‘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’