Cameron's EU Veto (Or Not!)

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Cameron's EU Veto (Or Not!)

Post by Mid A 15 »

As discussion on this is topical I thought I'd post a link to what I think is quite a readable publication, given the dryness of the subject matter, if anyone is interested.



http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4382602/387.pdf
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Re: Cameron's EU Veto (Or Not!)

Post by J.R. »

Whatever the link is, it won't open.

I'll just say that 'Call Me Dave' has gone up 100% in my estimation ! Dave's 'right-hand-puppet', Cleggy has got a right sulky strop on

Monsewer Sarkastiky and Frau Merky are really starting to get right up my nose.

There bit of a little rumour that the Germans actually LOST WWII, and the French just surrendered.

I just loved the comment in one paper today.... "Cameron has got as much balls as Thatcher !!"
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Re: Cameron's EU Veto (Or Not!)

Post by NEILL THE NOTORIOUS »

I was unable to access Andy's reference --- however ---
I'm afraid I have been waiting, for some time, for Mr Clegg to behave like a Liberal Democrat.
Our Family has been Liberals since we were Whigs, and My Great Grandfather, who hated three thinga-- Liquor, Conservatives and Masons, is probably spinning in his grave in Salisbury.
One of his sons (NOT the VC) had to wait until his Father died,so that he could become Mayor of Salisbury, having adopted two of the above --- not Liquor :lol: --- The old man would have cut him off without a shilling !!!
Moi ? --- I haven't given up Liquor, and have never been attracted to the other two -- :lol: :drinkers:
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Re: Cameron's EU Veto (Or Not!)

Post by Mid A 15 »

I've just tried the link and it seems to be working now.

Perhaps there was some sort of temporary fault with it.
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Re: Cameron's EU Veto (Or Not!)

Post by J.R. »

WOW ! That's some file.

Have to admit, I gave up after about 10 pages !!
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Re: Cameron's EU Veto (Or Not!)

Post by NEILL THE NOTORIOUS »

I confess, that I did admire Cameron's riposte today, in PMQ ---

When being baited by Ed Milliband --- "Well at least we aren't Brothers !" :lol: :lol:
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Re: Cameron's EU Veto (Or Not!)

Post by jhopgood »

Probably seem by most, but jic.

AN OPEN LETTER TO GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL

By Frederick Forsyth

Dear Madam Chancellor


PERMIT me to begin this letter with a brief description of my knowledge of, and affection for, your country.

I first came to Germany as a boy student aged 13 in 1952, two years before you were born. After three extended vacations with German families who spoke no English I found at the age of 16 and to my pleasure that I could pass for German among Germans.

In my 20s I was posted as a foreign correspondent to East Germany in 1963, when you would have been a schoolgirl just north of East Berlin where I lived.

I know Germany, Frau Merkel, from the alleys of Hamburg to the spires of Dresden, from the Rhine to the Oder, from the bleak Baltic coast to the snows of the Bavarian Alps. I say this only to show you that I am neither ignoramus nor enemy.

I also had occasion in those years to visit the many thousands of my countrymen who held the line of the Elbe against 50,000 Soviet main battle tanks and thus kept Germany free to recover, modernise and prosper at no defence cost to herself.

And from inside the Cold War I saw our decades of effort to defeat the Soviet empire and set your East Germany free.

I was therefore disappointed last Friday to see you take the part of a small and vindictive Frenchman in what can only be seen as a targeted attack on the land of my fathers.

We both know that every country has at least one aspect of its society or economy that is so crucial, so vital that it simply cannot be conceded.

For Germany it is surely your automotive sector, your car industry.

Any foreign-sourced measure to target German cars and render them unsaleable would have to be opposed to vetopoint by a German chancellor.

For France it is the agricultural sector. For more than 50 years members of the EU have been taxed under the terms of the Common Agricultural Policy in order to subsidise France’s agriculture. Indeed, the CAP has been the cornerstone of every EU budget since the first day.

Attack it and France fights back

For us the crucial corner of our economy is the financial services industry. Although parts of it exist all over the country it is concentrated in that part of London known even internationally as “the City”.

It is not just a few greedy bankers; we both have those but the City is far more. It is indeed a vast banking agglomeration of more banks than anywhere else in the world.

But that is the tip of the iceberg. Also in the City is the world’s greatest concentration of insurance companies.

Add to that the brokers; traders in stocks and shares worldwide, second only, and then maybe not, to Wall Street. But it is not just stocks.

