Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan Fry
Are you suggesting that after sticking a middle finger to Mainland Europe, we can still have a close relationship with the EU?
Look what happened when we vetoed something that had nothing to do with us!
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I don't want a close relationship with the EU, just one of open trade and movement of people - see Switzerland and Norway.
If you think that had nothing to do with us that just goes to show how seriously your opinions on this matter should be taken, and explains your Europhile nature to some extent. Nice and ignorant just as the Eurocrats would wish people to be.
All Cameron asked for was that the City of London not have a transactions tax put on it, this is absolutely appropriate given that over 80% of the tax Europe-wide would be paid by the UK, and Sweden also oppose such a financial transactions tax because they tried it and it absolutely devastated their financial sector.
FYI These are the European Commission's own numbers:
A long-run (20 year) reduction in gross domestic product in the EU by 0.53% if "mitigating effects" take hold, or up to 1.76 per cent if they don't
Yes, between 0.53% and 1.76% of the entire EU GDP, borne >80% by the UK for the next 20 years.
So the veto was because Cameron asked for protection from having the UK's GDP raped by the EU for a tax that they themselves admit will be economically harmful.