Great Britain added to the EU/?

[08087]

There is talk of adding Great Britain to the EU, good or bad idea?

[baddi]

They have been a member of the European Union since 1973 according to wiki

[08087]

I didn't know the EU was that old, thought it got it's start in the late 90's or 00's. Also didn't think England was part of it being they still use the Pound and the rest use Euro.

[baddi]

I didn't know the EU was that old, thought it got it's start in the late 90's or 00's. Also didn't think England was part of it being they still use the Pound and the rest use Euro.

EU have existed since 1945, although not in the form we know it today.
At first, it was Belgium, Luxemborg, France, West-germany and the nederlands, who joined in what was called the european steel and coal companionship, and this companionship was build to insure high prices of steel and coal to insure growth after the war. If this companionship wasn't founded, the coal and steel prices would drop through the bottom, leaving everyone bankrupt, as the production of steel had increased massively during the war, and Europe needed to be rebuild, not to be bankrupt.

Later more and more countries joined in, and they changed name to European Union, as they expanded the products to envolve many other things. Now EU have influence on Borders, Economics, Laws and production standarts in all of its countries, exept Denmark, which have not agreed to 4 points:
 - Union citizenship
 - The third degree of the economical union, where the country starts to use the Euro as an official currency. Instead our currency are 7,4 times lower value and can go up or down with 2%. This enables economical flexability.
 - Military union.
 - Courts.

EU is mostly an economical union, but the countries in this union have more or less agreed to have some standart rules, so it starts to look more and more like USA, where there are one union with several states in it. Exept Denmark, where most of the citizens (including me) think that USA are very exaggerated in almost any way, so we dont want to end up like that.

[streido]

England is not the UK, the UK is made up of Scotland (where i live), England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Its a common mistake people make to confuse UK with England, ive even been asked "Oh you come from Scotland? Thats in England right?" Wrong? Thats like saying Canada is in the USA.

At present England like to think they are i overall charge of all UK member states, if you imagine each of the 4 members are like states in the US that gives you the idea, each state has its own various laws and differences in how they run things but ultimately they can be overruled on many things by London, same as your state system where Washington is in overall control.

The UK as a whole are members of the EU and have elected politicians in the European Gov but are not full members like say France or Germany who adopted the Euro and have both feet in the Eurozone. The UK kinda has one foot in but one foot out, they want to have their cake and eat it too. For some reason the English have an aversion to losing their £ or fully joining Europe   If i was a European politician from outside the UK i would want the UK either fully in or fully out, but for whatever reason nobody complains much in Eurooe about it?

Scotland has its own parliment, national health service, laws, all totally seperate to England. We are having a referendum here (Scotland only) in 2014 to decide if we want to remain in the UK or become our own independent nation, hopefully we will leave and regain full control over our own nation again after 300 years of living under English rule. If we go then i fully expect Northern Ireland to push for the same and finally we can have a united Republic of Ireland again and end the British occupation there which causes so much anger and troubles in the past. After that Wales will want leave and the UK will be no more  

So to answer the original question, the UK is half in Europe, half out, its a crazy and stupid situation   If Scotland gains independence i expect we will fully join, England still wont, Northern Ireland will if they can re-unite with the southern Republic of Ireland as the Republicis already a full member and use the Euro, Wales, i dont know.

This will help explain the UK and is also pretty funny too 
The Difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and England Explained

[streido]

The Difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and England Explained

Pretty confusing and f***ed up eh?

Just want to add,

I am NOT British no matter how many times the English government try to tell me i am. 
I do not recognise the authority of the English government to rule over me. 
I bow to no queen or king, especially a non Scots one, a Scottish one would be bad enough but an English queen? No thanks, keep her. 


Hope this helps a little 

[08087]

Thanks for the education, I did know that but it escaped me, getting old I guess. I am no tin favor of the (New) EU and am thinking much of the member citizens were not in favor either as the powers that are in charge let some citizens take a vote and others in charge did not allow the citizens to vote.

To me it's another giant step towards a one world gov., and new world order. Not that I hold it against any country to want to be able to compete with larger countries through buying power etc. But just as NAFTA has not worked in the US, Mexico, and Canada I don't think the EU is working for all involved accross the Atlantic. I'm waiting for them to organize Africa, that will be alot of fun.

 

[streido]

I fully believe we NEED a global one voice to sort out some important issues like climate change etc on a global scale ( i know global warming is all evil lies to some Americans but to most or almost all in Europe it is a fact beyond debate).

The EU is better to take control of issues like that where seperate countries cant agree and the debate ends up getting nowhere due to some countries being too concerned with economic growth and making more money than their neighbour does, rather than keeping our planet healthy, its going to be difficult to grow economically if we have to spend ever day pumping the rising sea water out our factories and buildings 1st.

Some times it can get all bogged down in Bureaucracy, but over all it seems to work not too bad really. It does have many good points as well as a few bad, but overall im prob for it myself. I am a European after all anyway, my country whether that be classed as Scotland or UK is contained within Europe no matter what i want to think and we all need to get along or its all f**ked for everyone.

Im just not Brtish, thats all   

[08087]

I fully believe we NEED a global one voice to sort out some important issues like climate change etc on a global scale ( i know global warming is all evil lies to some Americans but to most or almost all in Europe it is a fact beyond debate).

