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Archive for the ‘EU’ Category

Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics

by Geoff Abell on 20 June, 2016

This referendum has been dominated by negative conjecture, false statistics and opinion. But the Leave leaflet flooding Marple, along with the television political broadcast, takes the biscuit.  They lie. Lie number 1. Britain pays £350 million per week into the EU.  False. There is a rebate (apart from the funding for regional development and various subsidies). […]

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One week to go

by Geoff Abell on 12 June, 2016

Although the British are not best at everything, there are some qualities that shine through: tolerance, fairness, understatement and steering the best course.   As regards the last one I think we’ve done pretty well in the EU. We got decimalisation but not the Euro. We got metric measurements, but still got the pint and […]

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The Referendum is 3 weeks away

by Geoff Abell on 20 May, 2016

When the arguments and statistics are peeled away, this referendum is really about one thing for me personally. Do we want to befriend our fellow European nations, or do we want them at a distance? Do we want our leaders to talk to the other neighbouring leaders to tackle issues like terrorism, financial crises or […]

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Don’t Lose Your Vote!

by Geoff Abell on 1 April, 2016

Local elections for Stockport Council on Thurs, 5 May; EU referendum on Thurs, 23 June. Photo Jack Hynes via LSE Democratic Audit  There are 2 important elections coming.  Voter registration has changed (so that individuals register rather than the “head of the household”).  Most will have been carried across, but if you are unsure or […]

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The EU – making competition fair

by Malcolm Allan on 23 February, 2016

The European Commission has ordered the Belgian government to collect €700 million of taxes from 35 multinational companies trading in that country. The EU Competition Commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, says that the Belgian government has been doing illegal ‘sweetheart’ deals to attract business from large companies. But these deals are unfair to small companies that don’t […]

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What has the EU ever done for us?

by Geoff Abell on 9 February, 2016

Dirty beaches skirt EU rules According to The Times, under new plans, dirty beaches will be “de-designated” as bathing waters, and will be exempt from EU rules requiring warning signs about raw sewage and farm pollution. From May, any official bathing beach which has been classed as “poor” for water quality will have to display […]

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