will watch the hannan speech then.
however:
14 May: SMH: Josephine Tovey: Naomi Klein to be awarded 2016 Sydney Peace Prize
Naomi Klein is not someone you might think of foremost as a peacenik, per se.
The iconoclastic author, perhaps the most prominent leftist thinker of her generation, has been a dogged proponent of other political crusades during her career – from the anti-globalisation movement virtually defined by her 2000 manifesto No Logo, to Occupy Wall Street, and later and most prominently, the climate-change activism of her 2014 tome This Changes Everything, which made a forceful case for not only why climate change was an urgent crisis, but why systemic change to global capitalism is the only solution.
But six months from now, Klein will travel to Australia to be named the recipient of the 2016 Sydney Peace Prize.
The Sydney Peace Foundation, which is located within the University of Sydney and receives support from the City of Sydney, chose Klein, the jury said, for “exposing the structural causes and responsibility for the climate crisis, for inspiring us to stand up locally, nationally and internationally to demand a new agenda for sharing the planet that respects human rights and equality”…
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/naomi-klein-to-be-awarded-2016-sydney-peace-prize-20160512-gotj37.html
60
I seem to recall in the distant past some sort of tiff with a fellow named Hitler or Hilter, expressing disinterest in the UK being ruled by unelected bureaucrats from a city in Europe starting with “B.” But here we are again. Surely no Englishman, and most surely no Scot, would voluntarily allow himself and his children to be at the mercy of oligarchs, no matter what the initial of the rock they’ve crawled out from under.
80
The Brits have won the war (just) against Adolf, but lost Britain against the so-called multiculturalism.
Sadly the Brits now are not the same people and can,t be compared to their grandfather and grandmother generation which was ready to fight and die on beaches and in the fields. Today’s Brits created their own Armageddon and this is their last chance to avoid it.
Just like days before September 1939 most people thought that Adolf would avoid the war and save Europe from bloodshed, 3 generations later the people believe that the spectre of multicultural war is all but impossible.
People never learn from their mistakes as history is forgotten and bears no physical pain on future generations.
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Don’t blame all of us, the British, Dariusz, for the mess. There are just too many sheeple who are more interested in the trash on the Gogglebox to notice what is really going on.
00
“how did this bizarre faceless elite layer of unaccountable power come to be?”
The UN and the entirely political UN body the IPCC? Both products of the desire for power over others and money, and the carbon tax and ETS schemes, taxation without representation. Unless Kevin Rudd becomes UN chief or even Malcolm Turnbull or Julia Gillard?
80
For a scientific analysis of Brexit and all things EU, visit Richard North’s EU Referendum blog.
Whatever your view of Brexit, you can’t call yourself informed on EU matters without taking his forensic analysis into account.
60
Great oratory
60
Maybe, just maybe, the Brits by leaving the EU will inspire her cousins in the US, as was done by the Magna Carta, to restore our own freedom. The rise of Trump, love him or hate him, is a positive sign. He has already wrought the destruction of the odious political correct mantra.
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One can only hope and pray.
50
Jo
Due to the financial downwash of veg management and drought I can’t afford enough g’s to watch videos etcs,
But seems nearly time someone in UK dusted off and updated Cromwell’s address to Charles I
http://quotegeek.com/personalities/oliver-cromwell/4330/
Not that I’m a fan of Cromwell either but if he didn’t say something I could use that would be really exceptional!
IMO of course
60
“how did this bizarre faceless elite layer of unaccountable power come to be?”
In a word – complacency.
80
Not just compliancy, but also our democratic system which panders to the lowest demoninator. The external threat of nazism and communism welded the strength of democratic states into more a less unified front. With that threat removed complacency, indulgence set it.
Just like under the Pax Romana with no external threats people turned on each other and destroyed the system from within.
Armed with this knowledge futuristic movies showing post-apocalyptic scenarios (“Oblivion” is one my favourites) are becoming my nightmares. I still wait for my apocalyptic movie not brought about by silly aliens, apes or zombies but ourselves. The “on the Beach” movie is probably the closest to my vision of the end and hope it will never come to fruition.
60
Big governments just want to get bigger. People want smaller governments. Hence totalitarianism and oppression is coming. George Orwell was right on the money.
90
The campaign to REMAIN has analogies with the global warming debate.
– A consensus of the World’s leaders and experts believe that Britain should REMAIN in the EU.
