Politics lobby 8

Of world war 3? Sri Lanka, Iraq, Lebannon, Nigeria, Darfur, Nepal, Afghanistan - yup just a few of the conflicts happening now in a nation near you. Every evening on the news we are treated to snapshots of lives taken, lives in ruin, lives without hope. The reasons for these conflicts are many and varied but it seems everywhere man is still fighting man for what seems like a reasoned cause for both sides. Is world peace just an idealist utopian dream? Is another global conflict a more likely scenario? Your views would be greatly appreciated on this subject.

Its a serious question which I often ask myself. I can remember my Grandmother contemplating the question 'Should the UK join the Common Market?' how she wondered what her vote would mean for her grandchildren and great grandchildren. She like my grandfather and her siblings was a Conservative voter and she like them, thought that being part of a large trade organisation would be a good thing for the UK as a whole. In addition to this she swallowed the social selling point of guaranteed peace for Europe and who could blame her. She had lost her father at Ypres and seen her husband go to war and return a changed man in 1945 after he witnessed the liberation of Belsen. Peace in Europe was the selling point which my grandmother grasped and made her decide to vote YES. At this time there was little concept of a Union which would impinge on the sovereignty of its member states, one which would lead to mass economic migration - it seemed like a good idea, good for the people ( guaranteed peace) and good for business ( a wonderful new common market place).

Oh how times have changed. Now we have a union of sovereign states, governed by faceless bureacrats somewhere in deepest darkest Europe. This entity is seemingly unaccountable for its decisions, even when people vote NO or NON or NEIN or in the future NIET to something it appears to make little difference to policy. These Eurocrats head on with their policy regardless of how the people of the member states want them to proceed. This coupled with the EU's unpopular expansionist policies makes me wonder in whose interests is it being run. Yours? Mine? Ours? I dont think so. Inspite of proportional representation being used to elect representatives to the EU the entire institution is looking less and less democratic. Take the infamous Constitution - when member states who have been 'allowed to vote' voted NO, the decision was taken to proceed anyway without any further democratic input from the people of nations who had not yet voted. This is all dressed up as being a different constitution and watered down and broken up into different documents and different policies it appears that perhaps there are minute changes. In reality though it is the same constitution - the EUROCRATS think they know what is best for us all.
Couple this democratic deficit with the extraordinary costs to member states when forming their own legislation as sovereign states. There are entire departments whose job it is to ensure that the legislation we as nation states want to enact complies with EU legislation - this is a massive drain on money, which could be better spent. Red tape, Red tape everywhere and no-one stops to think.
Then there are the individual costs of membership, we have to pay pay pay for this expansionist institution which dictates what is best for us and in doing so we have allowed expansion of the EU and an influx of economic migration which makes the mass Irish Immigration seem like nothing. The impact on graduates salaries, Tradesmens salaries and those competing for semi-skilled and low skilled work is huge. We are paying into a pot which is undermining our individual futures, next year we may even see an excessive strain on our benefits system - taxes will have to rise and the EU will still want its money. What on earth are we doing? Why are we still in the EU? Who is benefitting? The answer is easy, the commonmarket was set up with the interests of Big Business in mind and it is Big Business who is benefitting, they have the choice to relocate to other nations where property and land is cheap and the labour force willing to work long hours for little money or they can stay put and let the cheap labour come to them. They do not care about the economic impact on the towns and cities they leave behind when they move, neither do they care about the strains on social services and our welfare institutions created by a mass influx of workers from poorer nations. They dont care if the man they have replaced with 3 men from elsewhere can no longer pay his mortgage or afford shoes for his children. They are in the business of maximising profits at the expense of anyone and everyone except themselves. Corporate Locusts, which we have set free to strip the EU and pocket the money in private accounts - and we are paying for this. Does anyone really think that the people of Europe would go to war with one another in the 21st century? Seriously, we have moved on, we are now freinds and neighbours and much as I like my neighbours I wouldnt want to jump into bed with them let alone pay for the privellege ergo WHY are WE paying to make rich men richer and poor men poorer under the guise of peace and protection? Cant we be freinds without sleeping together?