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Summary

Europe remains a touchy subject for many in the UK. Being an Island nation state, the British have never really felt much of the 'continental spirit', although things have changed slowly since the 1960s , not least in part due to the availability of cheap holidays for the masses across the main Euro zone.

The 'Euro' currency issue remains highly contentious, latest polls still appear to show that a majority of UK people are against the Euro in the short term, but that they believe a currency switch in the longer term as inevitable.

 


A happy league of nations ?

 



Proposals

Introduction

The issue is one of sovereignty. None of the current mainstream parties in the UK show any indication of protecting the rights of the UK people. The UK independence party are the only semi-mainstream group that are suggesting the UK retain most of their currently existing independence from other nations. The problem with the UK Independence. party is that is one of those 'one policy' parties. They only have one idea, and so as such will never really gain any favour with the public.
So, as things are, whether 'new' labour or the conservatives are in power, the UK continues to relentlessly see UK elected politicians literally sign away our independence to other countries. Utterly depressing indeed.
 



The European Constitution

The euro. constitution is yet another step in the process of the relentless erosion of the UK's independence. Each year the Euro parliament becomes more dominant over the UK people. Ask any UK person if they like this situation, and the answer is of course a passionate 'NO !'. Yet sadly, events just continue to support the notion that UK members of parliament don't really care about protecting the UK's independence.




The UK public are still against the Euro
 

The Euro

I would like to make a note though, that I foresee a 'One world currency' by 2075. Baring a world disaster, countries across the globe will relentlessly become ever more closely tied with each other - whether the resident populations like this idea or not is beside the point. The fact is that the UK economy reacts in part according to how other nations are doing. If America falls into recession, then this will have 'some' impact on the UK economy. Contrary to what the extreme euro-sceptics would like the general populace to believe, the time when the UK economy was 'independent' ended more than a century ago when international trade started to take place on a large scale. 


Euro-Military

There has been a drive to get a 'euro army', one that will supersede the UK armed forces,  and this should be opposed. As was seen with Gulf War II in 2003, nations are simply too split in how they believe world affairs need to be dealt with. How can anyone suggest the UK should give up its own military defence force, in favour of a euro-army - which is controlled via the European parliament ? 


European Court of Law

Should an external court have power to over-ride the UK courts system. The answer should surely be NO !  Yet over the last decade there have been so many court cases of injustice - where the only hope and real justice UK citizens have found was via the European court, that I find myself for the moment supporting the European-court. In principle though, laws should only be decided by the local population, and not by a large multi-country block. There remain simply too many cultural differences between the various European nations for a single 'one size fits all' court to represent the views of the population.

 


Conclusion

The UK remains currently split on the issue of Europe. The 'Tory party' self destructed due to this very issue, and for most people the issue of Europe is a highly passionate one. As things are, the European parliament already has a great many powers over the UK, some of which over-ride UK law - although this is not always a bad thing when you consider some of the crazy laws we have.

Even though a majority of UK people are against joining the euro currency bloc' in the short term (3-10years), most people in surveys do tend to believe that the UK will sometime within a decade join up.
 


Links

European Parliament : The official website of the European parliament (English version).

UK Independence Party : Always worth a look, a very 'anti-foreigner' attitude as standard, but still take a look at their core principles.

 

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Page last updated : 23/07/2004