The Mad Men of Smith Square: A Lonely Battle To Save Europe in Britain

[sysop]

Contempt for Europe is rising all across Britain, driven by politicians and media who blame Brussels, often absurdly, for everything from the declining economy to male impotence. A small group of pro-Europeans are waging a bizarre campaign against the country's agitated majority.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-881679.html

[thorpeman@sky.com]

Originally Posted by sysop

Contempt for Europe is rising all across Britain, driven by politicians and media who blame Brussels, often absurdly, for everything from the declining economy to male impotence. A small group of pro-Europeans are waging a bizarre campaign against the country's agitated majority.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-881679.html

What utter tripe we have never been aligned with Europe that has always been the last place on the planet we have ever had an interest in. We are a traveled trading nation, our weekly shopping basket has soared in price because we have restricted ourselves to buying food produce from Europe rather than importing from New Zealand, the West Indies, China, India, Canada & Australia which all produce better & cheaper food than we can get from the European Union but because of the EU & Its single market we have to apply EU tariffs to imports of food from our traditional supply sources.

[chris@drakemarine.co.uk]

It's all very for supporters of the EU to make a fuss about all the EU funds spent on projects within the UK but they conveniently forget to mention the most important fact :

As one of only four net contributor countries, all the money Brussels bureaucrats graciously grant to fund projects in the UK is essentially them giving us back some of our own cash !

If we didn't pay into the bottomless pit that is the EU, We would essentially be cutting out the middle man and would be able to fund many more projects ourselves.

British citizens might start to take the European Parliament seriously when they vote to stop the ludicrous expenditure on a second parliament in Strasbourg.

[sylvesterthecat]

I enjoyed this article although the number of Eurofanatics was underestimated somewhat. I've no doubt that the mad men of Smith Square do exist and that they hold meetings across the country, talking mainly to the converted and perhaps a few dog-walkers sitting at the back, who've slipped in out of the rain.

We have politicians who are pro-Europe but by and large they keep their views to themselves. No doubt they will carefully 'test the wind' before they finally decide exactly where they stand regarding Europe (as politicians will.)If they finally discover Euroscepticism, they will of course claim they were never anything other than Eurosceptics.

Those Eurofanatics who do raise their heads above the parapet, tend to limit their contributions to the debate, to a series of lurid and desperate predictions as to what will happen to us if we leave Europe. They're quite impressive but as they were the same people with the same dire warnings as to what would happen to us if we didn't join the Euro, it has tended to limit the effect of their warnings now.

The only event that will turn the Eurosceptic tide will be that the EU and the Eurozone, against all the evidence, turns out to be successful.

It must be a very lonely life being a Eurofanatic in England.

[Atvarnic]

I read this publication with interest but until now have never left a comment however on this occasion I will.
What utter Rubbish, the article rubbishes the UK press and then proceeds to paint a picture of both the UK and the reasons its looking at withdrawal from the European union which wouldn't be out of place in a Monty Python sketch.

To begin with lets get something straight on the economics yes the economy is going through a difficult patch at the moment and probably will be for some time as the economy deleverages.
However to say the average person blames Europe for that is wide from the mark although the somewhat sneering tone adopted in the article is out of place given the Euro zone issues and the decline in continental economies which is undoubtedly making recovery in the UK more difficult than it might otherwise be.
England has been around for the best part of 1000 years the UK for 300 or so in that time the economy has boomed and Bust and been effectively bankrupt many times but has never ever defaulted on its debts, True this bust has been exacerbated by the former labour governments irresponsibility with the public purse but recovery will come none the less and lets not forget even now public debt is still lower than the Euro average and unemployment lower than most other Euro nations.
The article also manages to get in the continental obsession with thee British empire in their it might surprise some on the continent of Europe but very few if any British people even remember we had an Empire let alone talk about it as endlessly as overseas reporters do I can assure readers that when I go out with friends the British empire is not talked about.

