O/T:- Media Bias

[drillerpie]

Very interesting post keldsyke, from someone with first hand experience of how people in Europe feel about the EU. What the hell is wrong with countries having their own identities and trying to do the best for their people, while remaining on good business terms with other countries.

I think 'someone with anecdotal experience of how a tiny number of people in Europe feel about the EU' would be more accurate.

I could mention (and I think I did at the time of the Brexit debate when Keldsyke posted something similar) that the overwhelming majority of the people I met during my 16 years living in Italy were pro EU.

I would also point out that most of the countries he listed have PR electoral systems which allow small parties to get into parliament and make a change. In Italy Lega Nord ran a campaign on leaving the euro and going back to the lira but swept that under the carpet as soon as it got into power. Giorgia Meloni has been generally critical about the EU for most of her political career without formally running on an Italexit policy, but since she took power has been surprisingly constructive in her dealings with the EU.

I am surprised to see that Keldsyke's Polish colleagues wanted out of the EU when their country was basically rebuilt with hundreds of billions of euros from the EU and they've had next to no immigration, but there we are.

Germany has issues but they are linked to Merkel era decisions to hitch their economy hook line and sinker to cheap Russian gas to get a competitive advantage over other manufacturing countries, which was great while it lasted but always risky, and going on TV and inviting millions of Syrian refugees to come.

Perosnally, I would imagine the biggest danger to the EU going forward is immigration via the Mediterranean and the fact that a lot of people don't like it. But the penny seems to have dropped to some extent on that, as well as on hasty enlargement. What new policies they can execute to deal with that is another question.