“How come we pay £565million a year more, to treat uk citizens abroad, than the other 27 EU spongers pay us?”
Could it be that they set about collecting it with a little more vigour than we do? Just a thought.
"Do you have any concrete reasons for describing the EU as tyrannical?"
“Tyranny” has various interpretations. I don’t think we can confine modern day tyranny to the slaying of all first-borns, raping the local women and razing their villages to the ground. In today’s atmosphere (and certainly as far as this question goes) it might be useful to look at the “tyrants’” attitude to democracy and the wishes of the people whose lives they are said to be in place to improve.
The arch-Euromaniac-in-Chief, Jean-Claude Juncker is well known for his views on keeping the “little people” in their place. When quizzed about the French Referendum on the ill-fated (but hastily resurrected) European Constition, he uttered this immortal response: “If it's a Yes, we will say 'on we go', and if it's a No we will say 'we continue’,”
Well it was a “no” and they did continue. A little while later the Lisbon Treaty (aka the European Constitution) was born. When asked about its possible influence on national sovereignty, he said this: “Of course there will be transfers of sovereignty. But would I be intelligent to draw the attention of public opinion to this fact?,”
As far as the European Constitution goes, ten nations planned to hold a referendum in 2005 on its adoption. However, following voters in France and the Netherlands rejecting the plan, six of the ten (including the UK) were abandoned. The EU “continued” nonetheless (as prophesied by Mr Juncker) and drafted the Lisbon Treaty (which involved, basically, crossing out the title “European Constitution” and substituting it with “Lisbon Treaty”). This time only Ireland (bound by its own constitution to do so) held a referendum (other governments, fearful of a repeat, made various excuses to explain why no plebiscite was necessary) and in 2008 Irish voters rejected the Treaty. By 2009 a few meaningless guarantees were woven in and Ireland finally succumbed, so the Treaty could be signed.
In 2015 A referendum in Greece was held on the bailout conditions for their debt crisis (which was largely caused by their adoption of the euro).Voters rejected those conditions by two to one. However, shortly afterwards the government accepted a bailout (under threat of bankruptcy) with even harsher conditions than the ones rejected by the voters.
The EU has a lengthy history of obliging its members to vote again on matters which, if rejected, would halt the “European Project”. My view is that is modern day tyranny. No substantial changes were secured by these rejections and the Project ploughed on regardless. Anyone believing that a vote to remain in the EU was a vote for the status quo wants their bumps felt. You don't have to raze villages to the ground to be tyrannical and the tyrannical EU does not do the “status quo”.