Democracy - a good system?

That's very interesting. The EU almost sounds like one of the old utopian societies that used to spring up periodically in the USA back in the 19th Century. Everyone was supposed to pull his/her own weight and live together in harmony, without any form of government. None of them ever succeeded, of course, human nature being what it is. I wonder if the EU will do any better.

 

probably not

 

But the EU really does have some kind of central government, and what it comes down to is that the rich countries pay a lot and the poor recieve a lot in order to get them all at a common level. I agree with such policies nationally but not internationally, so I'm not that happy with the way it turns out.

 

Depemds on which end of the telescope you are looking from. The poor end and your laughing.

 

In theory, it is ok.
In practice, it dosen't always work out...

But that's humanity for you!

 

If wealth redistribution works so well on a national level, surely it must work even better on an International level. :roll:

 

See my post above!

In practice it deepens Xenophobia.

Eg: We pay Billions & Squillions of pounds to the EU, and they go and give it to Spanish fishermen, who then go and fish in our fishing grounds, while our fishermen are all unemployed thanks to the EU restrictions on how many fish to catch.

The above example is actually a true complaint from the UK fishing industry (but paraphrased).
Same can be said of farmers, etc etc.

There is an opinion in Britain that while we try to follow the EU regulations, everyone else tries to see how they can get away with not following them.
This is almost certainly grossly unfair to some countries, and very true for others!

 

I have wondered why so many Europeans appeared to be willing to trade away their nation's sovereignty so casually. Trying that in this country would more than likely start another Civil War.

 

Well, actually, in the recent round of elections for Members of the European Parliament, the Euro-sceptics gained a huge amount of votes.
In Britain, only one party really advocated joining Europe, and they lost quite heavily.

 

The EU is far from perfect but alot of the useful stuff it does do is never heard about. For one thing Britain doesn't dump raw sewage into the sea in anything like the qualities it used to because of attempts comply with EU directives. Instead the rather tiresome people of the Euro sceptic parties bang on straight bananas and whether they can have their beer in pints, while at the same time we've handed over control of our military to the US and if that isn't a loss of soverenty I'd love to know what is.

 

Very true.
But an article headed
"the EU does an ok job overall"

doesn't sell as well as
"EU bans curved bananas"

Bloody Media.

 

Very true I think a free press frequently has to be regarded as a cross that must be borne.

 

Hell I'd be in favour of Britain becoming more integrated with Europe if it meant I can buy my beer as cheaply as other European countries.I can buy a bottle of beer for the equivalent of 40p in Germany. Now THAT'S what I'd like to see!!

 

Yeah, but annoying to buy .2 of a litre of Apfelsaft costs twice 1 litre of beer!

 

10 L of alfa bier for under 10 euro's fantastic.
or
17.5 pints for under £7.

Yessssssss

 

None of you has ever been to former Czechoslovakia, I see. The beer out there is cheaper than water.

Hey GP, that alfa bier, is that Dutch or German?

 

Dutch, Limburgse.

 

Interesting - a report on the news this morning said that the Low Countries and the UK were the biggest Euro-Sceptics in Europe.

:smok:

 

Hmm, now that's typical. This recent discussion involved only a Dutchman and a bunch of Brits!

 

Brothers in opposition!