So, tell me about France?

I have to declare an interest here. I love France. I aspire to live there some day. My sister lives there and I would be off there in a shot, if I didn't have to work or earn there. The lifestyle is wonderful, the traffic (outside Paris) is negligible. It's a wonderful place with great food and wine and culture. I genuinely think it is a close to nirvana on the planet as we can currently get.

It might be a bit boring to those of you who seek 'action'. If you consider the UK for example where in this and the past few weeks, we have Wimbledon and the Ashes. Henley. Ascot. The Open starting next week. Cowes week. etc etc.

But 'en France' you can wake up, go to the local patisserie and have fresh croissants for breakfast. No traffic. No deadlines. Just joy. And serenity and relaxation. What's not to like? What's not to love?

And it will go on like this forever. Thanks to the EU.

Except that it won't.

The most recent figures I can come up with (2013) on net contributions to the EU, put Germany at £13.8 billion, France on £8.4 billion and the UK at £8.6 billion. Some other Northern European and Scandinavian countries pay in a few quid. Interestingly Italy contributes £3.7 billion.  And then the rest - like Spain £3 billion, Poland £12 billion and Hungary £4.6 billion are net recipients.

You can view the overall packages here.

It might also be worth remembering that the UK was 'forced' to pay an extra £2 billion at the end of last year because we were doing well, particularly when the EU included the black market and the UK sex trade in its calculations even though they could not be verified in any way.

So, as I started out by saying, tell me about France? Germany has its industrial might, its industry, its exports of cars in particular but also machinery, it has a thriving ship-building industry. It is essentially the world's industrial zone in terms of high value-added products as opposed to low tech industry which now comes out of China. The UK by contrast now makes a few sandwiches, a few diggers in Staffs, has a thriving - and globally competitive but foreign-owned - automotive industry and is the word's banker, insurer and legal services provider.

The UK economy is not perfect - we don't make enough to create real wealth - but we are the world-leader in spivs and crooks and financial commission-takers. And while I might not be a fan of this model, it is a very strong generator of income and money.

It makes us a powerhouse on the world stage. How sustainable it is is a moot point but right now? It's strong and we cannot survive economically without it.

So what has France got to offer in this globally competitive world?  Wine? Cheese? Some military technology? Government owned car manufacturers like Citroen, Peugeot and Renault?

And yet France is the third biggest contributor to the EU after Germany and the UK?

I'm sorry but this just doesn't stack up. Google how much France gets back from the EU and you'll find that there is not a page which answers the question.

I cannot prove this theory (which is maddening) but I am convinced that France gets much more money back from the EU than we are being told. I think that France is very close to being a net recipient of EU money. I think this is the price Germany pays to have France on board to support its (Germany's) attempt to take-over Europe this time.

At which point you stop reading and think I'm a conspiracy theorist nutter of course.

But you should look at a few facts first if you are interested in this stuff. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is currently 47% of the EU budget. Farming. Food production, is what the EU currently spends 47% of its money on. This is not to support efficient agribusiness in the UK or Germany but to support the French small farming, subsistence farming culture and economy. France could not hope to fund this inefficient farming system on its own so it is subsidised to a massive degree by the EU.

And it is why France is so wedded to the EU. Without it France would be a basket-case economy like Spain or Italy of Greece. And it is why Germany is allowed to wield so much power in the EU - because it has the support of France which could not survive economically without the EU.

It's fiendishly clever. Germany has France docile and the only other European economic powerhouse - the UK - effectively paying £28 million a day towards its take-over of Europe.

Just 70 short years since the last unpleasantness and the UK is now paying for Germany to achieve what we fought against, and France has been rendered powerless to oppose it.

France is getting more back from the EU than is being stated. The EU's books have not been signed off by auditors for 20 years. There is a massive sleight of hand at play here. France is powerless to resist and as we have seen in Greece, Germany via the EU has rendered most of Europe to be entirely dependent on German banks.

We've almost lost this fight. But if we - the UK - were to vote to leave the EU it would stop it in its tracks. Without the Eurozone's biggest customer and second biggest funder on side the EU will fail. Countries will be able to take back their sovereignty, devalue their currencies and prosper in their own right instead of being under the yolk of Germany.

There is still a chance then. It might be painful for France in the short-term, but it will be life-saving for most people in Europe. France will take a hit initially but it is currently living on an unsustainable model and borrowed time. I think most French people know this. And they'll bounce back because they are great people and have a wonderful country. And I'd still love to live there.

So long as it is not ruled by Germany. 

Thanks for reading.