http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/232301/Get-Britain-out-of-the-EU-now/

(Complete with VDO)

So - although this matter will never be brought up by any of the main parties, what do you think?

Completely out?

Back to the free-trade concept?

Stay in and try to curtail the Brussels excesses?

Stay in at any cost?

(Can't be bothered with a poll)

(Although we know a fair bit about all regular posters, it may clarify matters if you declare your nationality when you post)

Me, being English, have no truck with these continental oiks that are trying to control our lives. Bloody Belgians are not even man enough to declare themselves as Northern French. And look at the mess you made of the Congo - now Brussels is trying to do the same to Europe.

Aux armes, citoyens!!

As an American who has been to London a couple times in the past 18 months it doesn't really seem like the EU. Not just because I had to use GBP. It doesn't have an EU-feel to it like Sweden or Denmark do and they don't use the Euro.

I have friends from other EU countries who went there to work, visa-free. Presumably taking jobs that Brits themselves could be doing. I wouldn't want them to get kicked out of the country so I would vote in the poll for the UK to stay in the EU. Good reason, eh?

As an American who has been to London a couple times in the past 18 months it doesn't really seem like the EU

I am back in the UK for a few days and it doesnt even feel British here anymore, let alone the EU

As an American who has been to London a couple times in the past 18 months it doesn't really seem like the EU

I am back in the UK for a few days and it doesnt even feel British here anymore, let alone the EU

How does it feel -

Downtown New York or central Karachi?

Koheesti - having worked for many years with Swedes (Skanska International) I feel a lot closer to them than other Europeans. I have probably worked as long with Germans, but not the same fellow feeling.

Anyway, it's not the people of any EU country that I'm concerned about - most are also trying to survive and bring their kids up right.

It's the rules coming out of Brussels on a daily basis that are promulgated by an unelected bureaucracy that really gets up my nose. Starting with the permitted straightness/curvature of a banana - going through the rule that eggs must be sold by weight, not number - now Cornish pasties must be made in Cornwall (although the ingredients may come from any place in the world) - through to more serious things, such as an ambassador-system (what if the UK wants to support an American initiative (Thatcher supporting Reagan on Libyan bombing) but the EU doesn't? Who should the foreign diplomats believe?

When this was a free-trade initiative (very briefly - in the sixties) it had some sense. Now it's just costing every taxpayer in Europe a shed-load of money to keep these bureaucrats in wine and pensions.

Quit now.

As an American, I generally like the concept of the EU. It is a counterbalance to the US, but in a positive way. The US needs to listen to the EU (although the US is still good at divide and conquer)

When I listen to the anti-EU arguments, it sounds like the discussion of people in the different states talking about Washington. We are more alike than you will know (language and some cultural aspects being the exception).

You took a lot of the concepts of the US system, looked at the pitfalls and improved them, or at least set them to meet the needs of a greater cultural diversity.

Britain is the exception in the EU equation, it's Europe's version of Texas--kind of an entity of it's own. But that's good for the EU and I think good for Britain in the long run.

PS: Oh, I should mention, I worked in the EU for a time and had some dealing with the UN and the EU in Brussels--not too much different than Washington, but a little more colorful and splashy.

Now it's just costing every taxpayer in Europe a shed-load of money to keep these bureaucrats in wine and pensions.

that's why a number of us EU-citizens opted to live outside the EU thus avoiding financing the Brussels parasites with our tax €URos.

p.s. you forgot to mention the condom sizes which have to conform with EU-norms established by those good-for-nothing

I think the EU needs to negotiate things like visa regulations with other countries as a whole instead of as individual countries. If EU countries are in Schengen, have the Euro, etc, why should they accept that other countries have different visa rules for each of them? Maybe France & Germany don't want to risk any of their privileges for Estonia and Slovenia?<BR><BR>EU Standards - I lived in one EU country when it joined the EU. One of the first things was they had to start changing the content of fat in their milk. I can almost understand if it is for export but I would think for the domestic market countries should still be able to make what they want.

I think the EU needs to negotiate things like visa regulations with other countries as a whole instead of as individual countries. If EU countries are in Schengen, have the Euro, etc, why should they accept that other countries have different visa rules for each of them? Maybe France & Germany don't want to risk any of their privileges for Estonia and Slovenia?<BR><BR>EU Standards - I lived in one EU country when it joined the EU. One of the first things was they had to start changing the content of fat in their milk. I can almost understand if it is for export but I would think for the domestic market countries should still be able to make what they want.

But seldom is a product restricted in sale to the country of origin.

Chinese milk laced with melamine was sold in Thailand. Dutch Mill, using this Chinese base milk and packed in Thailand, was banned in Vietnam because it tested positive for melamine additives.

Scott - the difference to the US is that your laws are introduced by elected law-makers, who have to face re-election after a few years. Many of the regulations governing life in Europe are now introduced by bureaucrats and never does the public have a chance to decide on these rules. Brussels introduces the diktat, the civil services of the EU countries implement them, after their own interpretations. The people of Europe no longer have a say in how they should govern / be governed.

Get out now !!

Barnsley by-election - UKIP come second. Lib-Dems lose their deposit.

Not just the Daily Express.

The Torygraph has joined in now.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/alasdair-palmer/8363560/You-cant-dismiss-everyone-who-rejects-the-EU.html

So now Brussels wants to bring rabies back into the UK.

They want to legislate against the current ban on pets that the UK imposes at it's borders.

