... which was a great idea, but extremely poorly executed.

The Moto G and Moto E is really amazing for what it is - budget phones that have all the right things - IPS screen, snappy processor, good software, respectable brand, LTE (on E and Gv2), etc. It sells extremely well in the UK and many other markets in the EU.

If they opened up a factory in the UK or somewhere else in the EU, it may be 10-15 pounds more expensive to make than in China, but still there would be plenty of takers. In fact probably more so as it is manufactured locally and in an advanced economy - a sign of quality in its own right. The Raspberry Pi is made in the UK, and they were able to pretty much match cost with the batches produced in China.

Actually, those superior numbers are for the Twin Air models that I was talking about. You can't get them in the US (yet).

The Twin-Air is a special case as it's a two cylinder petrol engine tuned specifically for fuel efficiency (and related testing). The problem is that in real world driving, it's not quite as efficient as the Multi-jet diesel (basically you need to rev the twin-air to feel it). The other problem is ride quality - as it's a two cylinder engine, it has a distinctive noise and vibration that some people find harsh.

Diesel CO2 emissions on combustion is only ~12% more than petrol, not 30%.

The 76 mpg is the combined figure - the EUDC extra-urban figure is 85.6 (71.3 US) mpg. This will work around to at least 51 mpg (US) under EPA standards. So that is quite impressive giving that the energy density is only 12%. In fact, real world tests, especially at highway speeds, show much better fuel economy on diesel cars.

And add to that in the US you can't even get the super efficient 0.9L Twin-Air Petrol/Gasoline engine...

The Fiat 500 has also a very very efficient Diesel mult-jet version, which can do 76 MPG (in UK gallons or 63 MPG US gallons). Unfortunately you can't buy that in the US.

The whole reason for the existence of *these EU laws* is so that we can get rid of legislating lots of redundant secondary legislation and get on with implementing policies that matter.

Sorry, my mistake. FTFM.

Yes, but not equivalent in scale. The actual EU budget is tiny compared to the US federal government.

The interest rates were much lower in the Eurozone. So when the Greeks joined, not only were people able to afford more big-ticket items, even the government was allowed more room to run a big deficit. So there was a temporary credit-fueled boom, followed by a painful bust.

We live with regulations now because once a point in time, somebody recognized the existing system back then needed rules to optimize trade, improve safety, minimize waste, etc. Sometimes we make mistakes, and that we over regulate, or not regulate in the right way. Sometimes these are innocent mistakes, and sometimes it is due to lobbying efforts by vested interest. But in most case, they can be corrected.

The right way to deal with this is for engagement. Not using it as an excuse to throw the baby out of with the bathwater. In fact, if the UK did leave the EU, we would need to adhere to the same regulations in order to sell our stuff to Europe, while having no influence over the drafting of these rules. Do we really want to be such a situation?

Not that I don't agree with the mandate for EU reform. As it stands the way the EU, and especially the EC works it a mystery to most people. Although not an Eurosceptic myself, I do admit that it is useful to have a sceptical counterbalance in the European political landscape, in order to drive us to make the EU institutions that we already have, better.

Unfortunately, almost all of the Eurosceptic parties are increasingly moving towards xenophobic and populist arguments. You can see that from the type of political advertising that the UKIP has been doing here in Britain, and it is worse for the respective parties in the Netherlands and in France.

Actually, your examples gave you up. The regulations governing the size and specification of produce (e.g. bananas) and other products/services is one of the core EC competencies. Do you really want to have 27 different standards and regulation on products in your economic area? The whole reason for the existence of the EU is so that we can get rid of legislating lots of redundant secondary legislation and get on with implementing policies that matter.

In fact, most of the people that are against EU legislation don't really know what the majority of EU legislation is about. Most of it is to facilitate trade of goods (e.g. on product standards) and services (e.g. on worker rights), so that we have a equal playing field across the free-trade area.

The EU != the European Court of Human Rights, which seem to be the main target of the Daily Mail in the past decade or so.

The problem is that the Euro is a monetary union without a proper fiscal (and by-proxy political) union. The US has a strong central government and can fix these imbalances by, amongst other things, spending federal dollars in the states with weaker economies. The Euro does not have a proper mechanism to do this and you can see the stronger export economies reaping the rewards of Euro membership (looking at you Germany). A lot of big-ticket items (such as German cars and second homes) were bought on cheap credit due when the southern economies joining the Euro.

I've never been threatened with a call-out charge by Virgin Media (but their billing practises it awful, such as overbilling people with old plans and being anal retentative when questioned). However, BT threatened me with a call-out charge once on a problem with my PSTN (ie. Plain Ole Telephone) service. I insisted they sent out an engineer and in the end it turned out to be a problem with the line card my line was connected to at the exchange. So, yes, in the end they fixed it and, no, I didn't get charged.

Like how it was immediately obvious to you that one couldn't get a brand-new iphone with anything other than iOS 7? And that turned out not to be true as I pointed out there are still places selling the 3GS?

Common, you're grasping at straws here. Clearly this phrase was meant to state the phone released, not phone available for sale.

BTW, you can still find places that sell the 3GS brand-new-in-box, so no, you can also buy new iOS devices that doesn't support the latest iOS version.

That phone was not "found coming out brand-new with 2.2/2.3 installed" still. It came out in 2011. You may be able to buy it from a retailer new, but they are just selling old stock. EOD. Stop twisting GP's words.