– There are scare stories about the future outside the EU, based on economic models with biased assumptions.
– There are scary scenarios. David Cameron was claiming in the last week that Brexit could start World War 3.
– The precautionary principle is pushed hard. We British must stay in the EU because things might be completely different if Britain exits.
– Unsubstantiated opinions are stated as facts, or made to appear as facts. For instance, see a leaflet I received from the official REMAIN campaign RE: THE FACTS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT EUROPE AND THE EU REFERENDUM.
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We were also told about the troubles that “Could” wipe out half the world with the Y2K bug.Turned out to be a complete DUD.
20
Makes you want to weep!
“BRITAIN has missed out on trillions of pounds worth of trade because of its membership of the EU, a report by a leading think tank claimed last night.
He found that a number of small, independent countries that apparently had no “collective clout” were still successful in agreeing trade deals.
Chile, Korea, Singapore and Switzerland had all been more successful than the EU in agreeing trade deals with other countries, the report showed.
The report said: “This data gives no support to the view that small independent countries are less able to negotiate with large economic powers, or that the latter are less willing to negotiate with them, and no support either to the view that they will be slower in concluding such agreements.
“Those particular disadvantages for smaller, independent countries are clearly imaginary, and along with it surely the notion that the UK would be unable to negotiate agreements on its own.”
Since 1970, the EU had concluded 36 free trade agreements, the report found.
The aggregate GDP in 2015 of the 55 countries with an EU agreement in force in January 2015 was $6.7 trillion.
In contrast, the aggregate GDP of all the countries with which Chile had agreements in force was $58.3 trillion, Korea’s totalled $40.8 trillion, Singapore’s $38.7 trillion and Switzerland’s $39.8 trillion. The agreements of these four countries included their agreements with the EU, which has a GDP of $16.7 trillion.
About 90 per cent of the agreements of these four smaller, independent countries include services, whereas only 68 per cent of the EU’s trade agreements do so, an omission especially harmful to the UK, with its strong service sector.
The EU has therefore opened services markets of just $4.8 trillion to UK exporters, whereas the Swiss have opened markets of $35 trillion, the Singaporeans of $37.2 trillion, the Koreans of $40 trillion and Chileans of $55.4 trillion.
Analysis of the international economy over the last 50 years found that “independent” nations outside multi-national trade blocs were the most successful at agreeing free trade deals with other countries.
In one example, Switzerland had opened up trade markets worth £24trillion over the period compared with just £3.3trillion for the UK over the same period.
Report author Michael Burrage, a sociologist and university lecturer, said his analysis demolished the “myth” spread by Brussels supporters that British trade with the rest of the world would be damaged by withdrawal from the EU.
His report, “Myth and Paradox in the Single Market”, is published by Civitas, the Institute for the Study of Civil Society.
“By surrendering the right to conduct its own trade negotiations, the UK has sacrificed many years of freer trade for its exporters of both goods and services,” the report said.
Mr Burrage examined all trade deals agreed around the world since 1960″
40
There are “Only”28 countries in the EU,so what happens to the other 170 countries?Even the “Communist” countries,trade with us,so why will the UK go to “War” with the rest of the world if they vote”BREXIT”?
10
“In any event, had the UK simply kept pace with the Swiss, their
exports to Turkey would have been assisted by an FTA four years
earlier than they were, to Israel seven years earlier, and to Korea five
years earlier. In many other cases, the number of lost years is of
course still mounting, since Switzerland already has an FTA in force,
while an EU agreement has still to be ratiied and come into force,
or is still being negotiated, or has not yet begun to be negotiated.
Switzerland’s FTA with Singapore came into force 10 years ago,
those with Canada and Japan five years ago. Its agreement with
China and Hong Kong came into force more than a year ago.
That, sadly, is still not the end of the story. These lost years of freer
trade refer only to goods, so to them must be added the lost years
of freer trade in services with the 15 countries with which the Swiss
already have FTAs covering service industries in force, and the EU
has been unable to reach any such agreement. The costs of these lost
years of freer trade to UK service industries are probably already
very large and still mounting, while the UK waits for the EU to
amend its FTAs to include services. It may be a long wait.
