General Discussion
What an excellent speech by David Cameron. We've had enough of stupid Brussels, e.g. Can't deport terrorists, prisoner votes, working hours, etc.
Also the Prime Minister's promise to give us an in-out vote shows he trusts the Great British public, unlike Labour.
Good one Dave. 
Yes, there has been an awful lot of noise from all sorts of quarters about the negative aspects of the EU vis-a-vis this country. I look forward to hearing/reading an informed debate about the pros and cons of our being a member of the EU.
Agree Paul.
I find its amazing everything the Government does, Labour goes against them in every way. Well we now know that 'spend spend Labour' says NO to coming out and will not give us a chance to vote.
Did someone say on tv we we have to pay 14 million a day to EU to be part of it?
Sad thing is people quickly forget the previous 12 years of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and will probably vote them back in again, because they will promise 'at any cost' the earth to get elected again!
The public have also forgoten how the Banks had major involvment in the position we find ourselves in its not all down to politicians whatever colour they are.
What may come out of the for and against arguments over the coming years is, for example, just how much money comes into this country from the EU. Hasn't a lot gone into Cornwall? Have I imagined it or do our farmers & Landowners get subsidies from the EU?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/26/europe-bung-landowners-farm-subsidies,
This whole in/out issue may turn out to be a bit like the argument put forward by the SNP for Scottish Independence from the rest of the Uk, in that all sorts of whys and wherefores and "oopsies we hadn't thought about that" types of things will need to be taken into consideration.
@wondering, yep labour will get straight back in because too many people don't like the spending cuts.
Such a shame The Labour Party can't be banned for being wreckless.
Well, if Labour get back in then there won't be a referendum will there? So all this excitement on your parts about a referendum will have been in vain, won't it?
So the best we can hope for is that David Cameron gets all our powers back and we are just in a common market.
I'm sure all the new teemage voters will vote Labour not knowing what they are like...these the very people with 'top of the range' expensive smart phones, maybe paying on card.
Not that I was around.... I have always thought it was odd how Winston Churchill (Conservative) got us through the war and was then voted out.
So even if this current Conservative/Liberal Government sorts the mess out, I am sure as history dictates they get voted out. Crazy.
"Not that I was around.... I have always thought it was odd how Winston Churchill (Conservative) got us through the war and was then voted out."
Perhaps because a lot of Conservatives didn't vote for him?
As this country is well off compared to the majority of EU countries, we are a net contributor.
So what's the point of us being in anything other than just a common market?
We pay around £53 million per day into the EU coffers. All the money that comes back in the form of grants and subsidies is just our own money being returned, so why don't we just cut out the EU middleman and keep it here in the first place? And as Britian is a net contributor we are paying out far more than we get back.
If you listen to Camerons speech he says and i quote "If the conservatives win the election he will have a referendum on in or out of Europe" what happens if they lose?
Is this the same David Cameron whose government are responsible for this?
http://www.itv.com/news/west/update/2013-01-24/kidney-patient-says-he-is-victim-of-benefits-cuts/
@Carer, obviously his case needs to be looked at again, you're always going to be able to find exceptional cases, but on the whole getting people back to work is a great idea.
Why should anyone have to support others that are able to work? I realise there are times when you need a little help, perhaps you've been made redundant or your health changes and of course society helps out.
However as we all know there are plenty of lazy people not pulling their weight.
So if Mr Cameron wins the next election and we vote OUT will that mean all those who have crossed our borders from E.U countries will have to go home.
Too many have been allowed in ...goodness knows what the benefit bill is. I went to Yorkshire and Lancashire recently, in some towns you wouldnt think you were in Britain. I cant see how we can take yet more.
The party that says they are going to put a stop to it will get the most votes.
and following on from the point that Leatash makes .......will all those Brits who live and work in other EU countries have to come home to Blighty? I assume so.
All those who have retired to the Costas come home now. (Oh yeah ,I forgot......there's a property problem in Spain........).
I don't believe for one instant that Mr. Cameron intends to hold a referendum. This is simply a ploy to emasculate the right of his own party and UKIP and, by doing that, could work to increase the chances of re-election. If he wins the election, he can cheerfully weasel out of the promise and the worst that can happen is that the anti-Europe factions can kick off again five years on. In that case, he would then have several more years before the electorate could remove the Tories. We are governed by chameleons.
"I find its amazing everything the Government does, Labour goes against them in every way. Well we now know that 'spend spend Labour' says NO to coming out and will not give us a chance to vote".
What planet have you been on all your life? No matter WHO is in government, the opposition does just that. The clue is in the word, Opposition.
@Don. absolutely agree. It's quite a cunning plan really. By attracting UKIP voters back in to the heart of the conservative party he can also probably get rid of the Libdem pact as well. Two birds with one stone. It's like the old joke about when you know that a politician is lying - when her lips move.
It is a golden rule not to hold a referendum unless you are sure that the outcome will be what you want it to be.
It would be more cunning were it not so transparent. However, as people will continue to believe what they want to be true,.............
The new trick to resolve the lips moving problem is to have a ventriloqist's dummy (or a party of them, "sharing power" with you.)
It will be interesting to see how Farage and UKIP fare now and what strategies UKIP follows now that UKIP's virtual raison d'etre has been hijacked by Cameron.
@Lynne, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9817511/UK-public-borrowing-rises-in-December-threatening-AAA-rating.html - how much worse would this be under Labour?
But it might not be as bad.
If more money was being spent on infrastructure for example (roads, rail, that sort of thing) then that might get the economy going again. More jobs = more money being spent = more jobs = more money being spent etc etc.
Think it's called the multiplier effect.
What we have at the moment is an ever shrinking economy. How can that possibly be deemed a successful strategy?.
Infrastructure spending hasn't ceased, the railways seem to be doing quite well out of it (admittedly not down here!). Crossrail has a £16bn budget, and the HS2 railway, when it gets started, is estimated to be costing £32bn. Hardly loose change, by anyone's standards.
And of course, there was that £9bn jamboree in London last year, which kept quite a lot builders occupied for a few years.
Then perhaps more public spending is needed?
Just been watching the Andrew Neil Politics Show on BBC2. Very interesting 30 mins or so on the state of the economy. (If you've got any gold and silver then hang on to it!) If I can find a link for it I'll post it (or I guess you'll be able to see it on BBC iplayer).
But ..........to get back to the original topic of this thread. When we (if we) have our hokey cokey referendum and if we vote to go out of the EU then all our economic woes will be resolved won't they? Is that right?
Lynne, to answer your earlier comment on money comming from the EU... We only get a potion of what we have already paid in. We, along with France & Germany are the only NET contributers to the EU. The other countries all receive more than they pay in. Any money for Cornwall etc. would be, in effect, our own money comming back. Germany, quite rightly, does not want us to leave because it would leave them as the only real NET payer to bankroll the whole EU.
Tony Blair given an award today in Poland for all he did to allow the Polish into the UK ..
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/9836403/Tony-Blair-honoured-by-award-from-Poland.html
regarding the spend spend spend comments on here, you are correct, if in hard times you pull back and stop spending the economy reduces,
I believe we should continue to spend though on things such as research and development also supporting export businesses and new inventions, new technologies.
On a personal level I believe in hard times like these I think people should really think about how they spend their money, if we all tried to buy British I'm sure that alone would help both jobs and the economy.
opting out of the EU I think would be extremely dangerous, though it probably wouldn't affect me too much so I don't really mind what our country does.