Our commissioners are unelected, there is massive corruption...
You won't get any argument from me on this one - I'm disillusioned with the whole set-up Europe. But I think the basic ideas behind the EU are sound - we shouldn't run away from it, we should be IN it. How else can we be involved in the reforms?
...criticism of the EU is blasphemy...
I don't think this is true and perhaps you could elaborate on this point, please.
Comparing the EU to the Soviet Union is ludicrous!!! The Soviet Union institutionalised the abuse of basic human rights - the EU has recently drawn up a bill of human rights which is not liked in this country because people believe it goes too far! I don't see how you can compare one to the other.
You mention your business. Business in this country does the great majority of its trade with Europe. Not America, not the Far East, but Europe. Therefore, what happens in Europe economically has a direct effect on the economy of Great Britain. Retreating from Europe and not helping to solve the problems therein does not make any sense.
The Conservatives want us to believe that we are not European. Hell, they want us to believe we are not part of a global community. Look at their stance on asylum seekers and the blatant attempt by Hague and Co. to appeal to zenophobic sentiment. Patriotism is one thing, but a recent survey looked at how people perceive the asylum seekers in this country. In areas where there are very few seekers (relative to places like Dover), a great majority of people said that something like 20% of the population were asylum seekers! The actual figure is a few per cent. I personally beleive that Tory scare policy is partly responsible for this.
I'm not saying Blair is perfect. Far from it, in fact. But god help us if the conservatives get into power.
Bike Killa - I reckon one of the reasons we didn't send an expedition force to Poland was the need to avoid war. This was uppermost in the minds of the British after the horror of WW1. Secondly, it is a matter of logistics - it would take months to get a large force set-up, coordinated and supplied to face a well-organised and capable Wehrmacht. Even in France, we couldn't stop the Germans. I think the British high command had to decide which battles to fight and when to retreat. Towards the end of the Battle of France (for example), Air Chief Marshal Dowding refused to send more Hurricane squadrons to France when the French requested them, because the situation was so dire.
[This message has been edited by Dowding (edited 11-01-2000).]
