George Osborne says we are going to get our EU bill halved.
Chancellor George Osborne’s claim that the UK will have to pay only half of a £1.7bn EU budget surcharge has been challenged by his opponents.
He said the UK would make two payments next year totalling £850m instead of a larger lump sum by December after the UK’s annual rebate was factored in.
Well, ain’t that nice? Can we leave yet?
Analogy:
“Someone’s going to call round your house thus Friday, punch you in the face, and kick you in the balls.
Wait, now they’re going to call round next Friday, and just punch you in the face.”
We’re supposed to think this is some kind of victory.
Plus interest for waiting, I’ll bet.
As part of the deal the UK is not paying any interest.
It’s our money!
I think the scam works like this. These budget transfers are largely paperwork exercises. If Cameron doesn’t pay up an time then the Tyranny has a cash flow problem as some nations are expecting a rebate. Despite Blair’s best efforts the UK still has a rebate so instead of paying on time Cameron surrenders some of next calendar years’ rebate and appears to pay nothing. Our rebate is then transferred to Germany et al. By October next year we will have effectively paid the 2Bn euros.
This may not be 100% accurate but I think it is a reasonable analogy of what is going on.
Cameron said that he would not pay a penny on the due date and various bookkeeping shenanigans have allowed him to appear to keep his word.
It’s all smoke, mirrors & spin to enable Cameron to appear good.
It’s basically utter bollocks, and as Die Führerin claims she anticipates the UK will secede from this appalling union, she is just orchestrating taking us for as much as she can before we go.
Ah, thanks to theonly goodeu… etc. that’s clarified things for me. I have been puzzling over this for a while, what you say makes sense. All I can say is, thank God for UKIP, at the very least they will keep the rest honest (ish).
Hello Andy,
Subsequent to my post the Guardian have put up an article claiming that Osborne is using the rebate as suggested and the UK has in fact paid the full amount on the due date as it was legally obliged to do.
I read somewhere that Osborne was the Chancellor when the UK signed up to the overarching review which gave rise to this fine.
Losing part of our rebate means that our net contributions to the Tyranny will soar next year. The bill for membership of the Empire in 2015 will be c £38.67m pounds per day.
🙁
The bill for membership of the Empire in 2015 will be c £38.67m pounds per day.
Where the fuck is all that money going to come from? £38.67m? A day? Add in the borrowing interest payments, and there can’t be much left to pay all the bills. And what the hell does the EU need all that money for anyway? It’s not like they have a country to run; just a bureaucratic behemoth. Which in theory should be relatively inexpensive.
Hi, nisakiman,
I’ve read that EU ‘business’ represents c 85% of the Belgian Gross Domestic Product. I don’t know if this is true but if it is then the money being hoovered out of your wallet is paying for someone in Belgium to have a high standard of living.
The £38m was my estimate and it might turn out to be a tad lower because according to discussions elsewhere, Osborne has stolen the rebate from the 2016 budget rather than the 2015 budget. I guess he has surmised that he won’t be Chancellor in 2016 so he won’t have to face the music.
Why don’t we do what the good communitaire frogs do, when something comes up that they don’t like?
“We’re doing this”
Fuck off …
“We’ll fine you”
fuck off
We’ll do all sorts of horrible things”
We’ll veto everything in Brussels until we get our way.
“Oh, all right then”
We the people would.
We the politicians won’t.