I'm generally pro European but I'm not a fan of the EU.
Come on, I'm from Norn Iron, I'm allowed to make no sense at all, it's what we do best (other than kill each other over which way you worship an invisible sky fairy who doesn't ****ing exist).
I do think the idea of an economic union among the plethora of small European countries is a good idea. As someone said the days of the nation state and of European dominance over the world are long gone. But if Europe works together and speaks with a common voice it can still hold its own. My big problem with the EU is the bureaucracy that comes with it. I'm not a fan of 'big government' at all and the EU bureaucracy is farcically vast. To say it wastes a lot of it's money on pen pushers is a massive understatement. FFS it can't even agree where to have it's parliament, so it pays for two!
The issue of the EU accounts not being signed off is another nail in the coffin. If it were a publically listed company there would be calls for an enquiry and the Board of Directors would be in Court. Mind you, UK politicians aren't backwards in feathering their own nest either, just look at the Expenses scandal from a few years ago.
The problem I have is the seeming desire among EU bureaucrats for ever more political union, ie more power for them. I'm not sure the vast majority of Europeans actually want more decisions made in Brussels. That goes for traditionally "pro" European countries like France, and Holland as much as the traditional awkward squad of Britain, Denmark, Sweden etc.
An economic union, yes, but tone down the power grab please! We are quite capable of deciding if we want to let prisoners vote, or who we want to deport without being hamstrung.
Ps, someone mentioned the issue of the NHS needing more money. I have to disagree. As someone who used to work in the Private health sector I have had many dealings with the NHS, and Social Services in particular. I can honestly say I have NEVER seen a more incompetent, under worked, over paid, bunch of tossers in my life.. There is literally ZERO accountability, unless you make a decision, so how do you avoid getting in any ****.........you don't make a decision.
An example of the kind of waste in the NHS. When we started a project in the NE we dealt with one woman who was responsible for commissioning services. She was a 'take no prisoners' kind of girl, but bloody good at her job and a straight up operator. When she left they decided her job was too much work for one person so they split it, between four people. Who were all paid the same salary as she was on approx. £40k. Any one who has ever tried to get a decision through a committee knows the more people on it, the less you get done. Two years later the PCT's took over and they also decided that the job of Commissioning was too much for four people, I should say at this stage there had been no real increase or decrease in work load during the period, so the job that was previously done by four people was split among SIXTEEN people. All on just under £60k. So in the course of three years we had gone from speaking to one person to having to try and arrange a meeting with 16 people and then to get them all to agree. These meetings had to be held for the most trivial of things as well. The cost to the tax payer had gone from £40k pa to over £900K and the amount of work being done had nose dived. This was around the time the recession was really biting in 07-09 and Social Services budgets were being slashed and care hours were being cut down to levels that were literally dangerous. I could give more examples, but I dare say I would set a new record for longest post on the forum ever!
I admit my experiences are based solely on one branch of Social Services in the North East and I don't mean to generalise about everyone who works in Social Services UK wide, and for the record, I have a hell of a lot of respect for Doctors and Nurses, but all of the above is, hand on heart, the truth and hopefully shows just how piss poorly run the NHS is.
