mrjonno wrote:1% of GDP is hardly a lot and pays for itself, spending more on the military is popular in some circles but not in many others.
Sorry I shouldn't have used thickie, thickie racist/racist enabling scum is probably a better description
Backing up factually erroneous statements by laying on the bigotry and hatred doesn't actually make them more persuasive. Doubly so when the object of your derision's chief fault appears to be bigotry and hatred.
I think you'd do well to apply this intellect of yours, that you see as separating your superior self from the "thickies" and understand the difference between "the defence budget" and "spending more on" the defence budget. When people were debating (for example) scrapping Trident, the sums of money under discussion were more than an order of magnitude smaller than the defence budget as a whole, and consequently much smaller than the annual contribution to the EU. Normally getting the point quickly is a sign of intellect, missing it badly - quite the reverse.
To spell it out in painful detail EU governments spend about the same on the EU budget in two years as they do on defence in one year. That means that if you insist that the EU budget amount is "tiny" and not worth worrying about then that defence budget is of similar character. However, since anyone with two functioning brain cells to rub together can see that's patently not the case it shows the fault in the assertion.
I'm all for people making a case in favour of the EU, but I am utterly bemused at this weird need to put others down and these expressions of superiority and purity that have no actual basis in reality.
I've long felt that there is a case to be made for many of the EU's activities, but justifying them means actually doing so, not falling back on pretending that the money is going on free trade and therefore yields more than it invests. It was a fundamental tactical error in the referendum campaign that this lie was so central to remainers, who also tried to sell the view "let's stay in a reformed EU" instead of "let's stay in the EU", despite knowing full well that forty years of British attempts at reform had gone nowhere and showed every sign of continuing to do so*.
Attempts to dismiss, deride and belittle were singularly unsuccessful during the referendum and continue to be so. What's needed is perhaps insight, analysis and considered response. If the only justification the EU has for its existence is free trade then the vast majority of EU activities and spending, which lie outside of that justification, face existential crisis.
* Who remembers Cameron's campaign to make sure Juncker didn't become president of the comission?
by 
