What Would The Eu Do If We Stopped Paying?

[ToraToraTora]

Simple question, I have asked a thousand times and no one has answered, so forgive me asking again. Please tell me please, someone.

[bob561941]

We spent years trying to get in when De Gaulle kept saying Non perhaps we should never have gone in the first place and stayed with the Commonwealth who were like family

[Ellipsis]

> What Would The Eu Do If We Stopped Paying?

If they were to respond in kind, then they would:

* throw their toys out of the pram OR
* stomp their feet OR
* suck their thumbs

depending on how much E102 they'd had that day.

[ToraToraTora]

"We spent years trying to get in when De Gaulle kept saying Non perhaps we should never have gone in the first place and stayed with the Commonwealth who were like family " - About the only thing DeGaullle ever did that was useful, failed even in that sadly bob, but you are bang on.

That's vere similar to the list I was keeping a secret Ellipsis.

[New Judge]

“For a start I expect they would withhold the £5billion given to UK farmers to subsidise food production…”

Which is, er, just a small part of what we contribute (Currently, as far as I can tell among the deliberately obscure figures available, running at about £22bn pa). So we could easily meet that for our farmers.

“.. and there maybe big backlash in terms of cancelled trade deals”

Not a chance. The rest of the EU sells considerably more to the UK than we do to them and the gap is widening. Three would be no “backlash”. Trade is carried out despite the EU, not because of it. It will continue pretty much unaltered if we stopped our payments or if we left.

“Some people seem to have this idea that the EU is split into two equal parts…”

It is. There are those who are net contributors and those who are net beneficiaries. The two groups balance out. Apart from that it is considerably unequal. Almost 60% of the EU’s budget is provided by just five of the 28 nations. That proportion will increase considerably when any of the five candidate nations or any of the two potential candidate nations join the circus.

[Old_Geezer]

I don't believe anyone knows for sure how they would react, but our reputation as a country that upholds it's agreements would suffer. Giving other parties fair warning that one has decided to secede from the union, and putting into operation a short process to do so gracefully, is one thing; just stopping dead is quite another, and it would take a while all other nations to trust that we weren't going to just act like employers and tear up a contract when it suited us no matter what the cost to others; again.

Even though trade is balanced with us importing more from the EU than we export to them, it doesn't mean that an EU that feels disrespected would automatically do the right thing and continue to trade unchanged. We are all human with human failings, and it may decide to retaliate anyway. It may decide to take the hit and tear up trade agreements, and since all countries need trade to prosper it's not a deteriorating situation anyone should want to risk.

The UK is an honourable union, it will negotiate an exit from the unfair and deceptive agreement that was forced upon us by the likes of Heath and others who, when the referendum to stay in was held, claimed it was merely an economic trading agreement. And other nations' governments can keep their opinions to themselves as they would only be looking after their own interests, and not those of the UK.

[ichkeria]

And here's the answer I gave the last time:

We'd be thrown out.
What do you think?

[New Judge]

I think you're right, ichy. But of course this is an extremely hypothetical question. The UK has no intention of stopping its payments to the EU for so long as it remains a member. One thing I do believe is that it is the UK's £££s that other EU members (especially the less prosperous ones) find so attractive about the UK's EU membership. It's not our company they seek. If our £££s suddenly dried up their desire to see us remain as a member may wane.

[ToraToraTora]

Ich:"And here's the answer I gave the last time:

We'd be thrown out.
What do you think? " - hope springs eternal!

[ToraToraTora]

Fender, bang on, the parasite/Host relationship is a perfect description of the EU.