Thought I'd start a new thread as this is going to be a major talking point this year...have not made up my mind yet...(unlike bucksfizz)....but thinking of voting for an exit as Europe is not doing Britain any good at all it seems....

.. I blame Teddy boy.

The average person in the street hasn't got a clue as to whether we are better in or out , as you can see there are issues so complex we don't even know about . I suspect they are going to be sick and tired of the whole affair by polling day .The out campaign have to get a grip of these people and put across the simpler issues that will affect the majority .

Talking about Glegg , in the TV spats he said we don't know how many come in the country , but half of them go back . Pure genius , or total plonker .

It's in the Graun, so it must be true!




Why our landed gentry are so desperate to stay in the EU



Giles Fraser

Thursday 21 April 2016 16.46 BST


The common agricultural policy takes from the poor and gives to the rich. Its effects can be felt in every British household, and seen in the deadly waters of the Mediterranean too




‘A massive 38% of the entire 2014-20 EU budget is allocated as subsidies for European farmers. It is far and away the biggest item of euro expenditure, about €50bn a year.’ Photograph: Stuart Black/Alamy


The estate agent Carter Jonas established its reputation running the estates of the Marquess of Lincolnshire. “Some of the biggest property owners in the country are our loyal clients,” boasts its website. And, in a recent poll of these landowning clients, 67% of them said that Britain should stay in the EU.

So why all this Euro-enthusiasm in the Tory heartlands and among the landed gentry? “Should the UK vote to leave the EU, the CAP subsidies will likely be reduced,” Tim Jones, head of Carter Jonas’s rural division, explained. Thank you, Tim, for putting it so clearly. We understand.

A massive 38% of the entire 2014-20 EU budget is allocated as subsidies for European farmers. It is far and away the biggest item of euro expenditure, about €50bn a year. If these billions were being used to prop up a heavy industry – steel, for example – then the neoliberals would be up in arms, complaining like mad that if an industry can’t cope with a free market then it should be left to die. Creative destruction, they call it. But, for some reason, when it comes to agriculture, different rules apply.



Farms are not called “uneconomic” in the same way that pits and factories are. So every British household coughs up about £250 a year and hands it over to the EU, which hands it over to people like the Duke of Westminster – already worth £7bn himself. In 2011, the duke received £748,716 in EU subsidies for his various estates. So, too, Saudi Prince Bandar (he of the dodgy al-Yamamah arms deal), who pocketed £273,905 of EU money for his estate in Oxfordshire. The common agricultural policy is socialism for the rich. It’s a mechanism to buttress the aristocracy – who own a third of the land in this country – from the chill winds of economic liberalism.



More: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2016/apr/21/why-our-landed-gentry-are-so-desperate-to-stay-in-the-eu

good balanced article! :-)

I believe the aforementioned Nick Clegg is also a beneficiary, along with DC and other countless MP's of all colours.
2517

Subsidising food? what so that we can go and eat it.. disgraceful I say!

It's not food they are subsidising Stan.

Good one Stan.

Yes george this is the problem countless MP's and such in local papers telling people to stay in , obviously in their own interest .

Has Corbyn been up to anything useful lately? Or is he keeping a low profile (like that of a snake perhaps) now that he is best mates with our Dave and boy George?
Prep to Hays...

"The common agricultural policy takes from the poor and gives to the rich. Its effects can be felt in every British household"

Oh you mean like this poxy excuse for a government that most of you lot voted in, what a laugh you lot are

It was introduced in 1962 Stan.
2517

Don't let facts get in the way of a lefty groan George.

Barack Obama: Britain must vote to remain in the European Union


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/21/barack-obama-britain-must-vote-to-remain-in-the-european-union/

From the man who can't get anything done in his own country .

stan do you know what % of the vote the Tory's got in the GE?.

Imagine the USA joining a union with South America where decisions are made in lets say Nicaragua ,Managua being their Brussels ,
oh and by the way Guatemala and Honduras are joining soon , free movement of people from Peru,Chile,Columbia,Venezuela,Bolivia .

Ask Obama if he thinks that would be good for them ?

Well, some thought it was a good idea to wheel out the most useless president ever...




Your advice on EU isn't wanted, IDS tells Obama:

Senior Eurosceptic leads protests at being told to accept open borders when the US does not



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3553009/Your-advice-EU-isn-t-wanted-IDS-tells-Obama-Senior-Eurosceptic-leads-protests-told-accept-open-borders-does-not.html

Many as sickening as their leader!