I’ll say now that I am not a big fan of the European experiment. My main problem with it is not political or even economic – it is cultural. It’s a great idea but I just don’t think that any of us are really ready to call ourselves ‘Europeans’. I don’t think that many even want to. National boundaries and cultures are the individual fabric of each member state with none wanting to have cultural change imposed from a neighbour.

Having said that, politically it’s not any better. Each state is out to look after their own at the expense of the rest. But even worse than that, to me, are the inequalities. For many years now I have had the feeling that us Brits take the EU seriously and follow all the rules like the good European citizens our politicians want us to be. And at the same time, some of our closer neighbours seem to pick and choose the bits they want and discard the rest. This was confirmed for me yesterday with some examples posted in an EU Referendum item entitled ‘You can’t fault the logic‘.

An EU commission report comparing national penalties found that:

…the average fine being levied against individuals guilty of forging EU fisheries control documents varied from about £90,000 in the UK to £3,000 in Spain – and just £180 in France. National sanctions for failing to comply with EU laws banning dangerous chemical discharges into rivers were equally varied: the UK maximum penalty is five years in prison, compared with two years in France, while Greece has introduced no measures at all.

Did you catch that bit? A £90,000 fine in the UK equals a fine in France of just £180.