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Eurosceptic Bloggers

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Why is the UK Eurosceptic

I thought I would distill the argument down into numbers:

The most populous Member States received nearly two-thirds of the funds:
  • €14.8 billion went to Spain,
  • €13.6 billion to France,
  • €12.3 billion to Germany,
  • €10 billion to Italy and
  • €8.7 billion to the United Kingdom.
While Spain was the largest recipient of funds for structural actions, France received the biggest share of agricultural expenditure. The biggest Member States were also the largest contributors to the EU budget in absolute terms: Germany, France, Italy and the UK financed nearly two-thirds of the total.
What's in it for us?

6 comments:

James Higham said...

Succinct analysis. May I quote part of it, not stealing your thunder?

Serf said...

Certainly, feel free.

Anonymous said...

You don't add up Mr.Serf.

You have a faulty spark plug, so you scrap the engine.

No! You scrap the car! Duh..

Now that you're explaining Eu returns to Britain, how about re-calculating how much it costs us per day (or is it by the hour in perverse circles?)

Give up Serf. Join the Tory party. They can't add up either.
William Hague-defender of all things European-you are all having a laugh. Go on admit it.

Gary

Serf said...

You don't add up Mr.Serf.

I add up much better than the bean counters in Brussels.

Anonymous said...

1. What's in it in pure cultural terms for the UK?

2. Remove post-war guilt and ask Germans why the hell they're paying for this? This generation still has it built-in. Ask the next generation though....

Anonymous said...

Neil, where do you get it that we want to be culturally the same or indeed benefit culturally by being a member?

Perhaps, for those so inclined,we may be more culturally aware of other nations due to membership, but I wouldn't change our culture for anything.

I would change the way we percieve other cultures though, as I believe that our own inbuilt desire for superiority is fundamentally flawed.

Gary