Picture posting is enabled for all :)
Are you lot really not aware that the UK provides a proportionate number of civil servants to man and woman the EU? They work together in different departments to make rules on anything and everything and, like any bureaucrat, like to justify their existence by making up rules and regs - just like in your local government and the British/Scottish/Welsh/Irish civil service and devolved governments.The EU has signed up to treaties to reduce energy consumption. This has lead to greater efficiency requirements for domestic and industrial machinery. My toaster turns my toast brown. My vacuum cleaner sucks well - tho I'll never buy a Dyson again as it's a pig to empty. My hairdryer copes with my long, thick hair. The steam iron does its job. What on earth are you all moaning about? Been reading the red tops? Buying stuff made in China?Something else you have to consider is that UK bureaucrats and jobsworths over interpret EU rules - again to justify their existence. UK society and government have evolved over a millennium since the last invasion in 1066. British citizens have a habit of obeying rules because they have been their own, brought in by democratically elected governments. Most mainland EU countries have had to cope with serial invasions and conquests and occupations by foreign powers since Roman times. Germany has only been a united country since 1870, Italy since 1860, Belgium independent since 1831. The Spanish had a painful civil war and years of oppression and dictatorship. The eastern EU countries have had to deal with Soviet oppression for decades. Their psyche has evolved to get round rules other peoples' rules and regs and to cling on to their national idetity so they don't apply EU rules with the same vigour as the UK.Think on and try and be a bit more understanding and open minded. Even if the UK were not in the EU, some jobsworth would have imposed the same limits on domestic appliance power consumption because the UK also signed up to the treaties to reduce greenhouse gases and global warming.
What a load of gobbledegook on this thread! Who would have thought that there could be so many Daily Mail readers who are members of A4A. The fact that people are taken in by the rubbish they read is unbelievable.
Of course not. Taxes won't change, just who they go to and who spends them. VAT is just another name for the old purchase tax.There are only 2 things sure in life - death and taxes.I really do think it's naive to think that local, county and national government and civil service will suddenly become more accountable and more efficient if the UK leaves Europe. I believe the UK works well as a whole and is stronger together with a more or less equal playing field for taxes, subsidies, jobs , schooling, health care etc. even though few people ever spell out exactly how much the English are taxed to subsidise provision of such services in the rest of the UK and how much they receive in return. The difference is actually quite large. As of March 2015 the Scots had £1200 per head more spent on them than the English and all from central coffers.The Scots have their own parliament yet can also make decisions that affect the English, Welsh and Irish who have no say in much of Scottish policy. If you think that's OK, then I don't see where EU+UK is any different. Stronger together and working from the inside to improve things.If not, the logical consequence of Brexit is also to equalise the situation with English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish parliaments of equal domestic rule and tax rasiing power but that will naturally lead to London and the South East wanting self determination and no longer subsidising the north or the south west. How far are you willing to go down that road? Have you thought that far?