Eu - Single Market Or Cosy Costly Cartel?

[threegee]

Having just read the drivel from Emma Reynolds MP, Shadow Minister for Europe on why talk of leaving the EU is "dangerous" I came across an article on cheap solar panels, more on which later. Anyway, apparently it's all about horsemeat:

Moreover, the recent horsemeat scandal demonstrated that the European single market is more than just a free trade area. It can and should provide and enforce rules that protect consumers across the continent. When the eurosceptic Environment Secretary, Owen Paterson, realised the seriousness of the fraud, he was quick to call on the EU and Europol to tackle the problem.

Sounds like a very good use of eight billion pounds a year then? But EU regulation didn't actually prevent this and maybe facilitated it - oh, the answer is more euro regulation then?! A disaster when we pull out; all the phone lines will be cut the instant we fail to pay our euro subs, and no one in Europe will ever talk to us again. International cooperation on food standards never happened before the EU and will never happen after. But I trivialise - just remember all those jobs that depend on the EU! What jobs are those? I never remember a large surge in employment after we joined, but I do remember we pxxxxd off a lot of commonwealth countries when we turned inward and turned our back on them. I also remember that we had a fine free trade area going called EFTA that didn't impose stupid regulations or fund too many politico's jollies. We threw that away too when it could have showed Germany and France how to do free trade without all the political nonsense.

Anyway, back to those solar panels. You'd have thought that anything that facilitated and encouraged "green energy" would be popular with the politicos in Brussels. After all they harp on about renewable energy all the time. The economics of solar are finely balanced, even in extreme Southern Europe the sun is not entirely reliable, and critically it's useless for most of the 24 hour cycle. The further North you go the more government subsidy is required. Just shaving the capital cost by 5% can make the difference between success and a white elephant project.

The Chinese, seeing a vast market, have geared up for this and can now produce world-class solar panels at a price that makes many previously unviable projects interesting to potential backers. The installers and construction firms are overjoyed at this, it means more business, more jobs. But hang on - German and other EU manufacturers have all the EU regulatory baggage to contend with, they can't produce at anything like the cost. In a free market they'd have to shape up or quit - the market dictates that, and why should all other sectors of the economy be penalised because of their inefficiency? That's not the reaction of Brussels though; they want to impose swingeing 47% tariffs on the Chinese product - a level which makes the German product just slightly cheaper.

So much for free trade; so much for encouraging investment in "green energy". Here the EU is exposed for what it really is: not the world's largest single market, but the world's largest cartel. It's a cartel largely working in the interests of Germany, supplying Germany with "cheap" labour and keeping down the value of its currency in order to facilitate German exports whilst putting up trade barriers to more efficient producers in other parts of the world. A cartel we'd be a lot better off without (the eight billion pounds a year membership fee is just a starting bonus). Nigel Lawson has just come clean on this after many years of keeping quiet so as not to embarrass the Tory leadership, and many other intelligent people who have looked at the pros and cons have concluded the same.

The LibDems are totally wrong on this matter and always have been. Labour is in reality split, and the official party line is completely untenable - many Labour supporters know this but are keeping quiet. Cameron is totally at sea, and going to do all he can to "rescue" the European political project whilst pretending he's listening to the public and the majority of his party. The time has come for ALL politicians to start listening to the nation. The old political tricks of delay, misdirection, and subterfuge will no longer work!

[Malcolm Robinson]

GGG has just been moderated!

I explained to everyone what I would do every time I saw that word!

[Malcolm Robinson]

Not sure we can believe a single word that comes out of the EU these days GGG.

Like all great autocrats, do as I say not as I do!

[threegee]

Oh, I think Mr. Jose Manuel Barroso can be taken at his word. All 27 nations?! Goodness, he must know something Dave didn't tell us! Still, it will be all right in the end, we have Dave's "cast-iron promise" - again.

I've been researching what the LD's official policy on the EU is these days, in particular where Cleggie gets his shock-horror claim of 3 million lost jobs. The last place to look is the LibDem website though, they seem to have done a search and replace exercise on all the relevant EU keywords! The only stuff I've found are discussion documents on new policy from ... 2008! Their EU policy seems a bit like one of those films where a whole population gets frozen at a point in time by an alien force field, and all that still moves is a wheel slowly rotating on an upturned vehicle. Maybe that's the bit of science fiction JMB has in mind?

[wonky]

sorry lads , this is all a bit deep for me as an artist..i am completley baffled by politics..though on reading about the solar i thought i would share my own recent experiance about cheap solar pannels. last autum i managed to secure a panel from maplin for 50 euro. made in china . i have fitted it to the roof rack of the van for charging my spare camping battery. it charges between 4 and 15 amps and i am delighted with it. i bought it last autum when it was reduced by 100 euro stock clearance.i am running 4 halogen spots from this batt and also use an inverter to power up my roland cube amp.thus enabeling me to plug in the electric ukulele and just rock wherever i want. some of my mates recon i was overdoing it but i can honestly say there is nothing more satisfying than pulling up onto some deserted beach in the west of ireland and rockin for the surfy crowd. ukuleles and solar should be given free to all and the world would be a happier place.

