Brexit

TickersPlaysPop

Is it impossible for companies to keep their prices the same and pay more corporation tax?

If not .... you are saying that we have all been very lucky to enjoy cheap goods and services at the expense of losing public services... I.e. Austerity Britain ?

antrobus

TickersPlaysPop wrote: »

Is that a quote from Juncker? A man under investigation for his conduct and actions while a finance minister for Luxembourg? ...

No. It's a statement. You made a reference to "the magnitude of these unpaid corporation tax bills". The veracity of your statement is being challenged. Pretending it's a quote from one of your favourite hate figures, ain't gonna save you.

TickersPlaysPop wrote: »

...Something tells me the EU is not motivated or in fact able to clamp down on companies creating zero profit in the UK while shifting the profit to more tax favourable countries.

Big companies are literally laughing at us here in the UK. we are handing over our money daily as they rob our country of value, all because the media refuse to report and promote these very important issues.....

Don't be silly. The media is full of stories about this or that real or imagined corporate avoidance.

TickersPlaysPop wrote: »

...Ignorance of young people spending what little they have in Starbucks is sickening. They are all kept stupid and uninformed by the media who make them feel like they have no voice.....

Yes, but not you, eh? You're so smart aren't you?

TickersPlaysPop wrote: »

...In fact the election was decided on only 900 votes!... If 900 people voted labour instead of conservative in the closest constituencies they would never had reached a majority.

Actually it's 945 people. And that would have left the Cons with 324 seats, and in need of Carswell's vote. But what does it matter to you? I was under the distinct impression that you thought that none of the established parties were worth voting for.

antrobus

CLAPTON wrote: »

...If of course, consumers behaved differently, then they would have boycotted Starbucks and Amazon but they didn't.

I refuse to buy coffee from Starbucks.

Mind you, that's because their coffee is tasteless American muck.:)

schneckster

I find this thread interesting mainly because of the fact that the pro-EU scaremongering is working. Here's what the founding father of the EU had to say...

"Europe's nations should be guided towards the super-state without their people understanding what is happening. This can be accomplished by successive steps, each disguised as having an economic purpose, but which will eventually and irreversibly lead to federation." Jean Monnet (Founding Father Of The EU in a letter to a friend 30th April 1952).

There are many quotes like that available if people wish to do a cursory search. I mean in the 1975 EC Referendum, Ted Heath said (and admitted a few years later it was a lie) that membership was about trade only, and that there would be no transfer of sovereignty. Now in a report by the House of Lords, over 70% of our laws are made by the EU, most passed into British law without debate or vote by our elected representatives in Westminster. Have a quick search for "statutory instrument" and you'll see all about it.

As for banks and big industry - while deciding whether or not to replace the pound with the euro, Airbus threatened to leave the UK if we didn't take the euro. As did Nissan and several others. We didn't take it, they all stayed. Now they're doing it again (Airbus couldn't leave if they wanted to, not without massive financial penalties and the risk of going bust as they certify and qualify new factories elsewhere). Additionally, Airbus neglect to mention the billions it gets in subsidies and tax breaks from the EU.

The pro-EU CBI get thousands in grants from the EU. As does the BBC (pro-EU, again), and Channel 4 (makers of "UKIP: The First 100 Days", a programme in receipt of EU grants - Airbus said after that was aired they would never leave the UK regardless of EU membership!). Clearly, paying the piper calls the tune.

JCB and Dyson, however, do not receive EU grants and both say the UK would prosper outside the EU. As does former chancellors Nigel Lawson (Con), Norman Lamont (Con), and Denis Healy (Lab), not to mention several large banks.

It's pretty clear which way I'd vote in a referendum partly because I can see a brighter future for the UK. We can be more prosperous, better employed, more engaged in the world and be the great nation we once were by leaving the EU.For example, 70% of EU fishing waters are actually the UK's - bigger than Norway's which has a fishing industry worth £150billion a year.

Not to mention Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty which demands the EU signs a free trade agreement with any nation that leaves - something BMW, Mercedes and Audi will be happy for since between them they sold 5 million cars in the UK last year amounting to 10's of billions of pounds. Arguments about the Single Market are weak, too - plenty of countries have the same access we do, the same influence of the rules that we do, but do not pay £50million+ a day for privilege.

And of course, leaving the EU allows us to reconnect with the Anglosphere countries and the Commonwealth, both of which are seeing good growth in economies, GDP and markets, whilst the EU is stagnating and receding.

We have nothing to fear from leaving, and everything to gain. We would become the masters of our own destiny once more.

One last thing, at the age of 43, I have never had a vote on our relationship with the EU. Given how far removed we are from what was voted on in 1975, it is definitely overdue.

Cheers,

Schneckster

BobQ

https://yougov.co.uk/news/2015/06/01/why-eu-yes-vote-wont-settle-matter/

One of the most seductive arguments for holding an in-out referendum on the European Union is that it will settle the matter for decades to come: if the UK votes to stay in, we can then plan for the future without fearing a new campaign to shove us towards the exit door.

