Does a little bit of you...... (It's about that)

The chart shows Norway and several others are paying in and don't have any say??

Norway pays and has no say or rebate ? Several other non members pay too.

Oops

Indeed that is the case. Switzerland is such a tiny country, but pays massive sums to the EU, proportionally. It also has had to accept free movement of people and all the same rules and regs for exports to Europe - and yet have NO representation or say whatsoever in Brussels.

As said earlier on another thread- is that what the UK wants?

Channel 4 at 10 Power monkeys. My son told me to watch it. Very funny satire on inners, outers, Trump and Putin.

From what I can gather the graph shown by joelsnan is from the EUMETNET: a grouping of 31 European National Meteorological Services and describes how they (eumetnet) are funded.

So nothing to do with funding the EU? Where did you find it, joelsnan ? Was there a caption to it?

Ah! Here it is! It is as grannyactivist says, how Eumemetnet, a grouping of 31 meteorological service, is funded. Entitled "Funding of Eumetmet" and "Financial contributions and subscriptions from member states"

Just shows how statistics can be misquoted and made to lie! and how all graphs and figures need to be be read in context.

"EIG EUMETNET derives the vast majority of its funding from the contributions and the subscription fees of its Members. Each Member pays a share of the collective cost where their share is calculated based upon the Gross National Income (GNI) for their country. Additionally the number of Programmes a Member participates in will affect the size of their contribution. The following diagram shows the 2015 funding from Members:" www.eumetnet.eu/funding

Took half a minute to find that - the confusion could have spread and lasted for half a year!

out for the short term so we can re negotiate better terms and in, maybe, for the long term.

I would like to be able to think we can trade without barriers to the whole world..... We are not just a European world we are a global world and I wish to be able to connect freely with humanity in all the world thankyou.

Apologies if the previous graph was misleading, however it does emphasise that we can be mislead by statistics.
This graph is from Statista.com, which shows contribution country by country.
www.statista.com/statistics/316691/european-union-eu-budget-share-of-contributions/

Welshwife

The UK pays much less than many countries - hardly a cash cow.
that is not the correct conclusion to your argument - 'The UK pays much less per capita than many other countries' would be the correct conclusion.

hardly a cash cow - that is not proven by your argument either - we are the second largest net contributor to the EU
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8036097.stm#start

Actually less as a % of income than other countries would be correct.

I'm feeling quite depressed about the whole thing. I know that whichever way I vote, or even if I don't vote at all, I'll feel guilty about it afterwards. Does anyone else feel like this? There doesn't seem to be a "right answer". I suppose coping with that dilemma is just part of being an adult.

I don't think there is a right answer *Babyboomer^

Whichever way we vote there will be recriminations for years afterwards - whatever ills face the country, it will be blamed on either staying in or coming out of the EU.

And we will never know much of what would have happened had we voted the other way

I'm starting to feel really depressed about the whole thing.

I envy the people who have known which way they are going to vote right from the start.

My little vote won't matter one jot but I would like to feel I was voting from my head/heart?

Haven't a clue.

I don't think there's a right answer either and I think the whole process has been damaging to the UK.

It has to be out for me. Earlier this week I saw that the EU have decided to build themselves a £240,000,000 new HQ. Tonight our local news has said how many people are living rough on the streets of Cambridge. The sheer waste by these unelected representatives is shameful. It is not all about immigrants wanting housing it is local people who have fallen on hard times, etc.

My father and FIL fought to give us freedom, (and the French for that matter), and it is being slowly taken away.

ellenemery If you think that's depressing, for your own sanity DON'T read how much they spend on premoting the EU. £240,000,000 is small fry.

Who are these unelected members? There are Elected MEPs the Heads of Govt of the member countries - elected by their country and European Civil Servants! There are fewer for the whole of Europe than the UK has. These Civil Servants are ASKED by the EU Govt to look into something and come up with how it can be done (or not) and then the Heads of Govt and MEPs vote for the action. No unelected people pass anything - another myth.

Yes I was thinking about that too. Civil servants in the UK (and most countries, France certainly) are NOT elected but have huge influence- but things have to be ratified by elected members.

I've found that those who complain the loudest about 'unelected' decision makers in Brussels a/ do not know who their MEP is and never bothered to find out and b/ didn't vote for their MEP or voted for those, like Farage- who has picked up a fat cheque from the EU as an MEP, but attended 1 out of 42 of the Fisheries Commission meetings- and then pretended to be fighting for our fishermen !!!

Who is your MEP? find out here - List of MEPs and their constituencies.

"There are 73 UK MEPs. They are elected in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Other EU member states elect MEPs from their countries. Elections take place every five years. The next elections will be in 2019.

The UK is divided into twelve electoral regions made up of the nations and regions of the UK. Each region has between three and ten MEPs and each MEP in a region represents each person living there: Eastern - 7, East Midlands - 5, London - 8, North East - 3, North West - 8, South East - 10, South West - 6, West Midlands - 7, Yorkshire and Humber - 6, Wales - 4, Scotland - 6, Northern Ireland - 3. "

How to contact your MEP Printable A4 sheet of contact details for UK MEPs

Ask them a question - they will be overjoyed that you have shown an interest!

For anyone who's interested in the beyond, whichever way the vote goes, this is a very interesting blog post by Kenan Malik in which he talks about key issues surrounding UK EU membership.

He concludes with this:
Whatever the result on Thursday, neither popular disaffection with mainstream political institutions, nor the sense among large sections of the electorate of being politically voiceless, is likely to subside. Nor will it until we begin to address directly the reasons for that disaffection.

Not just in the UK, but right across the EU I think thatbags