To be angry about the EU budget?

Yes! But as usual, Dave & Co. have been shouted down by the EU elite...

The EU has kept us from a pan-European war so far - so that is good. But it has become a gravy train and I don't see why we should support that with our money. The lifestyles of the Brussels bureacrats and the wastage of money cause me concern.

But they haven't got their increase have they? Thanks to Cameron. It's been shelved for seven years.

Quite right too. They need to cut their expenses. Like Joe Public has to.

They haven't agreed to the cuts Dave wanted though...

Absolutely Lilygran and agreed with Dave, for once, when he said that the EU elite appear to be living in a parallel universe. I was watching something or other a couple of nights ago, might have been Newsnight, where they were showing yet another costly new glass building in Brussels which I think was to house an extremely swish restaurant for the Eurosnouts to hog out in! Why can't they have a simple canteen with formica tables? They are only out there wasting our money and achieving very little! I would love to know just how much everything costs, all of it, the two parliaments in Brussels and Strasbourg MEP's salaries and expenses, the endless fleets of cars and god knows what else.

Bananas....Ask Nigel Farage he has all those answers and more. Makes very interesting reading, all the eu bumph. Always gets me really mad to think how I scrimped together meals for my kids giving them more than their share of pasta, bread and potatoes to fill their bellies with very little for treats. A box of frosties was their extra holiday fare. The food that these people eat in their fancy restaurants which we pay for is disgusting and as for those G 8 dinners......gggggggrrrrrr.

Also, I am basically a capitalist at heart but have never understood why you can't do well for yourself AND give others a hand up too.

Because greed is boundless?

Exactly petallus Farage has his snout in the trough too.
The Guardian reported that Nigel Farage, over ten years as a member of the European Parliament, had received £2 million of taxpayers' money in staff, travel, and other expenses on top of his £64,000 a year salary.

I'm not a supporter of UKIP and I'm not I impressed by Farage but any European MP who objects to the way the EU operates has a real problem once they become part of the system. Presumably they can't afford to maintain their office, pay for travel and keep two houses out of their salaries. BAnanas I think you are absolutely right, the cost of running the EU should be given much more publicity. So should the amount each member nation receives and for what. Complaining about individuals on the gravy train doesn't bring it home.

What really annoys me is that they keep asking for more money but in all the time it has been running accountants have refused to sign off on their accounts - something rotten on the state of Brussels!

I don't think Euro MPs have any money problems at all lilygran. For Farange that sum equates to £200,000 a year on top of his £65,000 wages. Over a quarter of a million a year. Mind you he'll need some of that for child maintenance payments to his first family. But his argument in his own defence was that these claims were fairly standard ...so yes, the all have their snouts in the trough.

I've now given up believing in any honest politician. I do however abhor anything that reeks of extremism.

I am completely confused about the EU budget. I don't understand about the rebate. I cannot comprehend while the CAP is still in existence after all these years. I don't believe the laxity of accounting procedures for MEPs' expenses. I am shocked by the sum of money spent each year on stocking the wine cellar. And as for the farce of trailing off to Strasbourg every month, well, words fail me. Meanwhile, we're all in this together and some in Spain and Greece seem to be in it even more, but what we are in seems to differ depending on who you are. I reckon we have been plunged knee-deep into a heap of dung.

absentgrana couldn't have put it better myself

And another thing, or two or three for that matter! in the Sunday Times, it was stated that apart from the over inflated salaries and bonuses, the EU operates a final salary pension schemes will allows an employee who has worked for 37 years to retire on a pension of 70% of salary! isn't this the very sort of thing that contributed to bringing Greece to it's knees? They don't need to pass their fat pensions on to their children because they make so much they can probably set up their entire extended family for life because their incomes are boosted by so many perks and allowances for children's education etc., not to mention the top of range cars at their disposal and business class air travel. Diplomatic staff working in the more than 130 EU embassies around the world get a staggering 93 days holiday a year! Oh and when they went off to dine after the latest round of non productive hot air, where the proposed budget couldn't be agreed, they washed their top notch cuisine down with £120 bottles of wine, but apparently there isn't room anywhere to make cuts!

'Twas ever thus - the rich and powerful feather their nests and the rest of us just keep on keeping on as best we may.

I watched a recording of a programme (Four Born Every Minute) yesterday about the experience of childbirth in 4 different countries and the thing that stood out was that countries with poor health services are not poor in resources, but that the greedy few spirit it away and leave the rest of the country in poverty. One of the featured countries was Sierra Leone which has huge mineral and diamond resources but one of the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the world.

The EU Gravytrainers aren't going to give up their riches easily.

Lilygran

I get really annoyed at practically everything to do with the E.U. As for the so-called 'Budget', what a joke, Even the word 'Budget' is a source of mockery.

The E.U. is a gravy train, nothing more and nothing less. It is too big and it was inevitable that there was going to eventually be a clash between the countries in the north to those in the south. It mirrors the problems of the Euro as a common monetary value. The more you read, watch and learn about the different work and government spending practices it stands out a mile that the northern european countries would eventually get fed up paying for the past and present failures of the southern european countries who simply do not have, nor will have, the same work ethic of the north. By that I mean working a 40 hour week, paying high taxes and not having corrupt governments. Yes I know we do have failings by our government but they are not of the same degree by any stretch of the imagination.

I am glad Cameron is not alone asking for a reduction and has been joined by the likes of Germany, Netherlands, Sweden etc. The sad thing is we in Britain toe the line whilst some countries just 'cock a snoop' at us and it is the general population that suffers, never the gravy train wallers in all of the EU countries.

It is tragic for the population of Greece for example. Who in their right mind would believe it is acceptable to make the Greeks suffer like they are and yet spend and waste more money on the bloated EU buildings, staff and wages. It's not even the case they have created wealth for our nations, probably scuppered any chance we all have of getting out of the crap we are in by making more and more ridiculous regulations.

Yes I know I have ranted a little but I do get so mad.

Well said, POGS!

POGS As far as Greece is concerned, there is also the little matter of tax avoidance on an industrial scale.

Tax avoidance is a way of life in Greece, also avoidance of any other controls.

In Athens, cars are only licensed to drive within the city on alternate days, to cut down the massive air pollution. No problem - any Athenian who can afford it buys two cars and drives them into work every other day.

Absent

That is a point I was trying to make when I mentioned the different values between the Northern European countries and the Southern European countries.

I totally agree with your point but I cannot help but feel very sorry for the average Greek citizen who is suffering so badly at this time.

POGS There is also a vast difference between eastern and western European countries, which makes for great difficulties when it comes to budgeting.

I agree with everything you have all said. And for those reasons I wish we were out of the EU!

I can't imagine how anyone thought it would ever work. It should have stayed as a trading union and not included anything to do with finance or money.

The countries of Europe are all so different and have different problems. There can't be one solution mends all problems. Get real.

I'm just grateful we have the pound and not the Euro.