niceguy2
I've never really understood the whole obsession with leaving the EU but staying in the EEA. What's the HUGE benefit?
I mean ok, we get to set our own laws in certain areas where the EU is now in charge. But by the same token we're tied into a lot of EU rules & regulations which we no longer have any say over. Certainly I've seen articles from various politician's in Norway and Switzerland warning that all that glitters isn't gold. Let's say the EU develop a new standard on car emissions. We'd have to follow if we want to sell cars to EU countries.
What you may not have realised is that many of those laws are now set at a level above even the EU. Cars are a good example.
Rules on vehicles are now set not by the EU but by UNECE and the World Forum for the Harmonisation of Vehicle Regulations. UNECE has been doing this for 50 years.
UNECE carries out its work through representation from countries.
As an independent nation, Norway represents itself in the committees and votes on its own behalf. Despite having no indigenous manufacturing industry, it takes an active part in the proceedings.
The UK, as a member of the EU, does not. It is represented by the EU.
And let's be honest eh? Which rules are really THAT bad that we must overturn completely and wouldn't replace with one as near as dammit the same. Health & safety? Is anyone going to seriously water those down? Human rights? We're going to just chuck the lot in the bin? No of course not. The reality is that we'd just replace them with slightly tweaked versions.
The point is this. We, the British people, would be in a position to alter that legislation through pressure on our government in Westminster. It is a fantasy to imagine we can do the same at a Commission level. If Britain decided to scrap the HRA, then that would be a decision for our elected politicians.
The only thing we'd be able to do something about is immigration. And that scares me because most of the anti-immigration arguments seem to be based upon fear, rumours and peddled heavily by the far right.
Your problem, I think, is not that you love the EU but that you fear the average voter. Look at the comedy language you use in this paragraph. Anyone opposed to mass immigration isn't doing it from a rational perspective, according to you, but through ignorance and fear. Whereas those like you in favour of mass immigration is doing it from a thought-out, considered, rational point of view.
You see the EU as a tool to keep the masses in check. And that is precisely why the EU will fail. It has no democratic mandate, no demos. It is unsupported from below.
It seems to me that the UK is trying to cherry pick the rules we like in the EU and not want those that we dislike.
Why shouldn't we cherry pick? Is it wrong for Britain to choose the rules that suit Britain?
But being part of a club isn't like that. It's probably a good reason why most EU countries are a bit sick of us.
Do you mean like France threatening to veto the free trade talks unless DVDs and 'cultural products' are removed from the discussions? I am tired of this fallacy peddled by EU fanatics that we are 'bad Europeans'. We are signed up to every bloody treaty, and our enforcers cross every T and dot every I. Take the smoking ban. Go to France, Germany, Spain, wherever. Everybody smokes where they like. Not in Britain. And that applies to every silly, meddling little rule. Britain is a far better EU member than France.
Lastly interesting analogy about cutting off nose to spite face. It looks to me like we're the ones doing that. In fact it's more akin to "Well if you don't do what I say then I'm taking my ball home". There comes a point where people just go "Meh...whatever"
They can't afford to. We pay in too much money for them to just toss us out. Not that they could, anyway, because as I'm sure you know there's only one way out and that's through us invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.