The trouble is, it ain’t necessarily so. According to yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph, ‘one member of [David Cameron’s] Cabinet has warned that the promised “in/out” referendum in 2017 will not be “the end game” if voters choose to remain in a seriously flawed EU. A second referendum could be held as early as 2020, the minister said.’....................................................

Meanwhile it seems that the EU does not think Cameron is being serious. Maybe what he says to them in private is not the same as what he tells the public or his party?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/11644696/Jean-Claude-Juncker-David-Cameron-wants-Britain-permanently-docked-with-the-EU.html

BobQ

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/politics-blog/11637905/David-Camerons-presumptuousness-may-push-us-into-Brexit.html

This analysis in the Daily Telegraph suggests that Cameron is possibly out of his depth in the silly games he is playing with the national interest.

Since David Cameron won the election we’ve all been debating whether he’s a genius or just a very lucky man. Maybe the EU referendum will give us an answer. Cameron’s approach is so contradictory that is suggests either a grand design or a risky gamble – and while his ultimate goal is to stay in, a scenario is developing whereby Britain accidentally hits the Brexit button. ..................

Generali

The opinion poll says it all: 61% stay, 39% quit.

The fact is BobQ that you don't like Mr Cameron so if he was to save a baby from a burning building you'd probably think he started the fire and the author is desperate to have the UK leave the EU so is inventing fanciful ways in which his hopes come to fruition.

The UK isn't going to leave the EU. The Euroskeptic lies are common currency already yet Brits want to stay in by a huge margin: over 50% more want in than out.

BobQ

schneckster wrote: »

I mean in the 1975 EC Referendum, Ted Heath said (and admitted a few years later it was a lie) that membership was about trade only, and that there would be no transfer of sovereignty.

Ted Heath was a backbencher by then. Mrs Thatcher was saying this at the time.....

If we wish to give our children maximum peace and security in a very uncertain world, our best course of
action is to stay in the Common Market

The idea that it was just about free trade in 1975 is untrue.

http://www.cvce.eu/content/publication/1999/1/1/639fb9e5-ca77-4653-8870-6cfd7f0782c6/publishable_en.pdf

Now in a report by the House of Lords, over 70% of our laws are made by the EU, most passed into British law without debate or vote by our elected representatives in Westminster. Have a quick search for "statutory instrument" and you'll see all about it.

There have always been statutory instruments in the UK to enact laws. Most of these regulations are for protection of consumers, employees, the public. They define standards which enable us to trade in the common market you seem to support. To see conspiracy is paranoid. Things that need debate are debated.

Not to mention Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty which demands the EU signs a free trade agreement with any nation that leaves - something BMW, Mercedes and Audi

Can you quote Article 50 of Lisbon Treaty.

We have nothing to fear from leaving, and everything to gain. We would become the masters of our own destiny once more.

You make it sound like a crusade! Sure we can survive and prosper. But the question is what is best for the UK, a diminishing power on the edge of the largest trading block in the world. Sure we can still trade with the EU, probably with trade tariffs. Much of legislation you deride would still need to be enacted, except that we would have no influence on its formulation.

One last thing, at the age of 43, I have never had a vote on our relationship with the EU. Given how far removed we are from what was voted on in 1975, it is definitely overdue.

Clearly it is true that you have not had a vote on this in a referendum, but Treaties were signed by elected UK governments that you did have a chance to vote for/against. You have not been given a vote on us belonging to the UN or NATO either. Neither have you had a vote on capital punishment, whether we should have an NHS, whether we should have privatised the railways and a hundred and one other things.

But now we have a chance to vote on the EU a decision so let us see what the collective wisdom of the nation says.

BobQ

Generali wrote: »

The opinion poll says it all: 61% stay, 39% quit.

The fact is BobQ that you don't like Mr Cameron so if he was to save a baby from a burning building you'd probably think he started the fire and the author is desperate to have the UK leave the EU so is inventing fanciful ways in which his hopes come to fruition.

The UK isn't going to leave the EU. The Euroskeptic lies are common currency already yet Brits want to stay in by a huge margin: over 50% more want in than out.

I cannot deny that I do not trust his political approach (I suspect he is a charming fellow as a person). However, I am quoting the most loyal of all Tory newspapers and I am not spinning what it is saying!

I hope you are right about the outcome of the referendum. On the basis of polls to date the outcome is clear but a lot can change in a year or two.

Generali

BobQ wrote: »

I cannot deny that I do not trust his political approach (I suspect he is a charming fellow as a person). However, I am quoting the most loyal of all Tory newspapers and I am not spinning what it is saying!

I hope you are right about the outcome of the referendum. On the basis of polls to date the outcome is clear but a lot can change in a year or two.

It's like Scotland all over again. The result is clear from the start.

Why would anyone change their mind? It's vanishingly unlikely that we will hear anything in the next year or two that will have an impact on views. Basically the entire political establishment will be campaigning for as will at least 50% of the press (The Sun and the Torygraph will campaign for QUIT!).

The Telegraph isn't slavishly Tory. They are very much of the Eurosceptic wing.