What is in it for the average EU citizen to vote in the upcoming EU elections? To answer that we must ask – what does the EU do for that same average citizen?
And the answer to that is not difficult to work out – nothing. Or even less than that – it gets in the way of the average citizen
If I want to go out and buy some of my local feta cheese – I can’t. If I want to drive my Finnish truck on European roads – I can’t. If I want to plant some sugar beet when I want – I can’t. Feta cheese is a ‘named’ product that can only come from a small part of Greece. So the biggest feta cheese producer in Europe – Denmark, is forced to call it’s cheese something else. Trucks built in Finland are apparently about 6cm too wide for European road standards, and so must either be trimmed down the side by that amount, or stay at home. And in the agricultural arena, if there is too much of one product in the EU, you are not allowed to produce it, even if there is a shortage in your local country. Again the Finns seem to prefer the quality of their local sugar beet, but the farmers there are not allowed to grow it because there is a surplus of inferior product elsewhere in Europe!
So tell me – what does the EU actually do for the average citizen: it hinders and obstructs and taxes them at just about every opportunity, for no real return.
There are three groups that benefit significantly out of the EU. Firstly is the politicians who otherwise would have no-one to listen to all their hot air and useless pronouncements. Secondly the multilingual circus of bureaucrats that is required to keep the whole organisation functioning. Note that they do nothing for anyone in Europe, they just shuffle the parliament backwards and forward between Belgium and France every couple of months, and translate every single document into every single language. Do you really think that the Italians or the Portuguese want to know the details of the Arctic reindeer policies? Of course not, but to justify their existence, the bureaucrats claim that the translation is required.
And the final beneficiaries are the people on the edge that have got the ear of the politicians. The lunatic fringe, the flavour of the month in charity causes, the losers who cannot survive on their own. These are the groups that live off handouts from the EU, from our taxes.
So who is going to vote this weekend? The bureaucrats who believe in the way of life they have become accustomed to, and the minorities who can not survive without it.
And with the notoriously small voting turnout in EU elections, these groups will get enough votes to ensure that nothing changes, and nothing threatens their precious parasitic lives.
As for me – as soon as I hear of a candidate who pledges to downsize this EU behemoth, I know where my vote is going.
I hope you’ll see some sense and do the same, its better for your taxes in the long run.
This entry was posted on May 31, 2009 at 2:56 pm and is filed under Political Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
EU Elections – or The Fringe Festival
By goodtalkingWhat is in it for the average EU citizen to vote in the upcoming EU elections? To answer that we must ask – what does the EU do for that same average citizen?
And the answer to that is not difficult to work out – nothing. Or even less than that – it gets in the way of the average citizen
If I want to go out and buy some of my local feta cheese – I can’t. If I want to drive my Finnish truck on European roads – I can’t. If I want to plant some sugar beet when I want – I can’t. Feta cheese is a ‘named’ product that can only come from a small part of Greece. So the biggest feta cheese producer in Europe – Denmark, is forced to call it’s cheese something else. Trucks built in Finland are apparently about 6cm too wide for European road standards, and so must either be trimmed down the side by that amount, or stay at home. And in the agricultural arena, if there is too much of one product in the EU, you are not allowed to produce it, even if there is a shortage in your local country. Again the Finns seem to prefer the quality of their local sugar beet, but the farmers there are not allowed to grow it because there is a surplus of inferior product elsewhere in Europe!
So tell me – what does the EU actually do for the average citizen: it hinders and obstructs and taxes them at just about every opportunity, for no real return.
There are three groups that benefit significantly out of the EU. Firstly is the politicians who otherwise would have no-one to listen to all their hot air and useless pronouncements. Secondly the multilingual circus of bureaucrats that is required to keep the whole organisation functioning. Note that they do nothing for anyone in Europe, they just shuffle the parliament backwards and forward between Belgium and France every couple of months, and translate every single document into every single language. Do you really think that the Italians or the Portuguese want to know the details of the Arctic reindeer policies? Of course not, but to justify their existence, the bureaucrats claim that the translation is required.
And the final beneficiaries are the people on the edge that have got the ear of the politicians. The lunatic fringe, the flavour of the month in charity causes, the losers who cannot survive on their own. These are the groups that live off handouts from the EU, from our taxes.
So who is going to vote this weekend? The bureaucrats who believe in the way of life they have become accustomed to, and the minorities who can not survive without it.
And with the notoriously small voting turnout in EU elections, these groups will get enough votes to ensure that nothing changes, and nothing threatens their precious parasitic lives.
As for me – as soon as I hear of a candidate who pledges to downsize this EU behemoth, I know where my vote is going.
I hope you’ll see some sense and do the same, its better for your taxes in the long run.
Tags: EU, EU agricultural policies, EU bureaucracy, EU citizen, EU elections, EU parliament, voters
This entry was posted on May 31, 2009 at 2:56 pm and is filed under Political Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.