The new Eurosceptics

[Tonitrus]

If we could add Texas, you guys should be able to handle Turkey. 

[Zanza]

There are many reasons to reject Turkish membership. In fact we should postpone any new accession until we figure out what the hell the EU should be. things are unwieldy enough as it is with all the current members.

We should continue to add the Western Balkan nations at least. The EU will not be more or less functional no matter if we add Serbia or Albania. They are insignificant.

[Neil]

It is important to keep Serbia on the outside, and make them feel unwelcome.  They ruined civilization, and they retain loyalty to the Russians.

[Razgovory]

I'm not a Euro, but can be skeptical of Europe?

[Ed Anger]

I'm not a Euro, but can be skeptical of Europe?

Welcome to the club.

[MadImmortalMan]

I don't like using the word "skeptic" in this way. it makes it sound like Euroism is a religion.

[Duque de Bragança]

the article needs to decide if these people are sceptics or phobes.

What about phobes of Turkey who want to use the sceptic argument as an excuse?

Most UK europhobes used to be pro-Turkey in the EU to dilute the EU.

[Agelastus]

the article needs to decide if these people are sceptics or phobes.

What about phobes of Turkey who want to use the sceptic argument as an excuse?

Most UK europhobes used to be pro-Turkey in the EU to dilute the EU.

:nods:

[Didn't we used to have a head-nodding smiley for agreement?]

Well, apart from that, there's also the issue that before Erdogan's antics a lot of people here thought that the delays and hurdles Turkey was being put through by the EU were grounded in both racism and hypocrisy.

[Admiral Yi]

[Didn't we used to have a head-nodding smiley for agreement?]

[Agelastus]

[Didn't we used to have a head-nodding smiley for agreement?]

Ah.

There it is.

I thought it was probably a case of my declining eyesight rather than a case of my declining memory.

[Queequeg]

If we could add Texas, you guys should be able to handle Turkey. 

Texas was pretty heavily colonized by Yanquis before independence, let alone statehood. If anyone is up for colonizing Anatolia I'd be up to it, but the odds of it going Alamo would be 100%.

[crazy canuck]

If we could add Texas, you guys should be able to handle Turkey. 

Texas was pretty heavily colonized by Yanquis before independence, let alone statehood. If anyone is up for colonizing Anatolia I'd be up to it, but the odds of it going Alamo would be 100%.

Isnt that a good thing?  Founding myths are important after all.

[Valmy]

Texas was pretty heavily colonized by Yanquis before independence, let alone statehood. If anyone is up for colonizing Anatolia I'd be up to it, but the odds of it going Alamo would be 100%.

Well if by pretty heavily you mean relatively.  There were something like 35,000 Yanqui types and 5,000 of them were slaves.  But since there were only about 7,000 Tejanos that relatively really important.  I shudder to think how many Americans would have to move to Anatolia to get a similar ratio...possibly all of us

[Beenherebefore]

"If you live in the east of England," Nigel Farage says, "you will have seen social change in your towns and cities over the course of the last ten years that is absolutely huge. And by and large people are very uncomfortable with it." That is why Ukip's mission statement opens not with the European issue but by saying: "As crisis has followed crisis our politicians are seen to be impotent in the face of the dangers rearing up all around us." It conjures up the spectres of violent crime, job loss, a tide of immigration, falling pensions and fear of old age.

A major study of public opinion by Michael Ashcroft last year confirmed that Europe is a secondary issue, even to potential Ukip supporters (only 7 per cent of the party's supporters said Europe is the single most important problem for them). In focus groups, they reeled off a litany of complaints, imagined and real, about the cultural and social state of Britain.

For instance: your school is not allowed to hold a Nativity play; you cannot fly the flag of Saint George; you cannot call Christmas "Christmas" any longer; you cannot be promoted in the police force unless you are from a minority group; you cannot wear an England team shirt on the bus; you won't get social housing unless you're an immigrant; you can't even speak up about these things, because you'll be labelled a racist. "All of these examples," Ashcroft says, "make the point that the mainstream political parties are so in thrall to the prevailing culture of political correctness that they have ceased to represent the silent majority."

The woe is me being white argument is prevalent among several political groups, most of them being at least skeptical about the EU. Which is strange, because the EU is something of a bastard when it comes to borders and control.

Again with the silent majority, which basically is a very vocal minority in most places. The silent majority doesn't screech like broken brakes.

That aside, it's only natural that questions are asked about the EU. It has for the most part been a failure in foreign policy outside of the union itself. The cashflow from north to south is a reason to worry, as the southern rim is basically just a black hole of debts and can't take care of itself.

Those are the negatives. However, Europe would not have had such a good late 20th century without the EEC and the EF/EU.
The EU in my humble opinion does more good than bad. Yes, there are Eurocrats that probably just walk around like zombies in Brussels, doing a workshop in how to write a good report about how reports should be written.
Without the EU, Europe would be even further up Shit Creek than it already is, and who knows, maybe things are turning for the better in some ways.

[Razgovory]

Ahh!  A Bee!