First topic message reminder :

As we all probably know David Cameron stood defiantly behind his historic veto of a new EU power grab today. So can someone please give me an insight as to how this looks for the uk and its citizens in the long run? I'm happy that DC has put his foot down, but I'm concerned he's done it to appease the public after years of meddling by Brussels and maybe there's others like me who don't understand the long term repercussions. Will this not hit the uk hard in the future?

This event has shown the absolute contempt that the EU has for Britain. All they want is our money (over £300bn so far), our fish, and our land. They don't want our participation, but to dominate us. Britain was the wealthiest nation in Europe before we were conned into this nightmare. People think it's only Britain that has to capitulate to the EU. Wrong. The EU sells more to us than we do to them. When we are out completely, and we will be, we will force the EU to comply with our conditions if they want to sell to us. Now is the time to finish this and get out completely. Then go to the country with a GE and get rid of the LibDems. Germany and France will panic when there is no more British money coming their way and they have to bail-out the rest of the Eu on their own. The Financial sector will not relocate to Berlin or Paris. Imagine what a powerful position we will be in. It's a 'powerful' Britain that the EU fears hence all the attempts to smash us.

EU

Why do the frogs hate us so much?This week France was threatened with losing its AAA rating and responded by stating that Britain should lose its first.
Earlier in the week President Sarkozy had branded David Cameron and 'obstinate kid' and not because he refuses to use the toilet when he should (apparently desperately needing to urinate was a concentration aid during the EU negotiations last week. Imagine what he's holding in during really important negotiations.) Sarko was narko because of the veto Cameron deployed to avoid financial rules the rest of Europe was agreeing to. Whatever! Really it's just the latest in a history of battles with our frenemies across the channel.
A YouGov poll last year asked over 4,000 British and French people to identify common traits in the opposite nation. The British were fairly complimentary just marking the French down because they don't get anything done in August. On the other hand the French said we were no use at cooking or love and eat and drink too much, with a number of respondents identify a typical British man as an old pensioner who eats processed cheese.
[Related story: France fires economic broadside at Britain]
They simply can't stop themselves bringing cheese into it and when will they realise England (obviously not Scotland where a battered pizza passes for food) is the gastronomic capital of the world, with all sorts of culinary innovation unheard of in the stuffy kitchens of Paris. Seems like it's pretty easy to slip into an anti-French rant, especially as they're one of the countries you're still allowed to be xenophobic about, like Australia, but unlike with the Aussies it's not harmless banter.
Symbols of our contempt for France litter the land;
until recently French visitors to the capital would be deposited in Waterloo, the scene of the final defeat of Napoleon by Wellington's forces, then it's a short trip to Nelson's Column, thrusting forth from Trafalgar Square to remind Gallic tourists how we sank them at Sea too. When we visit their stunning capital we think them rude, although most of us haven't a clue what they're going on about because we didn't bother learning their language. Which is, of course, another reason they may hate us. Because despite a handful of African countries, Quebec, and the language of International Post (bet they're glad they fought to keep Par Avion now letter writing has got so popular) most of the world went with English.
Once we were thrust together as Allies against the 20th century German (and later Soviet) foe we still didn't get on much better. Clementine Churchill pleaded with the Free French leader Charles de Gaulle: "
General, you must not hate your friends more than you hate your enemies."
Our respect for our French friends can be summed up by jokes like: 'How many soldiers does it take to defend Paris? No one knows because it's never been tried.' Renee from 'Allo 'Allo was a relatively sympathetic character compared with Groundskeeper Willie's classic characterisation of the French as "
cheese eating surrender monkeys"
in an episode of 'The Simpsons'.
Perhaps the British people surveyed last year were kinder to the French because we feel generous in victory and perhaps the French don't like us now because we saved their sorry asses in the war (or rather we helped the Americans do it) and took the Olympics off them just a few years back. Or perhaps they're tired of our reluctance to fully engage with the European project, after all Britain was out voted 26 to one last week. That said it was our reluctant ally de Gaulle who originally blocked our entry to the EEC (the predecessor of the EU) in 1963, making us feel about as welcome as a slice of Dairylea in a fromagerie. :Roll laugh: :Roll laugh: :Roll laugh: :Roll laugh:

Hey, stop knocking Scotland! We don't all eat battered pizzas. In fact, we first came across a deep
fried mars bar in York. Scotland has some great cuisine.
You are doing a Sarkozy!! :Kilt:

No offence intended, love Haggis :Howdy:This was taken from an article on yahoo

That's okay, no offence taken! Got to have a bit of banter sometimes!
More to Scotland than haggis though.

My old man said the Edingburgh tattoo

Only ever seen it on the telly!!
Watch out though or we'll get an from the mods!

Here's a few

Winning Wonders of Scotland

The Forth Bridge
Single Malt Whisky
Edinburgh Old and New Towns
Glencoe
The Prehistoric Treasures of Orkney
The Kilt
The Light and Sky of Scotland

The complete list of thirty candidate wonders is below.
Wonders of Scotland - 1 to 6

The Prehistoric Treasures of Orkney
The Borders Abbeys
The Scottish Sense of Humour
The Cuillin of Skye
Single Malt Whisky

Wonders of Scotland - 6 to 12

Iona
The Ancient Caledonian Forest
The Architecture of Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Ben Nevis
Dolly the sheep and Scottish inventiveness
Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crags

Wonders of Scotland - 13 to 18

The Edinburgh Festivals
Edinburgh Old and New Towns
Fingal's Cave and Staffa
The Forth Bridge
Glasgow's Shipyards
Glencoe

Wonders of Scotland - 19 to 24

Golf
The Kilt
The Light and Sky of Scotland
Loch Lomond and the Trossachs
New Lanark
Rosslyn Chapel

Wonders of Scotland - 25 to 30

Scotland's Literature
Scotland's Wildlife
The Scots Tongue
The Scottish Enlightenment
The Scottish Parliament
St Kilda

Thanks Blink.

LisA wrote:

I can't answer your question Cheeky. This may be a silly question but If we come out of the EU completely will all the pensioners and ex-pats have to leave Bulgaria, Spain and France or any other eu country?

It's possible! We are living in very strange times at the moment.

I doubt we'd have to leave but pensions would again be frozen which means they would not be inflation proofed and folks may not be able to stay due to bad exchange rates. How many could afford to relocate back to Britain so there is a huge potential problem looming? Would Britain help them? However, I doubt that Britain could afford to cut off from the EU completely but I do think Cameron was wise to block the financial decisions being taken. It all seems to have gone a bit quiet over the last few days so what is happening now? Are Merkel and Sarkozy just keeping their heads down and hoping the problems will solve themselves????

Good post oldun and how right you are

Seems Cameron can veto all he likes, but he cant stop what has already been decided. All his vetoing will do, is lose him his invitation to the next meeting, of the new Europe. We will still be in the EEC, but, we wont be in the inner circle of it. When we veto anything in future, we will stop it going through for every member state, but then the inner circle will have a second meeting, and pass it just for them. In twenty years time, you could find the two Europe's are just so very different. The problem though will be, the most successful Europe, will have the countries of the other Europe wanting in. The likelihood is, the inner circle will have all the success, and countries from the outer circle, will join, on the condition they abide by all the rules the inner circle set, you could find in twenty years, that some countries within Europe, have no say what so ever. They just pay a tax, and get given a budget.

Assuming of course that Britain is of no importance to Europe at all. Britain is still and always will be a power to be reckoned with which is why the whole world wants to emigrate to Britain. Cameron has called Sarkozy's and Merkel's bluff and they are now in the process of debating what to do next. Cameron has already been invited to a meeting in a technical capacity. Nothing has been on the news as yet about the outcome. It was supposed to be held last week if I remember rightly.
In politics whatever anyone does, especially as a Prime Minister, will always have its sceptics. At least he has done something which is what no-one else seems to have had the b.....s to do. He has made a DECISION.