The City is also home to the “exchanges” of gold and precious metals, diamonds, base metals, commodities, futures, derivatives, coffee, cocoa… the list goes on and on.

And it does not yet touch upon shipping, aviation, fuels, energy, textiles… enough. Suffice to say the City is the biggest and busiest marketplace in the world.

It makes the Paris Bourse look like a parish council set against the United Nations and even dwarfs your Frankfurt many times.

That, surely, is the point of what happened in Brussels. The French wish to wreck it and you seem to have agreed. Its contribution to the British economy is not simply useful nor even merely valuable.

It is absolutely crucial. The financial services industry contributes 10 per cent of our Gross Domestic Product and 17.5 per cent of our taxation revenue.

A direct and targeted attack on the City is an attack on my country. But that, although devised in Paris, is what you have chosen to support.

You seem to have decided that Britain is once again Germany’s enemy, a situation that has not existed since 1945.

I deeply regret this but the choice was yours and entirely yours. The Transaction Tax or Tobin Tax you reserve the right to impose would not even generate money for Brussels.

It would simply lead to massive emigration from London to other havens. Long ago it was necessary to live in a city to trade in it.

In the days when deals can flash across the world in a nanosecond all a major brokerage needs is a suite of rooms, computers, telephones and the talent of the young people barking offers and agreements down the phone.

Such a suite of rooms could be in Berne, Thun, Zurich or even Singapore. Under your Tobin Tax tens of thousands would leave London.

This would not help Brussels, it would simply help destroy the British economy.

Your conference did not even save the euro. Permit me a few home truths about it. The euro is a Franco-German construct.

It was a German chancellor (Kohl) who ordered a German banker (Karl Otto Pohl) to get together with a French civil servant (Delors) on the orders of a French president (Mitterrand) and create a common currency.

Which they did. IT was a flawed construct. Like a ship with a twisted hull it might float in calm water but if it ever hit a force eight it would probably founder.

Even then it might have worked for it was launched with a manual of rules, the Growth And Stability Pact. If the terms of that book of rules had been complied with the Good Ship Euro might have survived.

But compliance was entrusted to the European Central Bank which catastrophically failed to insist on that compliance.

Rules governing the growing of cucumbers are more zealously enforced. This was a European Bank in a German city under a French president and it failed in its primary, even its sole, duty.

This had everything to do with France and Germany and nothing whatever to do with Britain.

Yet in Brussels last week the EU pack seemed intent only on venting its spleen on the country that wisely refused to abolish its pound.

You did not even address yourselves to saving the euro but only to seeking a way to ensure it might work in some future time.

But the euro will not be saved. It is crumbling now. And since you have now turned against my country, from this side of the Channel, Madame Chancellor, one can only say of the euro: YOU MADE IT, YOU MEND IT.
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Re: Cameron's EU Veto (Or Not!)

Post by J.R. »

My sentiment exactly, John !

I love the allegedly true story, during the Berlin blockade, of a 'senior' pilot landing in Berlin, and taking the wrong taxi-path to the terminal.

He was greeted by a loud stern voice in his head=phones......

"Vot are you doing ?? Haf you NEVER flown to Berlin before, Captain ???"

To which he quietly replied........

"Many many times, Fritz, my course was to Berlin, but NEVER to land !!"
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Re: Cameron's EU Veto (Or Not!)

Post by icomefromalanddownunder »

Oh dear :(

What a sad, sorry, but not entirely unexpected, state of affairs.

Let's pray that words remain the only things thrown in anger.
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Re: Cameron's EU Veto (Or Not!)

Post by NEILL THE NOTORIOUS »

I am not at all sure about Mr Cameron's intervention on the subject of Scottish Independence.

His remarks, that it should be under the auspices of the Westminster Parliament, might seem to infuriate the Scots sufficiently to voe an overwhelming "YES".

Mr Salmond has an overall majority in his Administration, and the idea of Financial Independence, whilst remaining part of the UK, with Defence and Diplomatic representation, controlled by Westminster, seems sensible.

I have no axe to grind -- being of Irish Family, but it seems a silly course to steer, which may upset people.

Underlying all this is, of course North Sea Oil !!!
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Re: Cameron's EU Veto (Or Not!)

Post by J.R. »

I see in yesterdays paper that Mr C has another veto ready up his sleeve over a new dictat being issued by the Frogs and the Gerries.

(Can I use those two words, or am I in contravention of the new rules in this world gone mad ?)
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