Evening Standard, 8th June 2007

CHRISTOPHER FILDES COLUMN

EU OUTRUNS PRICY GAMES

Whitehall economists used to argue about which had cost the country more - the second world war or the policies of Tony Benn. Now his son Hilary has moved up and the debate has moved on, and the two new contestants are the Olympic Games and the European Union.

The Games will certainly race past £10 billion, logo included, but the EU has stamina. Ruth Lea at Global Vision reckons our net contribution to the European budget is about to double. By the time we get to the Olympics, our rebate will be tailing off and the Euro-budget will cost us £6.4 billion a year, or 2p on income tax.

As with the Games, so with the Union: our children will be paying for it.