Tampon Tax : who should decide

mayonnaise

littlegreenfrog wrote: »

As someone who can afford to pay for tampons, I care much more about other issues such as equal pay and maternity/paternity rights. The EU has been instrumental in this area, and UKIP has consistently fought against any kind of progression.

The EU has also been instrumental in areas like working time regulation, agency workers rights, holiday pay...
The low paid and those in unstable work might want to have think about what's actually meant with 'removing EU red-tape', that phrase so often used by the likes of Gove/Grayling/Boris/Redwood/Farage.

princeofpounds

Also, the EU don't really like the principle of anything being zero rated.[/quoted]


Yeah there is probably a tax theory somewhere that suggests that zero weighting is bad. But I've never come across it so can't comment much on that. The practice seems logical to me.

kinger101

CLAPTON wrote: »

do you also favour harmonising income tax, NI, car tax, fuel tax etc etc

I'd personally welcome harmonisation of certain parts of the tax code. Particularly with respect to corporation tax; might close the Double Irish and Dutch Sandwich.

In the meantime, we should just do what we want with VAT on tampons. I can't the the EU doing anything, other than seeing common sense.

System

If they put a tax on tampons does that mean they will be able to bleed us dry?







I'll get me coat

mayonnaise

michaels wrote: »

Problem with putting unelected bureaucrats in charge is...

Sigh.

Once more;

The European Parliament is democratically elected.

The European Council consists of all (democratically elected) heads of state.

The European Commission consist of 1 individual per member state dispatched by the democratically elected national government of the moment.

The president and its members are appointed by the European Council (democratically elected) and approved by The European Parliament (democratically elected).

Cheers!

kinger101

mayonnaise wrote: »

Sigh.

Once more;

The European Parliament is democratically elected, on a turnout of about 42%

The European Council consists of all (democratically elected) heads of state, so Malta gets the some representation as Germany, which is about 200 times it's size.

The European Commission consist of 1 appointed individual per member state dispatched by the democratically elected national government of the moment.

The president and its members are appointed by the European Council (democratically elected) and approved by The European Parliament (democratically elected).

Cheers!

.....And the European Parliament, the only thing resembling a democratic institution, cannot actually vote on laws it drafts itself.

mayonnaise

kinger101 wrote: »

.....And the European Parliament, the only thing resembling a democratic institution, cannot actually vote on laws it drafts itself.

The Commission drafts laws, not the parliament.

Drafted laws need approval from both Parliament and Commission.

CLAPTON

mayonnaise wrote: »

The EU has also been instrumental in areas like working time regulation, agency workers rights, holiday pay...
The low paid and those in unstable work might want to have think about what's actually meant with 'removing EU red-tape', that phrase so often used by the likes of Gove/Grayling/Boris/Redwood/Farage.

Indeed that is true

what is a flexible work force to one person, is an exploited work force to another

interesting to compare different countries
the UK has a flexible/exploited work force but low unemployment and is obviously very attractive place to work judging by the level of immigration
Germany has low unemployment too and also attracts workers but it does 'benefit' from an effectively undervalued currency due to being in the euro

one will have to see whether the EU socialist model works well in the future, as EU proportion of world trade steadily declines

michaels

mayonnaise wrote: »

Sigh.

Once more;

The European Parliament is democratically elected.

The European Council consists of all (democratically elected) heads of state.

The European Commission consist of 1 individual per member state dispatched by the democratically elected national government of the moment.

The president and its members are appointed by the European Council (democratically elected) and approved by The European Parliament (democratically elected).

Cheers!

The majority of UK EU represenatives do not belong to either of the groupings with a realistic prospect of passing legislation in the EU parliament. TO me this imples two things:
1) UK votes in the elections for Euro MPS will have no impact on EU parliament decisions thus giving us no democratic say
2) Just possibly given that the view of the majority of the UK electorate (as demonstrated in these MEP elections) differs fundamentally from that of most Europeans it would make more sense that we made our own laws rather than accepting thse of a club with which we fundamentally disagree and have no influence to change.

Most of us accept that the Scots should be allowed to choose independence from the rest of the UK if they as a distinct group feel that their views differ fundamentally from those of the rest of us and thus they can not have a rpresentative govt under the current arrangements.

(I don't need to sigh and feign intellectually superiority over those who might want to discuss the applicabilty of a democratic mandate but then I don't see myself as one of the 'betters' who should be allowed to make decisions no behalf of the uneducated)

littlegreenfrog_2

Slightly off the topic of VAT, but the question of which way we should vote in the referendum is actually quite straightforward.

If we want to remain in the single market, we should vote to stay in. The other member states are not going to give us a better deal than we have now. If we vote to leave but want to remain in the single market, we will end up still having to contribute to the EU budget, not being able to "control our borders" and having to comply with the vast majority of the rules, but we will lose any right to a say in what those rules are.

If we think having total sovereignty over our own laws and total control over our own borders is more important, then fine, but we will have to be prepared to leave the single market and accept the economic consequences of that. If we leave the single market then we don't just lose free trade with the EU, we lose the benefit of all the free trade agreements the EU currently has with third countries. We do not currently have any bilateral free trade agreements with other countries as this is prohibited by the EU, so we would have to start again from scratch. None of these other countries are going to be in any hurry to sign up to a new free trade agreement with us, so if/when we can negotiate new agreements, it will be in their time and on their terms. The USA has already said they have no interest in negotiating a free trade agreement with us outside the EU.

Democracy and sovereignty are fine arguments to make - I just think we all need to think carefully about how much we are prepared to pay for those principles.