EU and the Economy

The following is a message from Lord Pearson, UKIP Party Leader. He is revealing the severity of the current financial crisis. When will the failed main parties take their heads out of the sand?



“It is dishonest to talk about repairing our economy without mentioning the colossal cost of our EU membership”.

In 2008, the latest year for which the Government statistics are available:

The Government spent: £707 billion
Less what it raised in tax: £540 billion
= a resultant ‘deficit’ of: £167 billion


A. The TaxPayers’ Alliance estimates the overall cost of our EU membership at £120 billion per annum (over-regulation, loss of our fishing, extra food costs of £1,000 per family per annum, etc.).

Of this, in 2008, £16.4 billion went in cash to Brussels.

£16.4 billion p.a. = “£45 million pounds a day” (gross) – our slogan

£45 million per day pays for 2,125 nurses, for a year, at £21,000 p.a. So “For the money we send the EU every day, we could pay the annual salaries of 2,125 nurses”.

But Brussels gives back some of what we send (e.g. £2 billion per annum for our farmers). If this point is raised, the following are the net cash figures:

In 2008 the Government says we sent to Brussels net cash of £6.6 billion. (= £18 million per day, = “857 nurses a day”)
-N.B. In the first “Leaders’ Debate”, Brown said Cameron’s proposal to cut £6.0 billion from public expenditure would send the economy into disaster

The net cash for this year is estimated at £9.7 billion

To “earth” this figure for voters, £9.7 billion = £26 million per day, which pays for 1,225 nurses a day. So the net cash we are sending this year to Brussels, never to see any of it again, pays for “1,225 nurses a day



B. There is also the Institute of Directors and TaxPayers’ Alliance “How to Save £50 billion”. This details £50 billion p.a. of cuts to waste, which could happen in the first year.

C. UKIP’s Budget and the Economy paper details £13 billion p.a., which could be cut by getting rid of a number of useless quangos identified by the TaxPayers’ Alliance.

D. Then there is £18 billion p.a. (for 40 years) for “global warming” (from the Government’s Climate Change Act)

E. And, £ 5 billion p.a. for the “Private Finance Initiative”


A + B + C + D + E = £206 billion per annum
We should be talking about saving say half this figure per annum, but our political leaders continue to argue about £6 billion.


Longer Term

By 2013 the Government estimates that the accumulated “deficit” –the National Debt- will have reached £1,300 billion (1.3 trillion; the “Black Hole”: £20,000 per man, woman and child). This will be roughly 90% of our annual Gross Domestic Product (what the country produces every year). The ‘deficit’ is still forecast to be running at £90 billion, and even that relies on the economy growing at 2.25% p.a., which it isn’t.

And just for fun, the above figures do not include some £300 billion of loans and guarantees made to UK banks which will not all be repaid; and “Quantitative Easing” (printing money) at £200 billion. On top of the £20,000 public sector debt per person, we have also racked up private household debt (primarily residential mortgages) of over £50,000 per average household.

We are in serious trouble.