Grah

Saw this article wondered how many of you willl feel the same about returning if it wasn't England anymore?

Looks like the pound will be gone for sure, wonder if there will be many other changes...

quoll

I guess I am praying that the worm will turn before it gets that far!

Yarpy

I see they have deleted the Channel Islands.

There is no end to EU madness.

Don't come back to the 'UKAY' The culture here is very harsh and unrecognisable even if you have been away for just a few years.

Jerseygirl

Absolute rubbish. OK there are changes but nothing stands still for ever...it's still the good old UK.

JAJ

It is becoming increasingly obvious that the United Kingdom will, if it wishes to preserve its national identity, have to withdraw from the European Union.

That will lead to many difficult years, economically and socially, but may still be preferable to the alternative.

Yarpy

It depends which bit of the UKAY you live in. We are on an Island and relatively undisturbed by a lot of the change. However, on rare visits to the mainland we are often shocked by what we find and feel like strangers in our own land. Probably the main complaint is overcrowding in the south east coupled with aggressive behaviour and attitudes.

Rete

Damn. I didn't realize that the EU had the power to rearrange country borders, rename landmasses and waterways. They really are a power unto themselves aren't they.

Wonder how that bodes for the future. Can imagine a dictatorship if one "country/party" gets the top positions.

chicagojlo

Sounds like it's being taken completely out of context to me. What they will do to sell newspapers these days.
Many organisations group up geographical areas and 'name' them something other than their given name. It does not mean that name no longer exists. Do you see Sweden jumping up and down when people refer to Scandinavia?!
And the name Channel Sea is probably down to a poor translation of The English Channel rather than simply renaming it.
The EU does not have the power to do any of what this article is 'suggesting'. Perhaps if people had more knowledge about what the EU can do they wouldn't waste time electing idiots like UKIP to represent them there.

Jerseygirl

Exactly...they don't even have the power to make us change our currency to the euro.

chicagojlo

As I was saying to a friend of mine yesterday who is very anti-EU, a lot of the blame the EU gets in the UK is completely unjustified. Of course the government are quite happy to let the press dupe everyone into believing that it's all the EU's fault, even though other countries adopt the same directives and don't get the same ridiculous outcomes.
And if the UK did decide to adopt the Euro it would be the UK's choice and not the EU's. Whether any politician would dare to admit or not is another story. Again if people were more aware of what actually goes on in the EU and it how it affects the UK this kind of myth wouldn't keep being perpetuated.
And further to my earlier comment regarding the Channel Sea, this is actually it's name in Dutch (when translated into English), one of the 3 official languages used in Brussels, so it's hardly a renaming of the sea. Just an 'incorrect' translation.

Grah

The reason for that is it will mean a referendum and they can't afford a single 'No' vote on the Libson treaty. Only country having a referendum is Eire which has more money out of EU than they put in - and therefore more likely to vote yes.

Even thought they are not able to change the currency they are allowed to enforce laws and taxes. Not bad for un-elected officials that force through so many changes in 1 day they cannot read what they are voting on. But I suppose that ok and nothing to worry about.

United they stand divide we fall.

But the problem isn't that they do these things it's that people don't even vote when they get the chance to 36% vote 64% don't care about the result.

Wonder what they'll want to standardise next?
First weights and measures then tarriff's then products then currency and all in less than 50 years. Not bad eh!

In the 11 years since we left we see loads of differences even just throwing out the garbage. once every 2 weeks fixed amount and limited on what can be thrown out. With high EU taxes on landfill usage, so be prepared for changes when you go back after being away for a while.

Chicago could you enlighten the rest of us how the EU helps Britian - please don't state EU sponsored projects as the British pay way more to the EU than all the projects put together.

chicagojlo

The EU does a lot for Britain. It brought equality for women in the workplace for a start.
I'm not sure what waste rules you are talking about because in the EU country I used to live in we didn't have those problems as the country wasn't producing anywhere near the amount of waste per head that the UK does.

chicagojlo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eu_law

For anyone interested I recommend reading this. I studied EU law a few years ago and this is a good summary. The bit about how legislation must pass through the European Parliament is where all those lovely UKIP people the UK elected come into play.

An earlier comment I made regarding directives was slightly inaccurate, in that yes directives cover all the member states not individual ones, but decisions can be made that cover individual member states, although if I recall correctly those decisions usually refer to a state's interpretation of existing legislation not imposing new legislation on one state alone.

Manc

what's being proposed is turning Europe into a new version of the USA.

so where do you get that dictatorship shit from?

Triboy

I'm pretty much thinking that all the people returning from this knuckle dragging dump because of finances and culture (or lack thereof) have had quite a bit of experience with 'difficult years'.

Still pushing that anti UK barrel I see