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UK finds no area with a case for transferring powers back from Brussels

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  • 28-03-2015 11:36pm
    #1
    micosoft
    Registered Users Posts: 2,359 ✭✭✭


    Interesting news from the UK which could be very damaging to Cameron's "let's blame the EU for stuff" campaign.

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/28/lords-accuse-tories-burying-eu-powers-review

    Cross party and chaired by a Tory peer no less. This “balance of competences” review – hailed by William Hague in 2012 as the “most extensive analysis of the impact of UK membership of the EU ever undertaken” – found no area with a case for transferring powers back from Brussels.

    While I'm dubious this will have any effect on the usual suspects who continuously and deliberately misrepresent the EU in order to have a bogeyman in their lives I would hope that this lessens the chance of a Brixit...


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    #2
    marmurr1916
    Registered Users Posts: 2,091 ✭✭✭marmurr1916


    The reality is the the EU debate in the UK (or at least in England) has become a proxy for the debate about immigration.

    The in/out referendum will essentially be an immigration v economy debate.

    It will be won or lost depending on whether people think that reducing immigration is more important than the potential risks to the economy.


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    #3
    micosoft
    Registered Users Posts: 2,359 ✭✭✭micosoft


    Totally agree. The number of English People that have immigrated to various EU countries are a big problem for some countries like Irealand for example, where British immigrants consume significantly more benefits then say, the Irish in Britain. The fact that the number of immigrants in the UK is almost exactly balanced by the number of British Immigrants in other EU states would probably be the place to start the "debate". That's a lot of British that could potentially be deported back to the UK.


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    #4
    Manach
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 9,663 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manach


    micosoft wrote: »
    The fact that the number of immigrants in the UK is almost exactly balanced by the number of British Immigrants in other EU states would probably be the place to start the "debate".
    Just as an FYI, the link is via a paywall.


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    #5
    marmurr1916
    Registered Users Posts: 2,091 ✭✭✭marmurr1916


    micosoft wrote: »
    Totally agree. The number of English People that have immigrated to various EU countries are a big problem for some countries like Irealand for example, where British immigrants consume significantly more benefits then say, the Irish in Britain. The fact that the number of immigrants in the UK is almost exactly balanced by the number of British Immigrants in other EU states would probably be the place to start the "debate". That's a lot of British that could potentially be deported back to the UK.

    Can you see most of the British press being realistic about this? Their stereotypical image of a British person who lives in other EU member states is a wealthy retired person who owns a large house in the countryside.

    British people who have immigrated to other countries are never referred to as emigrants or migrants but as ex-pats.

    During the general election campaign The Sun published an article stating that 600,000 EU immigrants to the UK claim unemployment benefits and that the EU Commission was indifferent to this.

    It had to print a retraction and a correction but that came after the election was over and the space given to the retraction was tiny compared to the space given to the original story.

    The British press is not going to present a balanced view of migration during the referendum campaign. Most of the populist press is very firmly against EU membership, anti-immigration and will campaign for the UK to withdraw from the EU.


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    #6
    micosoft
    Registered Users Posts: 2,359 ✭✭✭micosoft


    Agreed. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story. It's interesting how language can be used to redefine good/bad. As in British Migrants pay their way while immigrants to Britain are a sink. When in matter of fact the bulk of British migrants are elderly and a sink on the healthcare systems of Spain whereas most migrants to the UK are young and work.


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    #7
    micosoft
    Registered Users Posts: 2,359 ✭✭✭micosoft


    Manach wrote: »
    Just as an FYI, the link is via a paywall.

    Apologies. Here is a snippet of article:
    EU migrants moving to UK balanced by Britons living abroad
    By Elizabeth Rigby, Deputy Political Editor
    The number of European migrants in the UK is almost exactly balanced by the number of Britons living elsewhere in the EU, according to official figures.
    About 1.8m Britons live in Europe, with Spain boasting an expat population of just over 1m UK citizens, according to government estimates. Of the Britons living in Europe, 400,000 are claiming a state pension from the UK. That compares with an estimate of 2.34m EU citizens living in the UK, according to the latest official figures from Nomis – the National Online Manpower Information System, a service provided by the Office for National Statistics – based on passport records.

    Lord Oakeshott, the senior Liberal Democrat peer who uncovered the figure in a parliamentary question, said the high numbers of Britons abroad proved that freedom of movement was a “genuine two-way street”.
    “As many Britons work or retire across the Channel or the Irish Sea as other Europeans come here,” the Lib Dem peer told the Financial Times.


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    #8
    Hotblack Desiato
    Registered Users Posts: 33,872 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    I think the real issue for a lot of people isn't EU immigration it's immigration from Commonwealth countries - and it's not the aussies and kiwis they have a problem with so much - it's Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis

    But that would be racist, so instead they pretend that when they are giving out about immigration it's about Poles.

    Life ain't always empty.



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    #9
    micosoft
    Registered Users Posts: 2,359 ✭✭✭micosoft


    Actually they are being very specific about EU migration and not non-EU immigration which is entirely within the power of the UK Govt. Polish plumbers and all that. The tories have explicitly said they want to negotiate around internal movement in the EU which is a red line for every other state and especially the eastern members. From a factual standpoint it's beyond belief, especially when you have the likes of Farage giving his German wife a job....


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    #10
    Hotblack Desiato
    Registered Users Posts: 33,872 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    micosoft wrote: »
    Actually they are being very specific about EU migration and not non-EU immigration which is entirely within the power of the UK Govt.

    The politicos are yes. That doesn't mean the people voting for them have the same motivation.

    Life ain't always empty.



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