Blair's to give up some of its rebate in exchange for...
Discussion
We're giving up the rebate, the French will laugh themselves silly and continue to subsidise their farmers at our expense.
He's feathering his nest, bear in mind he'll be out of a job withing a couple of years. He'll not be able to live on Cruellas earnings as the wife of an ex PM, so a cushy number in Brussels will do nicely, merci Monsieur.
Two faced git.
>> Edited by victormeldrew on Friday 16th December 19:45
He's feathering his nest, bear in mind he'll be out of a job withing a couple of years. He'll not be able to live on Cruellas earnings as the wife of an ex PM, so a cushy number in Brussels will do nicely, merci Monsieur.
Two faced git.
>> Edited by victormeldrew on Friday 16th December 19:45
It's rather like me having a salary review with one of my staff and saying to them, "I've decided to give you a 30% pay cut, however in exchange for this I'm prepared to have working hours discussed at your next pay review". If I said such a thing I'd be expecting the next few words to be expletives - not from me!
The British rebate is going to grow, partly due to enlargement, so there is a case for agreeing to hand back that element of the rebate that deals with the cost of enlargement. Any reduction beyond that must be linked to actual reform of the CAP rather than weasel words that a 'review' of the CAP will happen in a few years.
Jaglover said:
The British rebate is going to grow, partly due to enlargement, so there is a case for agreeing to hand back that element of the rebate that deals with the cost of enlargement. Any reduction beyond that must be linked to actual reform of the CAP rather than weasel words that a 'review' of the CAP will happen in a few years.
But the whole point is, whenever you negotiate it's "tit for tat". If you give something away, you do it in return for something. That's negotiation. You NEVER give something tangible in exchange for something intangible. It seems we've got schoolboys in charge of UK Plc.
srebbe64 said:
But the whole point is, whenever you negotiate it's "tit for tat". If you give something away, you do it in return for something. That's negotiation. You NEVER give something tangible in exchange for something intangible. It seems we've got schoolboys in charge of UK Plc.
True, but what we might gain by a limited concession on the rebate would be a budget deal shaped by us as the current holders of the EU presidency.
Jaglover said:
But the whole point is, whenever you negotiate it's "tit for tat". If you give something away, you do it in return for something. That's negotiation. You NEVER give something tangible in exchange for something intangible. It seems we've got schoolboys in charge of UK Plc.
True, but what we might gain by a limited concession on the rebate would be a budget deal shaped by us as the current holders of the EU presidency.
If you were talking about any other institution these ideas would be fine, but you are talking about the EU.
The accounts have not been ratified for 11 years due to the inability of the EU to track its spending.
They don't have any checks and balances akin to double entry book keeping, and all attempts to introduce any system like this have stalled.
The only thing they seem competant at is persecuting any whistleblower who uncovers fraud from within.
I fail to see why we should give any more money to this corrupt undemocratic entity until it cleans up its act and that goes far beyond just renegotiating the CAP.
>> Edited by Egbert Nobacon on Friday 16th December 22:02
victormeldrew said:
We're giving up the rebate, the French will laugh themselves silly and continue to subsidise their farmers at our expense.
He's feathering his nest, bear in mind he'll be out of a job withing a couple of years. He'll not be able to live on Cruellas earnings as the wife of an ex PM, so a cushy number in Brussels will do nicely, merci Monsieur.
Nope, betcha a fiver that he joins the "Carlyle Group". A few days work for a shed load of money!
>> Edited by 8Pack on Friday 16th December 22:05
Egbert Nobacon said:
But the whole point is, whenever you negotiate it's "tit for tat". If you give something away, you do it in return for something. That's negotiation. You NEVER give something tangible in exchange for something intangible. It seems we've got schoolboys in charge of UK Plc.
True, but what we might gain by a limited concession on the rebate would be a budget deal shaped by us as the current holders of the EU presidency.
If you were talking about any other institution these ideas would be fine, but you are talking about the EU.
The accounts have not been ratified for 11 years due to the inability of the EU to track its spending.
They don't have any checks and balances akin to double entry book keeping, and all attempts to introduce any system like this have stalled.
The only thing they seem competant at is persecuting any whistleblower who uncovers fraud from within.
I fail to see why we should give any more money to this corrupt undemocratic entity until it cleans up its act and that goes far beyond just renegotiating the CAP.
>> Edited by Egbert Nobacon on Friday 16th December 22:02
I did consultancy work for the European Commission for five (long, arduous) years - and I can assure you it's filled with breathtaking wastage. As you rightly say, their auditors continually refuse to sign off their accounts. If I ran my business like that I'd be (rightly) prosecuted and banned from being a Director. However, they are immune from such prosecution. Needless-to-say, they expect all companies within the EU to operate with full accountability. I'm a believer in the free movement of trade and people - a level playing field is good. However, I honestly believe you could close down 70% of all EU departments and it would make absolutely no difference to the citizens of Europe. The people in most of the departments I dealt with spent most of their weekly hours finding ways of justifying why they need a larger budget. I gave the (quite lucrative) consultancy the elbow in the end because I got so angry!
Unbelievable! This pearl of a paragraph is from the Beeb's latest article, I quote:
"...agreement is thought to be close on a new budget review clause that allows for the possibility of an agricultural policy (CAP) review before 2013, but allows France to say that the CAP might not be changed."
Well just what the
does that mean? We MIGHT review before 2013, but the French can refuse anything proposed by the review anyway? If Blair goes for this then he is SUCH a tt!
REFERENDUM ON UK MEMBERSHIP OF THE FEDERAL STATE OF EUROPE - NOW!
"...agreement is thought to be close on a new budget review clause that allows for the possibility of an agricultural policy (CAP) review before 2013, but allows France to say that the CAP might not be changed."
Well just what the
does that mean? We MIGHT review before 2013, but the French can refuse anything proposed by the review anyway? If Blair goes for this then he is SUCH a tt! REFERENDUM ON UK MEMBERSHIP OF THE FEDERAL STATE OF EUROPE - NOW!
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