Why does the UK seem to get a raw deal from the EU?

Over the last few days I've been following a thread on a forum about the potential end of the Common Travel Area between the UK and the Irish Republic and much has been said about the Schengen Accord that allows free travel between most EU states and it got me to thinking.

It seems almost on a daily basis that we see newspaper headlines berating the European Union, telling us new stories of how the Brussels Eurocrats are trying to take away our rights as a nation... but ask yourself one question, why don't we ever hear similar stories in other EU nations?

Well, if you've read my previous blogs you'll know that I've already suggested a "conspiracy theory" to explain why we're not spending Euro's in the high streets yet and I have no problems saying that I think that this country's problems with Europe are there for a similar reason.

I'm a Europhile and I make no apologies for that. On that basis I will happily say that there are a number of problems with the EU in it's current form. The Common Agricultural Policy for one and the seemingly undemocratic make-up of the institutions of the EU. However there is a lot of good in the EU and we miss out on a lot because successive governments have, in common with the tabloid press, lied and deceived the British public.

First of all, there are things that the EU does in almost every other country which if implemented here would be of benefit to all of us. The aforementioned Schengen Accord for one - the ability to pass freely between the UK and other European countries would work out great, however we're constantly told that immigration control would be a problem if we joined. In reality though immigration is already an issue - but since all our border guards spend their time searching the cars of "legal" travellers and confiscating alcohol and tobacco products that they deem too much for personal use (although completely legal under EU rules) they don't seem to catch that many illegals. This is a vital role though - just think of how much tax revenue the government would lose if our borders were open and this sort of stuff was allowed through?

The Euro, as already mentioned, would be another benefit. But then if we had that we'd have full price transparency across Europe. Those of us who travel regularly across the English Channel (or Irish Sea) already know about the major gulf in prices between the UK and the rest of Europe. Those in Northern Ireland can already benefit from this quite easily, filling up their petrol tanks across the border. If the Common Travel Area is scrapped will this still be so easy? But then if we entered the Euro there would be an issue with British tax havens such as the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man who don't use the Pound but have their currency pegged to sterling. They would lose out if they floated their currencies against the international market and if they wanted to peg to the Euro (or even enter it) they would have to comply with strict EU financial rules - just think of the number of newspaper owners who would suddenly have to pay more tax!

The Working Time Directive was a great example of how some things in the EU can work well. The Tories spent so much time trying to convince us that it would be the end of the world as we know it if it were introduced - but we've been working with it for some years now and there doesn't seem to have been any major problem. The only real issue now is that we don't have enough doctors to remove the exemption they currently have!

Then there is the metric system. Well, this isn't really something that the EU ever made us do, we started ourselves over 100 years ago and in true form still haven't finished the job. The only involvement that the EU had was that, when we joined in the 1970's, they asked us to commit to finishing the job. Unfortunately, they seem to have given up on this. Successive governments blamed the EU for forcing it on us because they couldn't be bothered to complete something that a vocal minority found offensive. So, we will continue to be ripped off by traders who insist on pricing goods in lbs and oz when it's only legal to sell in metric (believe me, it does happen!). Our children will continue to be confused by feet and inches when they learned about metres in school. The rest of the world uses metric, so why shouldn't we? (Don't get me started on the USA... they don't use Imperial so it's not a reason why we should keep it).

As for the undemocratic side of the EU... well, how many of you actually go and vote for your MEP's? People quite happily go out for general elections thinking that this is the only time it's important. Many don't bother with council elections but then complain when the roads, schools, street lights and such aren't properly maintained. It's the same with the EU elections, but even fewer turn out. There are some important differences that you should be aware of. In the UK you're a subject, in the EU you're a citizen. In the UK there is no written constitution or bill of rights, in the EU we have written rights (although not a constitution - thanks again to the tabloids!). It's the EU that ensured that the people of Gibraltar were given voting rights in British elections!!!

Then there are the decisions made by the EU. Decisions which are made by MEP's voted for by us (well, those of us who turn up anyway) and commissioners who are appointed by our elected members in this country. All decisions made by the EU are voted on by the UK government - and like any other "club" there will be some votes we don't win, but remember many things that the EU does will have been proposed by British MEP's and commissioners too. It makes you wonder, how many "bad" things came to us via the EU because it was easier to get a yes vote there than in our own parliament?

One final thought. When the UK entered the EEC in the 1970's, it was on the basis that we would be a full member of the "club" like all other countries, and it was agreed that one of the purposes of the "community" at the time was that it would be ever moving towards closer union. I seem to remember hearing that the words "federal" might even have been there somewhere. Personally, I'd rather be a citizen in a federal Europe rules democratically from Brussels than a "subject" in an anachronistic monarchy with disjointed democratic processes and no written rights!

Inches, feet and miles may actually be dangerous!

Ok, so this might sound like a silly thing to say... and you may from my previous blogs just dismiss me as being one of those "europhile nutters" who wants to hand everything over to Brussels. Ok, so I like the EU and would prefer it if we as a country could move away from "government by tabloid". But this isn't the point I intend to make here.