The absurdity of this article is highlighted with claims that the British wish to pull out of Europe because of false hoods published in the right-wing Murdoch press about bar maids boobs and vibrators being returned by Brussels decrees.
I can only assume that this is meant to Europeans a bit of a laugh at Britain's expense.
The reasons most people would like to see Britains withdrawal can be summed up as follows.
1) the loss of border control has meant an influx of migrants the like of which this country has never ever seen before While that migration cannot all be laid at the feet of Europe 2/3rds of it can be.
This is not xenophobic islanders against all foreigners an 5,000,000 or so have arrived no one knows how many.
This has put pressure on schools ,hospitals ,roads and has increased pressure for additional house building on green fields to accommodate them on what's already the most over crowded place in Europe.
I and most other residents do not wish to live in Mega City one formerly known as the UK because we can no longer decide for our self who lives here.
2) Regulation over 60% of all regulation now comes from Brussels this has two major drawbacks The British way used to be different from Europe's in that Under British law any thing which is not proscribed is legal unlike the Napoleonic system where you can only do what you're allowed to do,
The second drawback is that whereas most British obey these regulations to the letter eg animal well fare and rightly so we see other Euro nations simply ignore them completely.
3)Our financial contribution is already out of proportion to the value that Europe brings to us and is steadily becoming more out of Kilter The UK has been a net contributor since joining we have helped pay for Roads and other infrastructure projects all over the continent and what do we get in return lectures from other european states who have been net beneficiaries on being Good Europeans (code for give us more money).
4) The trade gap the article quoted some ridiculous statement that The EU exports more to the UK than the US and China combined well I have never heard that spoken of over here However the Figures do show that the UK imports £45 billion more from Europe than it exports to it, this figure is partially down to the single market which exacerbates our weakness in traded goods and yet prevents it capitalising in the services sector where its strong.
I could go on and on but by this point I'll wrap up with one more factor and that's the right for the UK people its electorate to make its own decisions via the ballot box and determine its own future in the world for good or ill rather than have decision forced upon it by what is rapidly becoming the EUSSR and we all know what happened to that.

PS Der Spiegel it may be a problem with translation by could you please try to get grown ups to write your articles or at least get them to so some proper research rather than produce a piece which appears to have come from some first years student rag.

PPS I notice that the European settlement on spending was not reported in your publication is this because possibly the UK is not as isolated in its concerns about Europe as you would have us believe.

[Iwantout]

In one sentence you sum up one of the most corrupt aspects of the EU “They are fans of the EU because it distributes money that the British government no longer has.” The EU has to buy its friends in the UK because it simply does not have popular support. When one remembers that the UK (along with others including Germany) is a net contributor to the EU it would perhaps be more honest to remark that the overwhelming feeling is that if we kept our own money we would have more to distribute ourselves. (Oh, and create more than the 25,000 jobs)

Regarding the media, please can I remind you of two salient facts. Firstly originally all the media were supportive of the EU, many still are and certainly the broadcast media are generally pro EU. (See http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/...anelreport.pdf ) Secondly there is considerable academic evidence that papers, magazines etc tend to print what they believe will be popular with their market and therefore promote sales. So it is entirely reasonable to say that the balance of printed media coverage on the EU actually follows the views of the population rather than shapes it.

You made sure that Winston Churchill was mentioned early in the article with the implication that he would be pro EU, if I might I will give you a quote back which makes his view of Europe absolutely clear. “We are with Europe but not of it. We are linked but not comprised. We are interested and associated but not absorbed.” But for goodness sake he has been dead since 1965 and the World has moved on. The fact that you accept there are practically no Britons prepared to speak out for the EU after 40 years of membership must surely tell you something about the prevailing view in the UK. You might also look at the nature of the postings from your UK readers on so many of your articles, not many pro EU voices.

As a final plea, could you please differentiate between the EU and Europe. They are not the same thing.

[Iwantout]

Sorry, quick after thought. With regards to the 'the most diffiuclt question for British Europhobes", the British aren’t so different from the French, Dutch, Danes, or Irish, they all voted NO to the EU when they were given the chance but of course that was the wrong answer.