Moreover, if the UK had been able to negotiate its own agreements,
it is likely that they would have been tailored rather more closely
to help the UK’s own exporters than those of the EU as a whole. The
UK would not only have had many more years of freer trade, but
in all probability that trade would have been rather more
advantageous for UK exporters”
40
the EU Is a dead duck- “Problems of the Single Market: excerpts from a 2007 EC report-
‘There has been a slowdown of trade growth within the EU15 and euro-zone
relative to trade growth with third partners’
‘The trade boosting effect of the introduction of the euro has… been far less
pronounced than the trade effect of enlargement.’
‘…since 2000 the trade effect of the enlargement process and particularly intraEU15 trade integration, seem to have stalled.’
‘EU product markets remain heavily regulated, business dynamism is insufficient
and prices rigidities are persistent.’
‘…the share of extra EU suppliers in… consumption… has gradually increased
at the expense of domestic production.’
‘Not only are EU firms less active in fast growing markets but also they have not
managed to improve their performance in fast growing sectors at world level
although this was one of the main goals of the 1992 Single Market programme.’
‘…the Internal Market… has not led to a sufficient shift of the specialisation of
the production sector towards the more technology intensive sectors where EU
competitiveness can be more sustainable in the long-run.’
‘16.6 per cent of world exports of low technology goods originated in the EU25
while only 8.4 per cent and 1.6 per cent came from the US and Japan.
Furthermore, the EU25 reveals a comparative disadvantage in high technology
sectors including ICT 52…’
‘The Internal Market does not seem to have been a sufficient catalyst for
innovation and resource reallocation towards technology intensive activities.’
‘…the innovative performance of the EU as a whole and of most EU countries
lags significantly behind that of top performers such as the US and Japan…
What is more worrying is the widening gap between the laggards and frontrunners and between the EU and other developed economies.’
‘Since 2001 the volume of FDI from the rest of the world into the EU25 has
gradually declined.’
‘…the Internal Market has not been able to deliver in terms of promoting further
the role of the EU with respect to global investment flows.’
‘The internal market two-fold objective of making the EU a more attractive place
for foreign investors and of boosting the presence and competitive position of
EU firms in world markets seems far from being achieved.’
‘The Internal Market is also losing its attractiveness for international R&D
investment. Multinational companies prefer to carry out their R&D activities in
the US – and more recently in China and India – rather than in the EU”
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Rant over- thankyou Jo.
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I have two companies I am dealing with, One- my trade with is declining , the other – my trade is increasing.
The declining company wants me to join with them as they think we will see an upturn in trade.
My thinking is they just want me to keep bailing them out – any thoughts ? My other worry is they seem to want to take over my board of directors and run my own company, Is this a safe option?
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In the current wave of mass economic invasion without allegiance or conditions, Britain is still unique as an island nation. It alone has a physical border and this has set Britain apart from Europe since the water rose after the last ice age. It is what stopped Napoleon and what stopped Hitler after the Battle of Britain in 1940. Only Britain can elect to remove this border and Daniel is saying they would be foolish to do so both democratically and historically. As a member of the European Parliament, he is uniquely qualified to say so. The British must say no to taxation and rule from Brussels. We should say the same to the UN.
There is absolutely no logic in Australia volunteering to (carbon) tax its own people to send money to the minions of the UN to be handed out to their friends as they please. Like the UK, we also want to decide who comes to our country and under what conditions. There must be conditions to any generosity. Even parents know that.
Sadly total surrender to the UN is what all our current political leaders want. Never has there been such a disconnect between Australia’s politicians and the people! I suspect because they are paid too much and see politics as a rich prestige career with real power and without responsibility, no longer public duty or sacrifice. A few years in parliament doing nothing and you can retire for the rest of your life on ten times the average wage, indexed.
The only politician we all know to be brutally frank is Tony Abbott. To quote Tony, Climate Science is crap, socialism posing as environmentalism. Has any politician been clearer?
We want politicians we can trust to look after our interests, not theirs and those of their friends. Helen Clarke and Kevin Rudd, Julie Bishop, Julia Gillard all very happy friends of the UN, the next big career for them, at our great cost. The only time our politicians show any concern for others is at an election when make believe Malcolm goes around hugging people on camera before lunch. We want our honest PM back, the one who rescues people and fights real bushfires and doesn’t keep his millions in tax havens in the Caribbean.
Those who removed our PM should not be reelected and make very sure to put the Greens last. Send a message that the Australian elections are not going to be gamed and certainly not by the UN and the Greens.
