How will you vote in the EU referendum? (Thread 3)

I feel European but it has not stopped me also feeling British and also English - being one does not stop me being the other - just like being a mother does not stop me being a wife or sister - it is the same sort of analogy - ridiculous.

Yes Celtic don't you find it a bit of a fag when queueing up in non EU countries to be admitted ? I always worry when I land in Chicago and need to clear immigration and customs before getting an onward domestic flight. - I was almost an hour the last time I went and almost missed the connecting flight - luckily that was delayed or I would have done. Great when I travel in EU and can just show my passport and be through with NO form filling.

Interesting elegran thanks for that. I suppose I should be more challenging in the butchers.

More and more I believe the issues lie with our own government/s. Firstly, for not doing things properly but secondly for not being involved with and involving the country in what is happening in the EU over the years we have been in it.

Euromyths - "Myth: Our traditional pork chop is under threat due to the EC’s Red Meat Directive (91/497), which decrees that butchers have to remove kidneys for health inspection, therefore denying retailers the chance of selling the two together.

Response: This is untrue. Though it is quite clearly stated in this directive that kidneys must be inspected for hygiene purposes, it also specifies that the fat that surrounds them should be peeled away but in no way should the kidneys themselves be removed. If they are disloged then that is the fault of the slaughterhouse and in no way that of the Community directive."

blogs.ec.europa.eu/ECintheUK/tag/food-hygiene/

Lots of other Euromyths listed too. Interesting reading. It seems anything that retailers can't explain away to irritated customers is labelled an EU directive.

The 'pork chop' horror came from when I went into several local butchers in Essex looking for a usual favourite of ours - pork chops with attached kidney in the early EU days. 3 separate butchers told me they weren't allowed to offer that anymore due to EU rules. It has always been a frivolous repost of mine to the EU and yes indeed it is a whole lot more serious than that but I try to keep things light here.

Strangely enough. Even with an EU passport (indigenous English), I still have to go through passport control as "Other" in certain non EU countries and fill out a form. So why can't it be done in UK? Just the same when applying for a work permit as a foreigner. In fact, working on the German net nearly 40 years ago, I also paid into their form of NIC and tax. But the Rathaus still block my application for pension rights. Speaking of Deutschland... I see they have the strongest EU economy. Going to check out why. Probably the taxes I paid when working there which have accumulated under EU umbrella and have stashed away in Panama.

MargaretX you bring so many memories of having to have the London firm apply for my work permit and prove they had to employ me and not a local (languages)- and then DD1 and OH having British passport and me -Swiss one, and had to be in different queues, and so on. And OH getting in trouble at Geneva airport- and my elderly mother travelling with an identity card out of date- etc, etc, usw! No I never want to get back to that- and hope GC will be able to go and study and work abroad if they so wish.

This sovereignity thing is mystery to me. In Germany we are ruled in the local aea parliament. They decide on schools, travel, air polution, building, energy supply and on and on and on. Health and the care of the needy and elderly is decided in Berlin by the government and the Health insurance system .

I know you want control of your borders, I used to have to fill in a form on the plane for DD2 - a German citizen, and state reason for travel and show this to NON EU Passports official. DD1 is British so after that, I had to go back through UK Passports carrying DD2 who couldn't pass through because she couldn't walk.
Do you want all that back again?

I think the feeling of loss of sovereignity is that you are tangled up in your own red tape.

Thanks Mamie.

No, I am in France!
Link to other thread here:
www.gransnet.com/forums/news_and_politics/1225443-European-Union-in-or-out

I am sorry Mamie I did not see the other "Thread 3"; I will go and look now and ask this to be removed if it can be.

"Teetime" can you tell me under which EU rule we have been stopped from having kidney's on pork chops? I think we need to know the actual rules we need to get rid of - or indeed if the rule has actually come from the EU. Are you in the UK Mamie?

There is already a thread three with two pages on it. And there are still kidneys on pork chops here.

Still out for me none of the 'in' arguments have persuade me and its sovereignty for me. There are so many EU regs I wouldn't know where to start but having kidneys back on pork chops would be nice.