Early in July, Parliament voted by 274 to 246 to increase our contribution to the IMF by £9.3 billion. Many Labour MPs were “unavailable” or abstained, when their party recommended voting against. The IMF will use this money to fund futile bailouts of Eurozone members. The IMF has told the EU it must end its “unproductive debate” over debt restructuring and, in an unprecedented intervention in the EU, told it to integrate faster and more deeply.
Chancellor George Osborne agrees. He called in August for eurozone members to accept the “remorseless logic of...greater fiscal integration”. In practice this would mean the few eurozone countries with budgetary surpluses (basically this means Germany) dictating to the rest how to run their economies. This has already happened to Italy.
In spite of Britain not being in the eurozone, we are still asked to pay up to support troubled members, as well as the expensive European project in general. EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy has proposed a costly new Brussels building to host future European summits. The new Europa building will cost £280 million, £25 million paid by the British taxpayer. ■