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Jo, thanks for the link to the Hannan speech. I had seen the film but not the speech. It comes to something when you have to get your information about a crucial British referendum from a contact in Perth, Australia!
The film is well worth a watch. Note Matt Ridley’s surprise when he realises that the EU does not have two presidents but four. I don’t remember voting for any of them. See how many laws there are about pillow cases.
Discover that the EU employs people who earn more than the UK’s PM – 10,000 of them, in fact! EU Commissioners’ salaries start at over Euro 20,000. Oh, that is per month, by the way. http://en.euabc.com/word/814
On top of that they get schooling allowances, attendance allowances, travel allowances, secretarial allowances etc. etc. No wonder they are in favour of keeping it.
Many of the UK’s failed and otherwise time-expired politicians find a job there. Good salary, great pensions. I wonder why the UK’s political elite like it so much? Could they be thinking to the future?
The more I find out the more sick I feel.
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Agree the film is well worth watching ( I have only watched half of it). In fact I’d go further and say it is a MUST watch if want to get your head around the politics of the IPCC and the AGW issues.
Thank you Jo for highlighting it.
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Sorry I should have added the parallels with the AGW politics are striking, hence watch the film.
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In a history class, many years ago, we learned of the arranged marriages of the titled of Europe that transferred land and serfs from one royal house to another. At least now the serfs get to vote on it.
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Please apply a bit of caution there, at least until the serfs are counting the vote!
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The people who cast the votes don’t decide an election, the people who count the votes do. Joseph Stalin. Martin Armstrong knows a lot about how current voting elections of so called democracies of the world are supposedly rigged.
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For me the most disastrous aspect is the Euro currency, which Britain fortunately opted out of. Conditions of entry included having the government budget deficit below 3% of GDP and National Debt below 60% of GDP.
After some years France breached the 3% limit and gave a Gallic shrug when asked to get expenditure under control. Germany soon followed. Greece breached the guidelines when it ran into financial trouble paying for the 2004 Olympics. Somewhere it also fiddled the figures on the deficit, so the eventual severity of the crisis caught the politicians unawares. As a result unemployment in many European states is still very high, such as 24% in Greece and 21% in Spain. But the Eurocrats cannot acknowledge their failure. Instead they want more power.
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I remember my reaction, in 2012, when they banned incandescent light bulbs (on both sides of the Atlantic):
“A Moment Of Silence For the Fall of Europe”
Of course, I already knew World War III was the only likely final outcome by then, due to the epidemic, endemic incompetence in science, the insanity of the Left under Obama, and the subornation of all of our institutions and the media to the new tyranny.
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I went to an ‘EU debate’ meeting of farmers in Hampshire (England), and was told by an old boy how he’d heard that ‘Daryl Hannah’ speaking once….
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My name appears in the credits as one of three co-producers.
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Stephen, seriously — did you work on this. It’s an excellent movie — needs to be shown in every school too.
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Jo,
I discussed it with Martin Durkin in the early stages and provided a block of funding.
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sort of off topic… but is it?
start at the picture
http://classicallybrilliant.tumblr.com/
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Thanks Andy
Very appropriate for me at the moment.
Breathe.
And longer term,the other items.
Manipulation is something we need to understand and deal with because a lack of awareness can lead to disastrous consequences.
Just look at the overt manipulation of science and politics at the moment.
Be aware.
KK
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Very appropriate indeed. Boiling a frog. This is how I feel living in Australia now. There are so many cameras on the road I really get angry. I also believe nbn is being forced nationally so the government can monitor our online activities. Australia is acting very nationalistic and I don’t like it one bit.
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Greg
We have no option but to believe that the most important thing for government is revenue raising to spend on vote buying ploys.
Many traffic fines are trivial but the real road rangers, both licensed and unlicensed carry on regardless.
Remember Mann Monis who should have been in gaol.
Good vote getting strategy to”go easy” on minorities.
Disastrous for everyone.
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‘Beijing urged Brussels on Friday to honor its international obligation to treat China as a market economy, after the European Parliament passed a non-binding resolution of refusal.
‘European experts said the parliament’s decision could result in the China-EU relationship becoming embroiled in a tit-for-tat scenario.
‘On Thursday, the European Parliament voted to refuse China market economy status, with many members saying that China has not met the five criteria for a market economy set by European institutions.’
