Can we really expect to get 100% back of what we put in? If thats the case - whats the point in having a kitty in the first place for anything?
We need to be "part of europe" for many reasons, one of which being that it is one of the largest markets in the world. If we are not part of Europe we wouldn't have the same reach and impact across the world when it comes to the global ecomomy, internation trade agreements and negotiations.
An example might be - reduction in the amount of money spent on European farming could cause the prices of our meat/vegetable imports to increase - costing us more in the long term than the 50% of our EU CAP.
Really - I couldn't care less if we are or are not part of Europe. It doesn't matter to me personally - and I really do not believe that we would actually spend the money anymore wisely.
If we would like to see costs cut, we should (imo) do the following:
- Dramatically reduce the crazy amounts of money being spent on anti-terrorism measures which restrict the freedom of UK citizens (counter productive measures which will cost us lots of money to implement without any significant increase in safety)
- Withdraw our support from Iraq where our military costs must be £millions per day at least
- Be more strict with people who owe the country/goverment/people money either from non-paid fines/tax back payments/speeding tickets etc (supposed to be several million or billion pounds outstanding)
- Increase taxation on those in the higher tax bracket.
Fighting about anything to do with Europe is almost a waste of time. Like other people say, we need to focus on our own country, own own people and the majority of those - not the top 1% richest, the 0.5% poorest - but everyone.
We have higher priorties than this:
- Health sector - improve the hospitals, waiting lists, doctors, increase awareness about diseases, obesity, AIDs and long substance abuse.
- Improve the national unemployment rate - even though it is (or was) at an all time low - we still need to get more people back into work supporting themselves - without reducing the quality of life for those people, eg single parents being forced to work part time etc.
- Increase the openness and transparency of the goverments and its decisions. Better use of investigations and public reports into goverment incidents. Hold our goverment and politicians accountable for their (in)actions
However - people only care about the high profile - highly sensitive things which happen in their lives. We (the TV watching population) worry about terrorism, think it is going to happen to us and appluade when millions and millions of pounds are spent on security that isn't effective.
The amount of money spent in Europe isn;t that important either - its still a lot less than the £trillions which flow through the country every year. It might also have some negative effects by not doign so - but either way I think in the general scope of things, nobody should be concerned about this - it's a distraction from the real problems which plague the country.
