Holy geepers, this really is a slamming article -- goodness gracious! David Cameron's act of crass stupidity on Europe By Will Hutton Latest news I've seen is Clegg publicily voicing his non-support, telling that if he should have gone to Brussels -- things would have been different.
The British populace is being held back to only serve the interests and the bank accounts of a couple of thousands people, and to save the position of Mr. Cameron's as Party Leader himself! This is horrendous, and the British electorate ought to be outraged...
NO..........Cameron has not made a big mistake, it was about time that a British Prime Minister stood up against the EU beaurocrats. The EU is like a vampire, it has been sucking billions away from Britain over the years, and we have received little in return. Europeans are only upset with us as we are seen as an ATM machine for them. Britain will survive, there are other nations in Europe not in the EU, and they are surviving............meanwhile some states in the EU are facing oblivion. 2012 is gonna be hell for the Euro.
This is highly infactual, not to mention utterly ludicrous! The UK, via "I want my money back", has contributed to EU funds on par with the size of her economy and general level of development. Other countries like France and Germany pay more -- they at least would feel ashamed to ask a less developed country like Bulgaria to pay as much as them, relatively speaking. The British don't subscribe to that level of common decency.
Britain survived their mistakes in 1914 or 1939 when they fought for their future. They are excellent at crapping on countries and yours and the rest of the loony pack is no exception. Surrendering is all that Europe, without GB, knows how to do. It won't be long before Europe is begging to use the Pound Sterling as their basic currency.
My confused Belgian friend is still going on about Cameron's rather simple decision to not further sell British sovereignty to Brussels? Why should Britain bend to Sarkozy's demands? Why should she agree to pay a Tobin Tax that will suck money out of London and into the coffers of the Eurozone? Britain will not provide Europe with welfare. The worst part of this fraud called the Eurozone is that most Europeans want it to end. Do you think the Italians, Finnish, Spanish, and Portuguese people enjoy jumping up every time the Germans and French say jump?
I don't disagree on taxing the banking transactions. I'm just wondering why these transactions are not taxed locally; why does this money go to the EU? What if we had an apple transaction tax, with all money going to the EU?
Leffe, capital doesn't know bounderies. Most of the money that is used to slush away and used in all sorts of casino-like deals comes out of the Eurozone -- that's why Sarkozy and Merkel wouldn't comply with Cameron's silly demands, and that's also why Sarkozy said to Cameron: "You can't have offshore centre taking away Europe's capital" Sarkozy to Cameron: You cant have an offshore centre By Gary Gibbon
I'm completely in favour of ending the casino attitude to investments. With that 100%! I just don't see how a common EU tax on a transaction taking place in one country solves anything.
A question Jap. Why do these transactions take place in the UK? I hear that the % is 75%. Does London do it better or is it cheaper?
"Geld doet den Duvel dansen" ~ "Money makes the Devil dance" The City Of London, only about 3km2 big, is a state within a state. I mean that literally. It has been so for centuries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_London#Criticism
Technically, the EU only approved of memberstates to eventually bail-out their banks if that was neccessary -- state-aid is normally forbidden, this in the light of so-called "unfair competition".
Yes, there was no other way -- although the Commission forced banks who received aid or state-guarantees to sell assests, as in entire divisions.
There was another way. They should have been left to fail because what we have is the worst possible outcome. The bankers and the politicians privatised the profits and socialised the losses. Result: the people paid.
... All by all, there never was a *real* bailout in Belgium. Fortis Bank was dismantled into three divisions: (1) Belgian, (2) Dutch and (3) Luxemburg division. The Belgian division was sold to BNP Paribas, with the Belgian government receiving a "blocking minority". In the end, it didn't cost a thing to the Belgian taxpayer, not to mention all the savings were saved. Belgians are one of the biggest savers on Earth!
There were bank bailouts in the UK, totally British taxpayer funded and all EU approved. And what happened at Dexia?
I'm no fan of companies avoiding tax, plain and simple. But your wiki source comes back to a blog: http://taxjustice.blogspot.com/2009/02/corporation-of-london-state-within.html That's an aside, do you think imposing a tax on this practice is an appropriate way to deal with it? Ireland's low corporate tax rate has long enraged France... is an approriate way to deal with this to tax the profits on non-Irish companies in Ireloand, or to do what Sarko it attempting, which is to harmonise corporation tax within the free trade zone? Do you see what I'm getting at? Worst case scenario is that the UK leaves the EU and continues to trade this money. I'd be far more interested in removing all these exotic trading techniques, which bring financial instability to the markets. Compared to this, skimming off money in the city is no where near as dangerous. And to finalise, I also know Cameron opposes this, which I'm not happy about also.
They didn't approve the bailout because of unfair competition, they did it because the banks were over leveraged and were going to fail. They did it because of greed in the banking sector.