The EU is better to take control of issues like that where seperate countries cant agree and the debate ends up getting nowhere due to some countries being too concerned with economic growth and making more money than their neighbour does, rather than keeping our planet healthy, its going to be difficult to grow economically if we have to spend ever day pumping the rising sea water out our factories and buildings 1st.

Some times it can get all bogged down in Bureaucracy, but over all it seems to work not too bad really. It does have many good points as well as a few bad, but overall im prob for it myself. I am a European after all anyway, my country whether that be classed as Scotland or UK is contained within Europe no matter what i want to think and we all need to get along or its all f**ked for everyone.

Im just not Brtish, thats all   

Without getting too deep into the global warming/climate change issue here in America we have a solid mistrust of our politicians (for very good reason) many of us see the "climate change" issue as just another way of banging us for more taxes and contributing towards a one day global gov.

Keep in mind the upcoming tax they want to hit us with, "Carbon tax" you get to have "X" amount of carbon output per yr. after you max that amount out you pay for any additional carbon you put out. If you boat or have a delivery service you will have to buy more carbon credits, all in an effort to stop what they can't even prove and what many have lied to maintain as fact. Forging documents to "prove" a point does not exactly say "above board" to most people.

[whiteknight]

im not british im an honourary scotsman    oh yea Streido wheres my kilt mon? me knackers ar froozing.

[axy]

I didn't know the EU was that old, thought it got it's start in the late 90's or 00's. Also didn't think England was part of it being they still use the Pound and the rest use Euro.

08087:

Actually it started in 1958.

17 EU members use Euro, 10 (lucky ones) do not.

Streido:

A bit of trivia. In my language, England is considered to be a synonym for United Kingdom and Great Britain and "English people" is term commonly used for everybody who are not Irish. All people living south of Northern Ireland are here Englishmen=British. I would say the situation might be similar to everybody over here being "Slavs" in UK, even though there are probably 15-20 Slavic countries and nations.

So, when you say either of these toponyms, people automatically think - "an island in the ocean". There is not much distinction. Wales/Scotland are seen as geographic counties/districts/areas.

One more trivia, Scottish people are a subject of some jokes and proverbs here for being cheap/miser. The same attribute is given to our local people living on islands by the people living on mainland. Is there any truth to it, how did that come into our language?

I have been working with a number of Scottish people over the past decade. Oh boy, they can talk when they drink one drink too many.  
Also, I understand more Dutch or French language even though I do not speak them than one single agitated/nervous Scotsman!

[streido]

Keep in mind the upcoming tax they want to hit us with, "Carbon tax"

We already have that carbon tax here now, started earlier this yr. For me thats a good thing, we cant keep pumping crap into the enviroment at our current rates, well we can but again it will end up in a broken sick planet.

I dont trust many politicians either, theyre mostly all in it to make themselves rich and take backhanders and directorships from businesses. Actually tho its scientist who can prove climate change is reality, with no doubt. The confusion can come from whether the climate change is man-made or is a natural event that is nothing to do with man. Personally i dont care where it comes from, i just want to stop or limit its effects on us all and really the only way to do that is to cut carbon emmissions or use science (which we dont have yet) to fix or reverse tbe damage and emmissons we produce.


Axy
You dont want to give alcohol to a Scotsman, if you so treat him like a firework, light fuse and stand well back to watch the explosion 

Yeah, we like to drink, and then drink more, but surprisingly enough i actually rarely drink myself  anymore At most i would say i go get drunk maybe 3-4 times a year these days, i just cant sit there getting plastered when i have other things to do, and besides we cant drive kr ride under the influence, you just fall asleep or get in a fight. Not for me, im too old now, been there, done that, got the medal for it and moved on.

The misery Scot thing is a complete myth, prob dreamed up by some Englishman no doubt to try keep us down and dampen out Celtic spirit. It didnt work. If anything Scots are among the most generous and open people you will meet, even when drunk. We will stop and help anyone we see in trouble, are always open to new cultures and foreign immigrants, and would share out last can of beer with the guy next to us who has none 

A little tip, NEVER call anyone from the Irish Republic British  Thats actually as bad as saying Scotland is in England, in fact its probably worse given all the troubles over there in the past with the IRA etc fighting to get the Brits out, which they did  It is confusing for foreigners but anyone who moves here or Ireland would soon realise we ARE seperate nations with many many differences in our priorities,  our wants and our needs. This is why we would be far better to split the Union, divorce our countries in a pleasant way and move on with our lives seperately, we dont get on much now, we have different ideals as nations.

Btw, did you know if Scotland were to gain independence we would become the 7th wealthiest nation on earth?

I wouldnt use the world Slav either, in my mind thats certain areas of Russian? Probably wrong? Croats, or Serbs is what i would use, i still remember Yugoslavia tho, my mate even had one of those tiny Yugo cars in the early 90's 

[streido]

And WK, you kilt is here, im just waiting for the blacksmith to finish your Claymore and i'll send it down bro 

[whiteknight]

And WK, you kilt is here, im just waiting for the blacksmith to finish your Claymore and i'll send it down bro 

WOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!

[zombie]

If you happen across any McKinnens... That's my moms side.
The whole topic makes it fairly easy to see the issues created. Just like the US ruling Canada. No reason for it in todays world. Back in the day getting tax/resources meant power. Today it means greed. Weapons now have unlimited range so it is Much better to rule your own house, and let your neighbor rule his.
Say hey for me.