Re: who represents Hyndburn 9Accrington and district) in Europe
 

Strange how so many people are afraid to be a part of a federal Europe, but look back so fondly when we were part of a much bigger organisation, indeed one that covered a quarter of the globe's land mass...the British Empire.:D

Re: who represents Hyndburn 9Accrington and district) in Europe
 

differance with the British Empire is we pulled the strings.;)

Re: who represents Hyndburn 9Accrington and district) in Europe
 

...that was going to be my punchline, but I'd thought I'd leave it for you to say.:D

Personally I'm not pro-European, and would pull out tomorrow.

It was sold as an economic union back in the 60's/70's, and it certainly isn't that anymore.

Re: who represents Hyndburn 9Accrington and district) in Europe
 

What is the British Empire? :D

I hate politics and things like this. I've just started EU law and its so difficult to get my head around. Art blah blah blah says this and Article blah blah of this treaty does that.

Wish we werent in the EU :D

Re: who represents Hyndburn 9Accrington and district) in Europe
 

wrong question, should be What was.:D

Re: who represents Hyndburn 9Accrington and district) in Europe
 

I liked it when it was The Common Market. That made it sound like a huge communal shopping spree where we could get crêpes and würstchen in exchange for black puddings and Lancashire hot pot.

Somewhere along the way the 'market' became a 'union' and the shop stewards were all in Brussels. :(

Re: who represents Hyndburn 9Accrington and district) in Europe
 

I disappointingly lost a debate between the yorkshire pudding and the lancashire hotpot the other day. I still stand by my opinion that the hotpot is better though, though i do love yorkshire puddings :D

Re: who represents Hyndburn 9Accrington and district) in Europe
 

We still have a British Empire but to cut down on travelling expenses we let them all move here :p

Re: who represents Hyndburn 9Accrington and district) in Europe
 

There was a report on immigration about a year ago now in The Times and it had statistics that showed just as many people moved out of the country to foreign countries. Think the top 2 destinations where spain and australia if I remember rightly.

Point I'm trying to make is, many people come to live in England, but just as many leave, but obviously we wouldn't notice that as easily and so it looks like its just a free for all here.

Though I think you referred to me as 'Accywebs immigration represenative' or something ridiculous earlier so maybe I should just be quiet.

Re: who represents Hyndburn 9Accrington and district) in Europe
 

In the first vote on the ratification of the European Reform Treaty which took place in parliament the other day, Greg Pope voted "for", so it's pretty clear where he stands on the subject!

Re: who represents Hyndburn 9Accrington and district) in Europe
 

I voted for the Lisbon Treaty because it is good for Britain to be part on an enlarged EU. We got all our the opt-outs and in other areas there will be majority voting - something which is necessary now that the EU has 27 countries in it.

There has been a lot of rubbish written about the Treaty (although not on Accyweb!) but Parliament is surely the right place to ratify it, where it will be debated in detail for a full month in the Commons in great detail. Someone mentioned earlier in thread that we had joined a Common Market and not a European Union, and I think that's right. Perhaps we should have a vote once and for all if we want to stay in EU? For all its faults I think we are much better off in it.

Re: who represents Hyndburn 9Accrington and district) in Europe
 

Agreed, Greg! Could you possibly have a word with your boss about it please? :)

Re: who represents Hyndburn 9Accrington and district) in Europe
 

I wish I could bring myself to take interest in whats going on with the Lisbon Treaty, we've been recommended to follow it by my EU law tutor because obviously its a pretty important change going on thats going to impact what we're studying and it throws our text books out of date when we've only just paid for them :( £35 a book too.

Strangely enough there didn't seem to be much care for it in the past days Times though, unless I'm missing something.

Re: who represents Hyndburn 9Accrington and district) in Europe
 

Does this "rubbish" include the recent report by the Labour-dominated Foreign Affairs Select committee which concluded that the treaty cedes vital powers to Brussels and that ministers are misleading the public by saying that it does not?

Re: who represents Hyndburn 9Accrington and district) in Europe
 

I find it quite exciting that greg pope posts on accyweb, does peter britcliffe post aswell?