Indeed they are and that is what they were elected to do. No quarrel with that, but the quarrel is with the method.

Droll, drool, drool…..the mere mention of black pudding always reminds of the Michael Palin as Eric Oulthwaite in Ripping Yarns – “….the black puddings are so black that even the white bits are black….:D

Just so, Al – the war which we won, with help of course, ended up being the cause of our downfall. Ironic, indeed.

Your last sentence is redundant – I had got it before then and you should be ashamed of yourself. Is this level of humour allowed in this forum, Mods?:diablo::diablo:

Brilliant and the student’s name amused me too….oops, sorry!:o

That makes an interesting conjuction of points. There are many who take the view that, as independent states, some of the current EU members would also become, once again, small, properous states. The monolith which is the EU has sapped trillions of dollars from small once prosperous states and for what? Zilch.

And the EU will never have the influence that its leaders so desperately aspire to because it is not a nation state, and will never be one.

5.3% as of now…to be 5.8% by next year.

Thanks, Kabir – good to know that we are contributing to that, indirectly, while we destroy our own forces. Nice.:mad:

Yeah, we’re just right.
Too many rules – Germany.
Too few rules – France.

As for GB looting the Empire, well….once they threw us out, thinking they didn’t need us, they all went down the pan with only a couple of exceptions. Some of the nations are only just now beginning to prosper (India for example) but they have a country mile to catch up. Most of Africa is, shall we just say, ruined by its very own people.
Ah well, we had our Empire, the Greeks and Romans had theirs. Even the French and Dutch have stuck their fingers in a few foriegn pies. Spose it’s the yanks at the moment – based on money alone.

One small correction, learned from long experience. France has just as many rules, probably more, but no one obeys them.:)

And your remarks about the Empire are spot on. And a polite way of describing the basket case which is Africa.