The Times reports that the Commission is considering ordering restrictions on pets entering the UK to be lifted, after they expire at the end of this year. The UK imposed the restrictions to contain a disease, carried by dogs and transmitted to people, which killed hundreds of people across mainland Europe over the past decade.

(Sorry, but the Times, being now a Murdoch rag, is only available on subscription - and I refuse to subscribe when so many other newspapers and other sources are available free of charge)

I'll try and find another source.

Watch this space.

And another useless item - the bloody frogs are pushing all their pollution to Boris Johnson land.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23935022-mayor-blames-europe-for-bad-air-days-dirt-clouds-from-continent-led-to-breaches-of-pollution-targets.do

Mayor blames Europe for bad air days:[/size [size=5]Dirt clouds from Continent 'led to breaches of pollution targets'

Pippa Crerar, City Hall Editor

24 Mar 2011

Boris Johnson blames clouds of pollution blowing in from Europe for London breaching its air quality targets.

The Mayor claimed that 75 per cent of the breaches so far this year were a direct result of dirt from power stations and agriculture on the Continent.

He insisted he was taking measures to tackle local traffic emissions, which are the underlying cause of poor air quality in the capital. These included bringing in hybrid buses and electric vehicles, tackling vehicle idling and imposing age limits for taxis.

Monitoring equipment in the Marylebone Road has recorded 20 "bad air days" since January. Each site is allowed just 35 days in which it exceeds European limits for so-called PM10s.

However, critics claimed Mr Johnson had taken "backward steps" which led to poor air quality claiming thousands of lives every year and put the capital at risk of £300 million of EU fines from Brussels. They suggested he was using European pollution as an excuse for his failure to ban all but the cleanest vehicles from central London.

The Green Party's Darren Johnson said: "Boris appears to be saying that this ill wind is gathering up all the pollution from Paris and dumping it directly on Marylebone Road, while by-passing areas like Bromley, Havering and Harrow which are all under the European pollution limits."

But Mr Johnson told the London Assembly: "London's air quality has been improving but there is a long way to go. In the last few weeks there have been particular concerns and air quality problems caused not just by London generated emissions. I'm afraid to say 75 per cent of the PM10 exceedances in these hotspots occurred during big European pollution episodes."

His environment adviser Isabel Dedring said: "The background level [of pollution] is mostly from traffic and that's something we're addressing with a range of measures.

"But what do we do about pollution from Europe? Legally the European Commission does not take into account where air pollution is coming from."

Brussels last month granted the UK more time to meet air pollution targets.

Of course, having stupid 'greenies' commenting on the fact that Marylebone is more polluted than Havering, Bromley or Harrow (three suburban areas situated on hills, whereas Marylebone is in Central London, surrounded by high-rise areas and home to Oxford Street and Edgeware Road, doesn't help matters.

Hint to BJ - put the bloody measuring instruments in the muiddle of Hyde Park, with large fans blowing from below.

So London ratepayers will have to find 300 million quid to satisfy Brussels that we don't want French fog.

Effin' 'ell - I used to drive a delivery truck around Kensington/Chelsea when we had the good old London pea-soupers. Now that would have got all these greenies hopping around. Couldn't see your hand in front. Used to drive with the side door open, window down, 'cos the windscreen was all sooted up, smearing greasy black stuff everywhere when you operated the wipers.

Down with Europe. If we want pollution, we'll have our own. You frogs can keep your garlic-perfumed stuff.

Oi! Boris - I bet a lot of the hot air came from Brussels, not Paris.

And another one

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/8411336/EU-to-ban-cars-from-cities-by-2050.html

EU to ban cars from cities by 2050

Top of the EU's list to cut climate change emissions is a target of 'zero' for the number of petrol and diesel-driven cars and lorries in the EU's future cities

By Bruno Waterfield, Brussels

Last Updated: 5:42PM BST 28/03/2011

Cars will be banned from London and all other cities across Europe under a draconian EU masterplan to cut CO2 emissions by 60 per cent over the next 40 years.

The European Commission on Monday unveiled a "single European transport area" aimed at enforcing "a profound shift in transport patterns for passengers" by 2050.

The plan also envisages an end to cheap holiday flights from Britain to southern Europe with a target that over 50 per cent of all journeys above 186 miles should be by rail.

Top of the EU's list to cut climate change emissions is a target of "zero" for the number of petrol and diesel-driven cars and lorries in the EU's future cities.

Siim Kallas, the EU transport commission, insisted that Brussels directives and new taxation of fuel would be used to force people out of their cars and onto "alternative" means of transport.

"That means no more conventionally fuelled cars in our city centres," he said. "Action will follow, legislation, real action to change behaviour."

The Association of British Drivers rejected the proposal to ban cars as economically disastrous and as a "crazy" restriction on mobility.

"I suggest that he goes and finds himself a space in the local mental asylum," said Hugh Bladon, a spokesman for the BDA.

"If he wants to bring everywhere to a grinding halt and to plunge us into a new dark age, he is on the right track. We have to keep things moving. The man is off his rocker."

Mr Kallas has denied that the EU plan to cut car use by half over the next 20 years, before a total ban in 2050, will limit personal mobility or reduce Europe's economic competitiveness.

"Curbing mobility is not an option, neither is business as usual. We can break the transport system's dependence on oil without sacrificing its efficiency and compromising mobility. It can be win-win," he claimed.

Christopher Monckton, Ukip's transport spokesman said: "The EU must be living in an alternate reality, where they can spend trillions and ban people from their cars.

"This sort of greenwashing grandstanding adds nothing and merely highlights their grandiose ambitions."