Staffs FC wrote:It was a response to the fact you didn't like the fact I (unwittingly) quoted an independent think tank that you think (probably rightly) is Eurosceptic.
I didn't
dislike it. I pointed out that it was hardly a balanced take on what happened.
Staffs FC wrote:I originally quoted the Guarniad, a quote which which you ignored, and I followed that up with a joke suggesting that I couldn't find anything more left wing than that to support my argument.
I didn't ignore the Grauniad quote. I didn't comment on it because there was nothing in it that I had a problem with, although subsequently I've commented that I don't agree with your interpretation of what they had to say. That probably explains why I didn't understand your quip about the SW.
Staffs FC wrote:I was replying to a charge that Blair would have successfully sorted this problem. Apparently he was such a good negotiator that it wouldn't have been any problem whatsoever for Tony to have sorted this. My argument, which I stand by, is that he failed to deliver what he set out to deliver in previous negotiations and therefore the idea that he would have sorted this one was flawed. That's my view and the one I stick with. It isn't a support for Cameron - I haven't stated my view on Cameron's performance at the last summit nor have I stated my view on the single market.
And I wasn't supporting Blair
per se nor agreeing with the position that he would have sorted the current situation with a snap of his fingers. I think he was a far better diplomat and negotiator that Cameron will ever be, but the main thrust of my posts were disagreeing with the accuracy of the evidence presented rather than agreeing with the opposite view. If you see what I mean.
Staffs FC wrote:As you well know I have worked for a French multi national for 22 years who manufacture in this country mainly because they sell lots of their products in this country and it makes sense to do so. Of course there are exports and imports involved and the single market is crucial. Unfortunately the single market is no longer the main issue - which it should be. As the doomed single currency in the Eurozone breaks down we see individual countries (and at the moment one predictable one in particular) begin to lash around and attack us because they wish they hadn't joined. Amusingly the likes of Blair (and that political genius heavyweight Ashdown) have said within the last month that we still could join. Whoever was slagging Brown in a previous post should think again. He might have destroyed Britain's private sector pension industry with the removal of tax relief on dividends paid into pension funds (the single main reason today why public and private sector employees are at odds with each other in regard to pension provision) but at least he stopped Tony from joining the most ill thought out Franco German project of all time that was always doomed to failure. The five economic tests - well done Gordon.
And as you well know I've worked for the last 30-odd years in a major industry where the opposite applies and where companies have set up shop in the UK
specifically because of the single market. Make no mistake about it - dropping out of the single market would do enormous harm to the UK economy. Assuming that the single market survives the current crisis of course...
As far as the Euro goes I am and always have been in favour of it in principle. I have also always been critical of the way that it was actually implemented - in particular the waiving or ignoring of critical and eminently sensible rules on admission to the Eurozone just to expand it as rapidly as possible. What is happening now is not a reflection on the fundamental practicality of a single currency but the reaping of a whirlwind sown when the likes of Greece and Italy were admitted to it when they were nowhere near fulfilling the criteria. I haven't seen the comments from Blair and Ashdown (a man I loath BTW) as I've been out of the country for the last three days, but if either is suggesting that we could join the Euro any time soon then they need to put away their crack pipes. Europe is in a mess, and the path they're going down at the moment - one I fundamentally disagree with as it is hugely undemocratic - is not going to sort it out.
