Myopic EU

[Suff]

They seem to think that the Greece problem is the only one they face. However if they renege on written agreements to the UK, they may find that Greece is the least of their problems.

No matter how we feel about the EU and the referendum, lying to us and telling us that signed written commitments are "negotiable" on a QMV basis on which we can be voted down; is not a referendum winner.

That written agreement was given in order for the UK to sign into power the ESM which they used to bail out the PIIGS. To now state that it's "political" and can be ignored is more than unacceptable. It calls into question every written agreement made in Brussels.

This will be presented as exactly what it is come referendum time. You can't trust the signed commitment of the EU. They LIE.

[PS the torygraph tells me that I've exceeded it's 10 article monthly limit. However opening the link in Firefox instead of IE seems to be all that is needed to get around it. Must be a cookie....

[Workingman]

I would love to see what they would do if we held back that amount from our budget payments, then refused to pay any fines, then refused to negotiate.

There is no mechanism for us to be kicked out of the EU and other non-€ states might be tempted to see our side of things.

[Suff]

We're too wimpy to do it though. Only Maggie had the strength to tell the EEC to go stuff itself. None of our later politicians have had the gonads for it.

It would be fun though. OK we're not paying. What you gonna do now Huh? Oh take our rebate away? OK we'll take away our payment. Oooh, are our payments more than you give us?

Go for it.

See how far you get.

It's a conversation I'd love to see. It would be totally hilarious for the EU to have to give us more than we get in order for them to get us to do what they want.

It might, almost, be worth it. But they'd have to give us more each year than Greece owes in total to the EU to make it really worth it.... Sadly it's just s a dream. We'll continue to roll over and stick our legs in the air every time they say Booo.