Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-03-14-Speech-2-382"
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"en.20060314.29.2-382"2
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"Mr President, as a British citizen I strongly oppose the budget settlement that Mr Tony Blair purports to suggest that he negotiated in December. I prefer to call it ‘the great giveaway’. Opening your cheque book and asking how much is not my idea of negotiation. Allowing Britain’s contribution to rise from an average of GBP 3 billion net to more than GBP 6 billion per annum from 2007 is totally unacceptable and squanders Mrs Thatcher’s hard-earned rebate. I therefore voted against acceptance of the budget when it came before this Parliament, but I suspect that my reasons were somewhat different to those of most of the other Members of the institution who also voted against it.
No major political party in my country, except my own, is prepared to campaign honestly and openly on European issues at election time. It is the famous elephant in the room that everybody avoids talking about. They are helped by a supine media that is only too willing to participate in what is effectively a cover-up. Mr Blair and his government may think themselves very clever in avoiding a proper debate on the EU at the last general election. However, there is a downside. How can they legitimately claim to have a mandate for giving away all this extra taxpayers’ money, most of which will be used to subsidise projects in eastern European countries, at the expense of under-funding our own domestic infrastructure?
I have looked at the guidelines in this report and most of it is just a glorified wish list full of buzzwords like ‘European heart’ and ‘raising the game’. In my view, if the EU really is interested in raising the game, it could start by asking for less money, not more, and it should initiate a major study on the means necessary to return the powers it has taken from democratically elected governments. Well, that is my wish list."@en1
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