Completely agree. The EU are pulling figures from their arse for their own purposes, which at the moment are interfering with the UK General Election.

The Insitute for Government covers the matter in the most impartial manner I have found:

[Link]

Including the interesting line that the UK government appears to have a strong legal case for not paying any settlement and that the final amount will come down to politics.

The EU will have a serious budget shortfall when the UK leaves. Of course they are going to try and squeeze as much out of us as they can and use this matter, on which they appear to have little legal foundation, to disrupt negotiations.

Good old EU. Such a decent, honest and not devious organisation. Why did we ever vote to leave?

"That was fun and to round off the day, I am off to steal a charity collection box and then desecrate a place of worship.” - Smokey, The Selhurst Arms, 26/02/02

But neither do you Michael, nott anyone else for that matter.

Again, read this:

[Link]

"That was fun and to round off the day, I am off to steal a charity collection box and then desecrate a place of worship.” - Smokey, The Selhurst Arms, 26/02/02

Unverified, unofficial figures quoted by (among many others), and derived from the EU Commission? Figures that can vary by as much as a factor of 2? When I was a kid, I had to show my working. Then again, the EU does have problems "showing it's working", as auditors will attest to since 1995.

The reason why we've not been "invoiced" yet, that reason why negotiations haven't started yet, is because we all need to wait for Queen Merkel of Europe's next coronation. Because the EU is basically Germany. Until then, they'll do their best to undermine our election, show the world their petty, vindictive, fiscally irresponsible side, and break the very treaties they hold so very dear.

Given that Juncker states the negotiation positions will necessarily have to be clear and transparent, I wonder why it's "so stupid" that they publish how they arrived at this fantasy-land figure? Oh, yes. Brexiteers are completely unhinged from reality to "demand" from the claimants the basis of the claim. "They haven't got" that yet? So presumably the figures are just plucked out of Juncker's arse then.

You will be finding yourself in an ever-vanishing minority venerating a hostile, petulant and unreasonable side that seeks out "punishment beatings" as a means to exercise unaccountable power over supposedly sovereign countries, and those that seek to escape an abusive relationship. Enjoy it. I'll be over here, on the right side of history.

I did. And you don't strike me as the kind of guy who would get out of paying signed-up to bills through legal loopholes. I don't believe for the good of the country going into the future we should not fulfil our obligations because we can get out of it.

I sincerely believe it will affect our standing should we 'welch' - "you can't trust the British" etc - and help drag ourselves backwards.

As it stands if we can get out with a £40bill or so hit that would be preferable to the what would be imo worse alternatives

Edited by Kermit8 (03 May 2017 8.22am)

Big chest and massive boobs

[Link]

€100bn? Wow, the UK should pay up and of course it will pay up but not admit to paying up, same old, same old, never ever admitting it makes a mistake. Even if the economy goes into more of a tail spin, the UK will never admit it and paint a 'rosy' picture on anything. A country can never move on until it admits its mistakes.

As a resident, and presumably taxpayer, in a Euro denominated country, you must be delighted with the effective leadership the EU has shown in resolving the Greek economic decisively and effectively. Why have one bailout when you can have many? Why also not cut off an economy for the drip feeding of taxpayers because it is a complete waste of money continue doing so? Could it be because of a perceive overriding necessity to continue the social and economic engineering job that is the Euro?

How are you enjoying this 'rosy' scenario and seeing your tax Euros end up in the pockets of Greeks, whom have retired at 55?

"That was fun and to round off the day, I am off to steal a charity collection box and then desecrate a place of worship.” - Smokey, The Selhurst Arms, 26/02/02

I don't think money is going into the pockets of ordinary Greek people.

Nigel Lawson has wisely pointed out that the only significant contributors to the EU budget are Germany and the UK, and when the latter leaves, there will be "a huge improvement in the UK budget and a hole in the EU budget".
Lawson agrees with Theresa May that no deal is better than a bad deal, adding: "I regret it looks as though we will have to settle for no deal."
He believes the UK should offer the EU a "very good deal - a free trade deal with no strings attached in both our interests".
"For political reasons, they may refuse it, in which case we wait patiently and we are out," he says.

We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men. [Orwell]

Jean Claude Juncker is an interesting chap.

See him here:

[Link]

Read this - fascinating (from an 'alt right' source):

[Link]

I cannot wait to see what I find next. Have no fear, I will post it here!

"That was fun and to round off the day, I am off to steal a charity collection box and then desecrate a place of worship.” - Smokey, The Selhurst Arms, 26/02/02

character not policy assassination is still de riguer I see.