MAJOR ISSUES BULLETIN
 
     
     
 

‘D’  How much does EU membership cost us in cash?

 

The Government steadfastly refuses to carry out any sort of cost-benefit analysis, although my friends and I in the Lords have made several attempts to force it to do so (see our debates 27th June 2003 and 11th February 2004)

 

Ministers merely insist that the benefits of our EU membership are so obvious and wonderful that any analysis would be a waste of time and money.  Presumably the Government doesn’t want the following sort of figures to see the light of day.

 

 

D. (i) Annual Costs:

 

If we start by looking at annual expenditure, we very easily reach an annual waste of some £40 billion pounds a year.  A billion pounds, one thousand million pounds, is a rather confusing figure, and most people don’t stop to think what it means. Well, one thousand million pounds builds, equips and staffs a decent district hospital to run indefinitely.  You build and equip it for £80-£100 million, and then you have a fund of £900 million to run it. So perhaps we should measure our Euro-waste in district hospitals, rather than billions, but I’ll go back to billions for now.

According to the Trade Justice Movement, supported by CAFOD and Oxfam, the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) costs each family of 4 in the UK about £20 a week, or a fiver a head.  Half of this is incurred through higher food costs (against what we pay for the same food on the open world market) and half through the higher taxes we pay to keep EU farmers in the style they have been accustomed. 

 

The higher food cost work out at approximately 5p on a pint of milk, 40p on a 60p bag of sugar, and 3p on a loaf of bread. So these costs hit he poorest in our society hardest, and total about £15.6 billion every year [Just a reminder - over £15,000 million a year]. The EU’s charming policy of dumping its unwanted excess produce on the developing world also starves millions to death, mostly children, because local farmers can’t sell their produce in local markets.

 

The Dutch Government has calculate- ed that EU over-regulation costs the Dutch economy some 2% of their gross Domestic Product annually. (10) It is fair to assume that EU over-regulation doesn’t cost the UK economy any less than it costs the Dutch, given Whitehall’s well-known practice of ‘gold-plating’ EU legislation. Our GDP is around £1,000 billion, and so 2% of that would come to £20 billion [or £20,000 millions annually]

 

Then there’s the hard cash we hand over to Brussels every year. Over the last 10 years we have given Brussels an average of £11 billion [£11,000 millions] to help them finance the whole vast swindle. Of this, they have been good enough to send back to us an average of some £7 billion annually, always for projects here, which are designed to enhance their wretched image (including the CAP). So that leaves £4 billion straight cash outflow per annum. (11)

[At our expense and with the EU flag atop the projects to remind us what fools we have been these last 30 plus years to be taken in by this massive confidence trick by our deceitful politicians.]

 

There are lots of other areas, which could be thrown into this calculation, such as [the loss] at least one £billion p.a. for the destruction of our fishing industry, and [the loss of] another billion for the ruin of our modern art market, and so on.  But just sticking to the figures I have mentioned, we have a comfortable 40 district hospitals chucked away every year.

Lets examine that figure, £40 billion per annum, a little further, shall we? It comes to £110 million a day, or £5 million an hour, or £666 per annum for each one of us.

 

It is 10 times our railways budget, which Heaven knows could do with a bit of a boost.

 

It is three times our whole transport budget.

 

It is two-thirds of our education budget.

 

And it is 10 district hospitals per annum more than our entire defence budget, which weighs in at a mere £27 billion per annum. (12)

 

 

 

So that’s a conservative estimate of how much our EU membership is costing us in cash each year: £40 billion. 

 

Or

 

£40,000 millions.

 

 

What about some of the longer-term projects, which we pay for, courtesy of the Martians of Brussels?

D. (ii) Capital Projects

 

The last time the Government dared to answer my written questions in the Lords, some 3 years ago:

 

 We had already spent £48 billion [£48,000 million] on the pointless water directives – there was nothing wrong with our water before.

 

Then there’s £18 billion [£18,000 million] so far on outdated Euro-fighter.

 

£8 billion on the foot and mouth saga (which was directed from Brussels)

 

£8 billion for removing harmless kind of asbestos from our buildings.

 

£6 billion for “Reach” the new chemical analysis Directive.

 

£6 billion for the Waste Electrical and Equipment Directive, which is starting to cause dumping in the countryside.

 

I could go on, but that’s another 94 district hospitals [worth] so far.

 

[Just to remind you again that £1000 million pounds builds, equips and staffs a decent district hospital to run indefinitely.  You build and equip it for £80 - £100 million, and then you have a fund of £900 million to run it.]

 

End of Part ‘D’