Re: Should I Stay or Should I Go?
can someone explain to me in simple terms, what specific benefits britain would might or will gain by exiting the EU?. to me United is a far better idea
The EU is a one-size-fits-nobody straitjacket. It attempts to create a single framework for political, economic and fiscal union that applies to all 28 countries. Those countries are so very different in political and social viewpoints that it simply cannot work properly. You end up aiming for the lowest common denominator, mediocrity, with as much ambiguity as possible to prevent it collapsing. Of course, some people are happy to tolerate mediocrity as long as it gives them an easy life, but most are learning that it's a short term solution which can't support itself.
The Euro zone is a clear example. Those countries that entered it have (with the notable exception of Germany, which controls it) high unemployment, close to zero growth, and little monetary stability. Even the architects of the single currency now recognize that it was a mistake to rush it, and that it will fail without rigid fiscal union. That union is unpalatable to a majority of EU members.
It's clear that fiscal policy that works for, say, Germany and the UK will never work for Italy and Greece. Social policy that works for Sweden won't work for the UK or the Netherlands. Economic policy that works for France won't work for UK or the new ex-eastern bloc members. Politics vary widely, France may have it's left- and right-wing parties, but even their right is to the left of most British parties. The gulf is too wide.
The countries are simply too different in their economic, political and fiscal preferences for them all to fit into one framework, yet without that common framework you can't have a political union with it's own parliament and laws. Just look at the Apple/Ireland issues as one of the problems.
The old EEC (the "common market") worked because it recognized the differences and just created a level playing field where those differences could be allowed for, even the most controversial part, the CAP, sort-of worked. It was an economic union that mostly worked. The EU is a political union, and that cannot work, but the people who run it can't accept that, and cannot agree to go back to a union that did work.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