China Daily
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Gee whizz. I didn’t know this isn’t the 1960s. 😉
But wait a minute, it’s not even the 1970s or 1980s, it’s the 2010s already, 2016 to be exact. How the time flies. But of what relevance is any argument like that about the world having become smaller when it’s been so clear for so long that the EU is failing, indeed, choking on it’s own bureaucratic bungling nonsense. Can no one see that? Well, the answer is that some can and some can’t. The man on the street, the guy whose struggle to keep going has gotten steadily worse, he can see it. But those who run the place have no such incentive. They’re blind.
I remember finding a short program on our local PBS station (Public Broadcasting System **) already 10 years ago at least, in which a member of the British Parliament was complaining about the edict from Brussels that every farmer had to accept truck loads of what amounts to industrial waste and plow it into his land. The rational for that was so lame I won’t repeat it. He had the footage showing it being done to prove his point. And I cannot think of any better reason to leave the EU than that kind of absentee landlord. If you didn’t understand the expression, “The urge to kill,” previously, you would after having that shoved down your throat.
It didn’t take watching either video for more than a few seconds to see the point. I’ve probably said this before but when I saw the EU being talked about I said to myself, “Self, they’ll regret it.” And here it is — actually here it has been for a long time in fact. England, for the love of god, pull the plug on your connection with Brussels. And everyone else in the EU should do the same. And the sooner the better.
I would not trust Brussels to cut my grass, not even what’s left of it after the drought has killed off a lot of it.
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** Not the same as NPR, National Public Radio, which has two left arms, probably two left legs also and is a socialist front organization — or worse.
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Roy.
I wish someone would cut my grass, it’s still growing strong near the start of winter.
And True. There is no hope in bruxelles.
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When the lawn is growing well so too is the grass for the livestock, and that it is doing here.
However, after a remarkable absence of cold days over the last three months it feels more like right for the time of year. However the first half of May shows the temp 4 degrees above average in a record that started in 1991. Now to see what the cooler second half of May does.
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I’ve actually thought of planting concrete several times. No matter what happens, enough water to keep it green or not enough, grass is a high maintenance item. 😉
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KK,
I actually do have someone who cuts the grass once a week. Even with what water we can put on it the stuff grows. And when the grass can’t get all the water it needs the weeds grow all the better. I have threatened to plant concrete several times. I hear that it doesn’t need watering or cutting. 😉
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Could be the solution Roy.
I did a quick scim last week and took off about a fortnights growth. It weighed about 7 pounds and I only did about a third of the whole.
See the problems caused by CO2 when you let water get near it.
No wonder people are concerned about it.
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KK<
Just for the fun of it, let that grass you cut off dry out thoroughly and then weigh it again if you can save it long enough — 3 or 4 days should be enough. The weight difference will be a measure of just how water intensive grass really is. The volume needed to store that dry grass should go down a lot too.
If I remember, water is about 8.3 pounds/US gallon, ignoring temperature effects on the volume of the water. I reckon you can convert that to metric (it's Sunday and I'm being lazy ;-)).
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Roy,to get that estimate I weighed one litre of day old grass and applied that roughly to the volume on the ground where it had been dropped.
By that time it had already probably lost some water. I’m not much of a gardener but have been using the dried clippings as ground cover around my wife’s plants. It stops weeds growing and seems to work well. Sixty years ago I thought my grandfather was not making good use of his time when pulling weeds, now I’m doing the same.
Life goes on, and often repeats.
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Grass clippings do indeed make very good mulch. But when you get so much of it each week from the lawn mower it’s too much (too mulch? ;-)) and so most of it gets hauled away. We’re now separating yard wast from other trash, which is good because the yard waste can be processed and recycled instead of filling up the landfill.
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What Hitler failed to achieve by force of arms over Britain, the EU has achieved by its anti-democratic bureaucracies. It is time for Britain to leave this cabal of stagnant economies and return to the real world of commerce.
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The next thing they need to do is to control their own bureaucrats. Remember, after WW11, the Brits shot themselves in the foot (feet) by permitting their bureaucrats to persist with “rationing” for years. Thus the average man in the street was already accustomed to what they subsequently got from the EU.
They not only need Brexit, but they need THEN to control the “mandarins” of Whitehall. Otherwise it will be a matter of Tweedledum and Tweedledummer.
