The Great European Rip-off
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Book Description
A devastating indictment of EU waste and corruption, from the bestselling author of Squandered
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In this EU election year, it's time for people across Europe to look at what really goes on in Brussels in our name.
It has been estimated that the EU costs us around £1,000 billion a year - an incredible £2000 for every man, woman and child in Europe. So what do we get for our money? Politicians and administrators selflessly working to bring us efficient government? Well-targeted regulations that promote economic prosperity? A safe and free society? A well-protected environment? Help for people in poorer countries?
Or is our money being squandered by a self-serving euro-elite of unaccountable politicians and incompetent bureaucrats, or else devoured in a feeding frenzy of fraud and corruption where a few lucky insiders become unimaginably rich at our expense? And is the tsunami of regulation pouring out of Brussels in reality strangling industry, destroying jobs, restricting personal freedom, desecrating the environment and further impoverishing the developing world?
Using their extensive network of insider sources, David Craig and Matthew Elliott smash through the secrecy and disinformation that are the Brussels hallmark to reveal what our European rulers are really getting up to. The result is a horrifying story of bureaucracy, hypocrisy and kleptocracy - and how we are all suffering as a result.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
41 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Essential reading before June Euro elections,
By
This review is from: The Great European Rip-off: How the Corrupt, Wasteful EU is Taking Control of Our Lives (Paperback)
This is the third book I've read by David Craig. The others were Plundering the Public Sector, which revealed how much private consultants have dipped into our taxes under Labour, and Squandered, which took a broader look at Gordon Brown's overtaxing and overspending. Both books are well worth reading, especially in light of the current controversies over public-sector trough-snouting and Brown's economic skills.
This one is more vital. It is the most readable (300 pages in good, plain English) yet comprehensive guide available to what the EU is doing with our money and, more importantly, doing to democracy in Europe. The EU is not popular in Britain, something which is too often put down to media scaremongering. Our media certainly does scaremonger very well but sometimes when there is smoke, there is fire. This book coolly and often wittily sets out the truth behind the bureaucracy, the over-regulation, the power-grabbing, the troughing and the often mad policies (the Common Fisheries Policy is mind-boggling!) with references so you can do your own research if you feel sceptical. And the scary thing is the truth is a fair bit worse than what the Sun or the Daily Mail print. In fact you may wonder why these papers waste print with stories about straight bananas while ignoring much more serious scandals like the Common Agricultural Policy and the Biofuels debacle. In June we vote for our MEPs - their toothlessness is another topic covered - and in this election we get our only real say in how Europe is run. You will have the choice between supine Europhiles or people prepared to stand up and try and change things (like current YouTube celebrity Daniel Hannan). Read this and learn what is at stake before you vote.
30 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant assault on the undemocratic EU,
By
This review is from: The Great European Rip-off: How the Corrupt, Wasteful EU is Taking Control of Our Lives (Paperback)
This book is a scathing analysis of the EU's corruption and power-grabbing, led by Britain's ruling class. The authors, David Craig, a management consultant and author, and Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the Taxpayers' Alliance, show how the EU strangles industry, destroys jobs, cuts personal freedoms, wrecks the environment and impoverishes developing countries.
The EU Commissioners get £1.7 million for their five-year term. MEPs get vast salaries, expenses and pensions - £2.1 million for five years. Britain's MEPs are to get a 32% pay rise this June and a new tax rate of 13-17%, halving their taxes. Under the Common Agricultural Policy, Scotland's biggest landowners get £230,000 a year each. 85% of the CAP's annual £62 billion budget goes to the richest 18% of farms. The CAP also subsidises EU exports to the third world, and puts duties on their imports to us. For every pound of EU aid, the CAP takes away two. Last year, the European Court of Justice ruled that the EU's freedom of movement laws entitled foreign workers to get Irish benefits even after they had returned home. The Court's remit is to promote EU integration; the only way to change any of its decisions is for all 27 member state governments to agree to do so. After the French and Danish Noes to the EU Constitution, the EU's leaders, Blair included, absurdly claimed "the results do not call into question citizens' attachment to the constitution of Europe." Brown is still trying to sneak through the Constitution without a referendum, in the Lisbon Treaty. As a senior British civil servant said in 1971, "Of course this is the end of British democracy as we have known it, but if it is properly handled the people won't know what's happened until the end of the century. With any luck, old boy, by then I'll be dead." The authors say the EU needs reform. They write, "countries like Britain should be permitted to declare their utilities like energy and water as strategic national resources." Should be permitted? By the same EU that wants to steal our resources? After showing for nearly 300 pages how the EU seizes powers, they say it should shed those powers. After showing how it rides over democracy, they say it should promote democracy. They call on MEPs to vote themselves out of existence and on the Commission to stop issuing regulations. They say the EU should scrap the CAP, yet they have shown that the French would never vote for this. They note that, "a useful question might be whether [the EU] can ever be reformed." Their book gives us the answer - No. The authors have proved that the EU is bad for Britain - so we need to demand a referendum on the Constitution, and we must leave this rubbish club.
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A sobering assessment of the EU and all its folly,
This review is from: The Great European Rip-off: How the Corrupt, Wasteful EU is Taking Control of Our Lives (Paperback)
If you want to know just how much incompetence, waste, corruption, mass deception and downright skullduggery goes on in the cause of the so called European Union dream read this book. The writers apply the scalpel to the EU budget (plundered, badly managed and impossible to audit), MEPs (overpaid, politically impotent and useless), Commission over-regulation (illogical, oppressive and anti-democratic), the CAP (the most stupid idea since Stalin's collectivisation) and the Lisbon Treaty (a gigantic con trick pulled on the people of Europe by a bunch of elitist, arrogant, power grabbing bureaucrats accountable to no one but themselves). Even the most ardent Europhile must admit that the EU is in bad shape and no longer serving the people's interests as it was intended to do.
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