£4.1bn –> £6.2bn : EU membership will help our public finances. Not.

Considering the mess our public finances are in, the threat of rising taxes (and the impact of ones that are definitely risen or have risen, e.g. 10p to 20p; or 40p to 45p to 50p), here is a shocking stat from the BBC:

The UK’s net contribution to the European Union will rise by almost 60% next year, the Treasury has said. The cost of membership will rise to £6.4bn – equivalent to about £260 per UK household – from £4.1bn in 2009/10. The Treasury said it was right for the UK “to share the burden of membership with new accession countries”.

At a time when so many British people are tightening their belts and even suffering job losses, £260 per household is an awful lot of money to be wasted on a vanity project like the EU. It is ironic also that the less well off in the UK are handing over money to the wealthy oligarchs of Central and Eastern Europe, with their low tax burden, e.g. the flat tax in Estonia, and subsidising emerging economies, many of which are actually doing very nicely thanks to inward investment etc. It is, indeed, a sad and sorry mess which Labour should be ashamed of.

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