They screw us over, we give them money....

a France appelle l'Union européenne à la rescousse afin de faire face aux restructurations en cours dans l'industrie automobile. Le gouvernement de Dominique de Villepin devrait déposer dans les prochaines semaines une demande d'aide auprès du fonds européen d'ajustement à la mondialisation, créé le 1er janvier 2007.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen. The French want money from the 'Globalisation Adjustment Fund' because their automobile industry is unproductive.

I remember having a small fit when I read the report on the GAF, although at least I can say, hand on heart, that I tried to change it through amendments, and at least I know UKIP voted against it. (for I did the voting lists).

This piece of legislation is just a classic example of why we should run away from the EU, screaming whilst waving our hands over our heads. A fund, made up from tax payers money, to subsidise inefficient countries who can't be bothered to adapt to globalisation.

David Ricardo grasped the idea of absolute and comparative advantage in the 19th century, so why do the powers that be in the EU find it such a complicated topic?

Are you surprised, France, that you can't compete with the rest of the world considering that you only work a 35 hour week? When reforms for combatting youth unemployment are met with riots in the streets? When over half of the population works for the state? When unemployment is considered low when it is under 10%?
Words fail.

And what's even more annoying, is that British tax payers will have to pay for large amounts of the subsidies to go to France, even though they have chosen to vote with their pockets and not buy French cars, as have consumers the world over. It's market choice. Why should their decision not to buy French cars mean that they have to pay for at least part of them regardless, because a group of people in France and the EU haven't quite gotten to grips with economics?

You want people to buy your cars? Get investing, get innovating, get price cutting: GET OFF YOUR BLOODY ARSES.

But the bit that really irritates me is that it was a French automobile company who fucked over the workers of Ryton. Peugeot had a factory in Ryton which recently closed, with the loss of 2300 jobs. Now, if it was all closed down fair and square, because the factory was loss making, then that's life. Not great for the people of Coventry but surely a signal to our beloved government that we need greater geographical and technical labour flexibility, presumably brought about by a decent education system.

However, it was not fair. Peugeot was enticed to move their factory to Trnava in Slovakia with a handy EUR 105 million state aid provided by the Slovakian government. The European Commission can provide no paperwork for the granting of permission for this state aid, which they have to approve under EU rules. At the same time, they cannot explain why it took two years for the Commission to reach a decision on state aid from the British government to Ryton of a much smaller sum of GBP14.4 million.

Of course, Slovakia was wanted in the EU club, so they are allowed to break state aid rules. Britain, on the other hand, has a goverment which will happily rim each and every EU commissioner and their lackies just for the opportunitiy to be able to pay a bit more money to the EU coffers.

I am unimpressed. Surprise, surprise.

http://www.ukip.org/ukip_news/gen12.php?t=1&id=2114