NOT THE TIMES NEWSPAPER

UK - FORGING GLOBAL TRADE LINKS



Few would not wish David Cameron well in his belated,
Canute-like endeavours to articulate to his EU colleagues
the largely ignored demands of the majority of the
electorate with regard to the re-negotiation of Britain's
relationship with the EU. The EU, far from emerging f
rom the financial crisis, as Jose Manuel Barroso and
Herman von Rumpuy assert, continues to implode under
the weight of its own economic and  political
inconsistencies. The Prime Minister will explain,
somewhat euphemistically, that support for the UK
remaining in the EU is wafer-thin. While this may true o
f much of the general population, who see the corrosive
effects of mass immigration and human rights' leglislation,
it is certainly true of those who are trying to create wealth.

Apart from big business which enjoys certain operational
benefits from EU membership, the negative head of steam
building up in the rest of the economy will only be
neutralised by action, not yet more words. The UK's
34,000 mid-sized businesses, where the real potential
for achieving growth lies, have a combined annual
turnover of £630bn, outperforming their smaller and
larger counterparts. However, rather than being seen
as a crucial part of the solution to the country's
deepening economic problems, they feel forgotten,
their innovative spirit and enterprise frustrated by
the dead hand of an incremental EU bureaucracy,
which adds to costs and weakens incentives. Britan's
future can be dynamic and successful, set free to live
in accordance with its own rule of law, trading with
the wider world and the emerging power-house
economies, which are shaping a new world order.