Nobody. But I remember pre EU days. I don't mean pre EEC as I'm not old enough for that. Just pre EU. Before Tony b'liar sold us put. I remember every time Britain was less than minted, which was most of the time, the north would be completely ignored. If Britain had a few spare bob, it would be spent mostly in the southeast. I remember that our area stunk. My dad once took me to a local high vantage point on a sunny day and pointed out the brown cloud hanging over Teesside, that you just never noticed when in it. I remember Greenpeace sailing up the tees and welding a steal plate onto the end of a pipe that was pouring untreated chemical filth directly into the river. I'm never going to praise the eu, but since we joined, this area has seen investment on a scale not seen prior to the eu, and legislation has meant you can look down from the hills now and not see a brown haze hanging over Teesside. I think if we leave, it will go back to how it was. The current government is already heavily pushing for fracking, despite concerns being raised from every angle. And we've seen how the government's idea of sound investment is to shave 20 minutes of the journey from Birmingham to London, while the 'northern powerhouse' is so far nothing more than a few start-up units supported by local universities and private business.
This Glyphosate issue with the EU is seriously annoying. It is a chemical that is potentially carcinogenic and farmers spray their crops with it in abundance. They spray it on cereal crops to ready them (i.e. kill them off) for harvesting so it's bound to end up in the food chain. And they will be allowed to do so for several years to come. Yet us gardeners who use it in a safe and controlled manner will be bannished to hand-weeding the worst garden nightmares for eternity if the EU have their way. Even with a sprayers licence, would it be obtainable? I was not entirely sure about the merits of an EU exit but this measure yet again displays the power of beaurocrats that we (as a nation) didn't elect into power and whom govern our lives with petty and often needless measures that we pay billions a year to have enforced upon us. Sod them, I'm all for out.
Sunny days are the worst days down here for a brown haze hanging over the area, its mostly caused by traffic fumes building up during high pressure periods, weather wise. Smog if you like to call it that. The other type we get is when we get an easterly flow during hot weather in the summer, we often import industrial smog from the continent.
What will be next, I ask??? Oh I think red meat is considered carcinogenic. Tell me what aint these days, not a week goes by without some crack pot issuing his findings on health, and what isn't safe anymore.
I'm not quite sure I understand the logic of that, Clueless. You think that our own UK Politicians are untrustworthy and unable to run the UK but then by voting to stay in the EU you must be thinking that the EU, it's Parliament, it's MEP's, the Leaders of other countries, are trustworthy enough to a degree where you would have them running this country? You don't think that the EU is even more corrupt and incompetent??........you surely must be the only one to think that.
I think they're all as corrupt as each other. I thought I said that in my earlier post. I don't know how it works. I just know that it wouldn't be a UK government past or present that would say 'let's make Teesside less awful'. They might redevelop east London at huge expense under the pretense it's for the benefit of the whole nation, but they wouldn't touch the industrial north east. We've seen that again recently, with the demise of the steel works. They'll buy into port Talbot works, I don't know why they'll save one but not another, but Teesside was utterly abandoned. This is normal. Yet we have had some investment round here. Our sea front was redeveloped. That was with eu money. Of course that eu money came from here, but it wouldn't have come to the northeast if Westminster had been responsible for allocating it. Like I said, I don't like the eu. But however they do it, they do police our government somehow, and someone has to do that.
That could be why the air is cleaner these days Clue, it was the industry that was causing the pollution, you cant have heavy industry and low pollution. So you either have your traditional industries and put up with the air pollution or lose them and get clean air, its nothing to do with the EU, its the loss of jobs.
And you would trust the EU which is in a state of economic and political chaos, has a history of passing laws that are not in the interest of the UK, has several of it's members in a long standing recession with other members on the brink of that and has been unable do anything for them but plunge them into more debt while gaining even more control of their independence.........that to me seems to be like the old saying of Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire or to quote J.R.R.Tolkien "escaping Goblins to be caught by Wolves"
SO you actually want 27 other countries to police the government that is democratically elected by the people of this country? Admittedly the democracy that we have does need sorting out, but I'd rather have those I can vote out telling me what to do rather than a few oddballs from the rest of Europe.
Just so we're on the same page, when you talk about the interest of the UK, do you mean the UK government, the UK elite, the average working man and woman of the UK, the pensioners, the kids,the disabled, the unemployed? Which bit are we talking about ? Because unless I've missed something major, I can't say I've noticed any government past or present do very much in the interest of anyone I know. The UK government, acting in the best interests of the UK, blocked eu attempts to stop China destroying our steel industry. The UK government, acting in the best interests of the nation, recently gave a £2 billion bribe to China to build us a nuclear reactor according to an unproven design. The UK government, acting in the best interests of the UK, has left us almost defenceless at at time of global tension, by continually stripping the armed forces. I couldgo on and on. I could, for example, hint at the previous UK government, acting in the best interests of the UK, stirring up the hornets nest that is the middle east, creating a power vacuum that led to names like al Qaeda or IS being household names in the UK. Or I could mention that the UK government, acting in the best interests of the UK, failed utterly in its self imposed duty to regulate the banks prior to the banking crash, and then bailed them out with tax payers money, and then sold the shares below value to their invited cronies. Or perhaps we could talk about how, acting in the national interest, many fiddled huge sums on expenses, or how the previous government sold the nation's gold reserves at well below market value. All acting in the nation's interests of course.
And throughout all of that, the question begs to be asked: just how did the EU "police" the UK government while all this was going on?
Actually, I agree with you in the context that the EU could do better.......there are more of them to be corrupt and incompetent, and of course their record of financial responsibility, competence, politically sane decisions is one that we can all feel safe and secure with. The one other thing we seem to forget is that the EU still has the fixed and unwavering agenda of Federalism. The more legislation that gets passed the more the UK becomes entangled, vulnerable, caught a spiders web of loss of independence, [political and financial], where in the long term, maybe within 30 years, we will shrug our shoulders and hold out our wrists to be handcuffed into the EU's Federal empire, which by the way will not be run by the countries but by the EU Parliament and it's organisations which is a animal born out of a purely political, not financial, theory. Of course it is built on sane political clear thinking where the EU Parliament moves base once a month at the cost of around, at least, £130 million. So I make that to be £1560 million, or over £1.5 Billion a year, at the very least, and of course it's not done on the basis of financial gain by it's members but on the solid, logical, and non corrupt aim of it making complete sense and need..........all acting in the Nations interests of course.
Clearly they didn't. And couldn't. Because the UK is not, as many suggest, entirely governed by the eu. However the eu does set certain standards that members are expected to comply with. Environmental standards for example. Human rights for another example. If the eu was some sort of dictatorial super state, I would be 100% in the out camp. It isn't though. It is a million miles from perfect, but what is the alternative? Boris Johnson and Michael Gove having total, unrestricted control? Or what of Jeremy corbyn wins the next election? What if Nigel farage wins?
