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European Union – Nick Clegg slaps down European Union Doubters!

The euro-zone simply cannot work unless the European Union is one country with one government and one central bank  but now Nick Clegg wades into the European Union debate saying that the euro crisis does not make it the right time to claw back powers from and renegotiate our relationship with Brussels!

The European Union, well well, Nick Clegg has stirred and attempts to slap down euro-doubters saying the UK should be focused on how they can help to save the euro rather than how we can renegotiate our relationship with the European Union.

The euro-zone simply cannot work unless the European Union is one country with one government and one central bank

Nick Clegg

In a speech to the London School of Economics Clegg said the coalition should focus on its ‘role’ in rescuing the euro-zone rather than trying to negotiate a better deal for Britain with the European Union, Clegg goes on to say that the real failure is not the original concept of monetary union. It is that the rules were never applied stringently enough, the stability and growth pact was watered down in 2005, allowing members to wriggle out of their fiscal commitments to each other and now we are seeing the effects. Further reading

Nick Clegg said that the UK should be focused on how they can help to save the euro rather than how we can renegotiate our relationship with the European Union.

Firstly the UK is not a part of the euro-zone, it did not join because, despite denials, being part of the euro-zone would inevitably have meant being part of a United States of Europe which the current members of the euro-zone refuse to admit and the euro-zone was certain to fail unless it becomes a United States of Europe!

The euro-zone simply cannot work unless the European Union is one country with one government and one central bank, yes it may have lasted longer if the stability and growth pact had not been weakened in 2005 but at that time even the Germans were fiddling the figures to try to stay within the pact but the euro-zone would still have failed eventually unless they created one country.

Quite simply, as George Osborne has said, the euro-zone countries need to bind together to create, effectively, a United States of Europe which will require a new treaty but is something totally alien to the UK and it makes enormous sense to renegotiate the UK position at that point, so what relationship do we want/need?

Before we cover that, it should not be forgotten that the UK is already deeply involved in bailing out the euro-zone, probably a lot deeper than it ought to be or can afford to be!

In my opinion and please tell me if you agree/disagree, it is very important to debate this out in the open and you have your chance here, comment and join in the It’s just life! European debate!

  1. In principle, we want to maintain a free-trade relationship with the European Union, they are our biggest trading partners although our trade with the European Union is in deficit and we are probably the biggest customer of both Germany and France, this should not be difficult as the European Union cannot afford to lose the UK as a customer.
  2. We cannot remain a member of the European Union if a central United States of Europe is set up because we will be on the outside and unable to influence many of the decisions but then we don’t want to be governed by Brussels anyway.
  3. We would obviously want to retain the freedom of travel arrangements which is, in any case, beneficial to both the European Union and the UKIt may take a whole parliament but we need to
  4. Repatriate all powers from the European Union which amongst other things would give us back our fishing rights so that we can re-institute the 200 mile shore limit.
  5. Remove the Human Rights Act from UK law, if required we can replace it with a UK Bill of Rights
  6. Withdraw from the European Court of Human Rights
  7. Obviously we would withdraw from the European Union Parliament
  8. Create an associate European Union membership/forum where joint interests can be discussed

This would save the UK at least

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