UK Prime Minister Theresa May has given a major speech calling for a clean break from the EU:
Theresa May has said the UK "cannot possibly" remain within the European single market, as staying in it would mean "not leaving the EU at all". But the prime minister promised to push for the "greatest possible" access to the single market following Brexit. In a long-awaited speech, she also announced Parliament would get a vote on the final deal agreed between the UK and the European Union. And Mrs May promised an end to "vast contributions" to the European Union.
Previously: Brexit: The Focus is on the EU Single Market
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 17 2017, @09:37PM
The EU will be in a fiscal squeeze if Trump comes through and insists upon them paying their fair share to support NATO.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 17 2017, @10:17PM
Fun factoid: the US contributes at most 33 percent (the highest reasonable calculation I've seen myself, in a letter to the Financial Times) to NATO's budget -- the one concrete figure given by the White House itself is in fact 22 percent (NATO Common Funded budgets) [whitehouse.gov]. As the White House website declares, "every $22 the United States contributes leverages $100 worth of Alliance capability."
Your -- and Trump's -- illusion that it's in fact the US which pays for NATO comes from another factoid published on NATO's website: total US defence expenditure amounts to 77 percent [nato.int] of the whole defense budget of all allies combined. In other words, (a) in relative terms, France, Germany and the UK alone, which contribute over 50 percent of the rest of NATO's budget, far outplay the US in relative terms [per head of their population] of funding NATO, and (b) the defense budget of all European members of NATO combined is larger, by a serious margin, than the US (official) military funding in total.
Facts [cbsnews.com] -- ain't the Internet grand for it?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 18 2017, @12:12AM
Here's some more fun factoids:
Don't provide links if you don't want people to read them. From your own NATO link section on Indirect Funding where you are trying to school me in a very patronizing manner:
Note the deft use of language to split hairs. They're saying "this does not mean the US pays 73 percent of things covered by Direct Funding, but they do pay for 73 percent of Indirect Funding for things like intelligence, etc., etc., etc."
Your 22 percent number, incidentally, is the cost-sharing amount set for the US for Direct Funding. That is based upon a formula taking into account the GDP of each country. However, the US does pay the "lions share" of the indirect funding. So the US pays 22 percent into keeping NATO running and alive, but it pays 73 percent when it actually does something.
You also ignore the fact that out of 28 member nations, only five have met the 2-percent contribution level (US, Britain, Poland, Greece, and Estonia). However, in defense of NATO on this point, their response now is basically "well, now that Putin is rolling tanks into other countries, we're going to start throwing in some more money in the pot."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 18 2017, @12:14AM
Crap, sorry, forgot to add a condescending tag at the end to tell people how stupid you are:
Facts [your own NATO links], yes, indeed, the internet is great for that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 18 2017, @12:52PM
It clearly isn't great for reading comprehension, though I stand corrected: replace the 77 percent I mentioned with 73 percent, and we're all good. No?