For just a moment, forget the European Union and consider this. With the exception of the United States of America every other country in the world could be considered metric (with the exception of a Burma and some African country I can't remember right now). The funny thing is though that even in the USA it is legal to put up road signs showing distances and speed limits in metric, something which is illegal here in the UK! This isn't really my point though.

My point is this. It is most likely that almost every driver on British roads under the age of 40 was educated entirely in metric. It's probable that those between 40 and 45 (perhaps even older) had some amount of metric education. Given the ages at which people stop driving this means that well over half of the road-using population in the UK has never been formally taught how many feet there are in a mile or how long a yard is.

Go out on a day trip and it's a foregone conclusion you will see width limits that read 6'-6" or height limits such as 11'-4". Well, the owners manual for my car tells me it's 1999mm wide at the mirrors and 1750mm high with the roof rails on. It doesn't mention any other measurements and I seem to recall my physics and maths teachers telling us that ' and " are notations for minutes and seconds. Ok, so I picked up enough from my parents to know that the symbols actually mean foot and inch, but what about the growing number of foreign drivers in the UK... immigrants, tourists or otherwise?

Foreign lorry stuck under low bridge anyone? The press are always quick to blame "stupid foreigners" or sat-navs, but never pick up the simple matter of bad signing. I'm sure that the guy from Poland, Latvia or even France would know what 4 m is... and so would the majority of British drivers.

I'm not going to have somebody saying "they should learn our measurements if they want to drive on our roads" because road signs should be universal - as should all measurements in all reality - but in the UK clearly they're not.

You just have to look at distance signs to see where we add to the confusion. Just look at "Next services 1m and 27m". I'm British and I have to think "Ok, m here does not mean metres". Even the Americans have the sense to use "mi", especially since the international standards that even the UK is a signatory to requires that "m" be reserved for the metre.

The speedos on our cars do nothing to help either. The UK and USA are the only countries that require MPH to be shown on speedos. The UK is required to show km/h by EU law, the USA isn't - so rent the wrong car in Detroit and jump across the border to Canada and you'll be having fun with their speed limits. The reverse is now true in Europe and since 2005 the UK now has a land border with a country where there is no legal requirement to show MPH on the speedo - which means drivers from the Irish Republic cannot accurately judge their speeds on the roads of Northern Ireland.

And when I see a sign that says "Road works 800 yards" just how many 10ths of a mile is that?

Still with the issue of speedos, we have the same problem the other way around. Anybody who's driven more than just the distance than the ferry port to the hypermarche will understand the problems of sticking to speed limits in km/h when the markings on their speedo are too small, badly coloured or even both. Many countries are more zealous with speed enforcement and given cross-border cooperation on such things we're going to see a growing number of British motorists getting speeding tickets from all across the EU.

Be honest. If you were asked why you don't want to see metric on our roads what would be the reason? The usual ones (ignoring the jingoistic anti-foreigner responses) are "I've grown up with miles" or "I don't understand km". Well here's some news for you - you probably do. For some time the DfT have been saying that, to all intents and purposes, 1 yard is 1 metre. Approach road works on the motorway and you'll notice the count-down signs are usually placed right next to those little marker posts, the ones that are exactly 100 metres apart. Well, get this. Most younger people, when asked "How many yards in a mile" will answer 1000. So, there you have it. 1000 yards in a mile? Wrong. 1000 metres in a kilometre? Correct! So, we all know what a km is. As to metres, the same thing applies.

What's more, it's like litres at the petrol pump or the 1kg bag of sugar at the supermarket. Once it's been there a while you'll wonder what the fuss is about.

There's another benefit too... the government would have to look at speed limits. Wether you're a tree huger or a petrol head you're going to like the sound of that! It's the accepted norm that speed limits are set in multiples of 10. If you switch to km/h you have much greater flexibility. You have a road that is too straight and wide for 40mph but the nuts in the parish council think 50mph is too high? Easy, use 70 km/h instead as it sits between the two. As to motorways and dual carriageways, the government say they don't want to raise the motorway limit to 80mph... the latest excuse is the crash barriers aren't rated for that speed (although they do also say that the police often ignore drivers up to that speed anyway)... so 120 km/h like in Belgium and the Netherlands might be sufficient. 110 km/h on dual carriageways, 100 or 90 km/h could be used on the remainder of the trunk roads instead of the blunt instrument that's 60mph. After all, make a limit too low and people will ignore it... and then grow distrustful of other limits too. That's much more unsafe than breaking a badly set mph speed limit!

Until recently the government said the would metricate the roads when more people were metric-educated. Well, now there are they're using cost as an excuse. So, think about this. How much money is wasted educating our children in metric then letting them loose on an imperial-only road network? How much does it cost for the motor manufacturers to specially make those mph speedometers for our cars? How much extra is paid to translators who not only have to convert car manuals from Japanese or germane to English but also from metric to imperial - or even road engineers who work to metric standards then have to think about where t0 put the road signs?

Please. Save us some money and make our roads safer at the same time. Support metric road signs!