[Symptoms]

I reckon 'old Fritz' is looking enviously (and nostalgically) at the Chinese manufacturing situation ... camps/gulags containing forced or slave labour used to make stuff. Of course, those folks who are in paid work there can't complain about pay and conditions because they'd be branded as enemies of the state and shipped off to the camps.

[Maggie/915]

It is great to hear that Solar Power Rocks!

Maybe said to lower the tone of high political debate!

However, I am not sure the political debate can ever be won!

Power corrupting and all.

[threegee]

Got it! I've just abstracted the bit from the recent More or Less programme which deals with the statistical facts surrounding Cleggies daft claim. Completely damming as it's from Iain Begg - the very guy the LDs got their figures from in the first place!

Prof Iain Begg - LSE.mp3

Skip to the very end if you don't want to listen to the whole five minutes.

..the idea that these jobs would be lost is far fetched. -- Prof. Iain Begg, LSE

Thanks for that wonky. I too have a couple of large discount 12V panels bought in a clearance a while back, and you've given me the nudge to get them lashed up to a couple of car batteries for standby power.

Maggie: the debate is won, it's just that the head-in-the-sand politicos don't want to act! Anything which threatens to derail their gravy train is going to be the subject of a rear-guard action to the bitter end. Support the real class struggle and use your vote intelligently - against the political class and not for! The Miliband Bros are both millionaires, and have never done a real day's work in their lives, they are every bit a part of the system as the Eaton School mob, if not in league with them!

[Maggie/915]

We now have career politicians, where as in the past we had people who knew about life and hardship.

People prepared to stand up and be counted.

Obviously corruption and self interest seem to rise to the fore.

Hopefully things will change.

The election in two years time may bring a new way of thinking..

I am grateful we all have the right to vote.

There was a time when it was only the posh men folk who could vote.

[John Fox (foxy)]

Don't mention her.

Edited May 12, 2013 by foxy

[Maggie/915]

Do not know what you are talking about Foxy!

Signed EWD

Every windup is Dangerous

[Maggie/915]

How about this for a quote:-

From yesterday's Guardian

Nicholas Lezard writing about Dante

'And he considered the church of his day to be a cesspit in dire need of some spiritual Domestos'

Wonder if we could use this today.

Cosy Costly Cartel!?

Whatever that means!

[threegee]

...

Cosy Costly Cartel!?

Whatever that means!

Cosy for your "career politicians", and mighty costly for us citizens. And it's the world's biggest cartel.

Interesting that the definition of cartel has now spawned a second - political - meaning. Maybe "the revolution" has two cartels to bust then? We can probably nail them with one stone though!

[Maggie/915]

Newcastle have just saved the day by beating West Ham.

Wonder what cartels are involved there, or am I just being silly!

After all it is more important than life and death.

Phew

[Maggie/915]

Oops it was QPR!

Too much excitement.

All in one day..

[threegee]

David Cameron to rush out law for EU vote

David Cameron will propose laws tomorrow to guarantee that the public is assured an in-out referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union before the end of 2017.

...

sources claimed that the idea of publishing a draft Bill had been in Mr Cameron's mind for "some time”, rejecting suggestions that it was being done to counter the threat of the UK Independence Party following its success in the local elections.

How many minutes after the publication of the latest opinion poll results was "some time"?

Three hitherto silent Tory grandees at the weekend; two cabinet ministers yesterday; now no less than The Pres. of the US of A offers: "you probably want to see if you can fix what's broken in a very important relationship before you break it off". How high can this go? Tomorrow expect God to pronounce that the EU is broken (by divine portent - obviously!).

Amazing what can happen when dumb tribalism breaks down and people start forming alliances based on hard logic and mutual interest.

[Malcolm Robinson]

Whiteman speak with forked tongue!

[threegee]

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union will press ahead with duties on billions of euros of Chinese solar panels despite resistance from Germany, people close to the matter said on Tuesday, but is trying to reach a deal quickly with Beijing to resolve the dispute.

The European Commission, the EU's executive, is due to publish the details of its sanctions on Wednesday, allowing them to come into force on Thursday, Brussels's boldest move yet to stop what it says is Chinese "dumping", or selling below cost.

http://news.yahoo.co...-112248378.html

This is not good for the UK at all! Good for a selected few in Germany, perhaps. Yet another reason to add to the already long list of reasons to leave the EU. Is there a complimentary list of reasons to stay in? Some would claim so; but such lists don't stand close examination, so they are very timid in producing them.

[Malcolm Robinson]

How about this for a quote:-

From yesterday's Guardian

Nicholas Lezard writing about Dante

'And he considered the church of his day to be a cesspit in dire need of some spiritual Domestos'

Wonder if we could use this today.

Cosy Costly Cartel!?

Whatever that means!

The new Pope seems to agree!!!!!!!