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“how did this bizarre faceless elite layer of unaccountable power come to be?”
We allowed the Marxists to run our education system for half a century. That’s how it came about. The call for governments to make ever bigger contributions to an education system which turns out ever more poorly educated graduates is the greatest con of all.
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Ambiguity there. “ever more” intends to mean greater numbers of.
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Ted,
The EU and America have the same problem.
My argument for years has been to eliminate the Federal Government’s education establishment, then the state’s and then even county boards of education and return control of the schools to the only group of people in this world who have any legitimate vested interest in how the schools and the students are respectively educating and being educated, the local school board, the parents and voters of the school dostrict who can influence the curriculum, the discipline, literally everything about the schools, with a direct ability to monitor and decide to make changes if there are problems.
I get howells of complaint. But I’m still convinced it’s the right thing to do. The complaint is always, well what if the local school board gets it wrong? My answer is that most will get it more or less correct almost all the time. And if some don’t get it right their mistake isn’t dragging down the whole country’s schools with them.
We educated generations of our children with nothing but the local school boards and many times not even that, making decisions and we became a great nation. We then turned education over to a bunch of unaccountable absentee landlords and look what happened. We became enamored of Barack Obama’s slick tongue.
This is the poster boy for moving responsibility from the highest levels of government back down to the lowest. I’m sure there will be problems this way too. But as I said, the mistakes of one district can’t contaminate all the rest. And believe me, even if they start out not knowing what to do they will learn how to do that job again very fast. Nothing succeeds like having both the incentive and the power to change things that don’t work.
But what do I know? I don’t have all those fancy credentials in education. On the other hand, I’m not weighed down by them either. So I can observe and think. 🙂
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The EU = Mini NYO run by Unelected Nutters.
The U.N. is just a wannabe global version of the same basket case .
The U.K. needs to leave along with other member states , instead of carrying entire freeloader countries , corrupt central banks (IMF),and weak so called refugee policies .
The EU along with the UN both need to be abolished .
Its time to hit the Flush Button on both the EU and the UN and all their dictator advocates !
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Flush twice!
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After watching the ‘The Movie’, Turnbull’s decision to award the design and manufacture of Australia’s new submarines to France is doubly scary.
Maybe Turnbull is looking for a job in the EU after his second term as President of Australia has expired.
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Egor, you are right. There are many disturbing similarities between the the EU and the UN. Both no longer serve their intended purpose. Both have become bloated self serving bureaucracies fighting for their own survival and increased power at the expense of dis-empowered citizens.
A Brexit is something to be hoped for and encouraged. Brexit now means more than saving Britain. A Brexit can save Britain, Australia, Europe and the whole world.
For Britain, they get their country back. Their leaders will once again be answerable to the voters. Their laws will be their own as will their trade agreements.
Australia will profit greatly from trade agreements with the UK that the EU is currently blocking. LNG, coal, iron ore, alumina, uranium and thorium? We’ve got tonnes of it out the back and we’d love to sell it. A Brexit gives Australia a new age of prosperity.
A Brexit can also save Europe. The EU needs Britain’s billions to survive. The culture, economy and security of Europe is currently being destroyed by Mad Merkel’s Tarrarush Tourists. When the faceless kleptocrats and anti-social engineers of Brussels are crushed, Europe can rebuild.
A Brexit can save the world. We have seen what the faceless self serving EU sprungers have done to Europe. This is exactly what the UN has planned for the world. If the EU falls, and Europe escapes the yoke, the UN kleptocrats will know their plans and schemes are next.
When unelected foreign “elites” try ruling and taxing a sovereign nation from afar, then it’s time for a Boston Tea Party! Go Brexit!
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well said , Konrad.
All the so called ‘elites’ need to be left ‘swingin in the breeze’ , or at least ‘the Bum’s Rush Out’!
Which is what they deserve , instead of scheming and perpetuating how to steal our money , our rights , and our freedoms , whilst maintaining the deception that somehow it is in our best interests.
The climate fiasco is an example of this manifestation.
As Monckton has suggested : prosecute a few of these high profile shysters and the rest of the slim will scurry for the dark corners , which would bring down their houses of cards .
The main culprits : the EU , UN , all central banks , and especially the CAGW Gang of thieves and BSers …. would pretty well do it and get the world back on track and in pursuit of worthwhile goals ,instead of medieval beliefs and general lunacy and thievery .
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