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Seeing as the referendum seems to be having absolutely no impact on the lives of those in Ambridge (after all, farming, housing, immigrant labour, youth under employment, transport and culture are hardly topics that rate a mention in Brussels), how about an informal poll of DumTeeDummers?
I can’t vote, being in The Land of the Long White Cloud for so long, but if I could I think I’d be a ‘Stay’; the trivialities of Euro-policy seemed to be outweighed by the benefits of being part of the major trading block in this increasingly globalised world..
He’s concerned job-stealing aliens will wreck the British Economy 😉
Not me – in, I say. I like Wookies. And Ewoks.
For me it’s a case of
I strongly believe with mo risk theres no reward.I also feel the membership fee we payvto brussels could be put to better use (I spent some time in hospital last year and the nurses were rushed off their feet, a few million quids worth of staff would do our hospitals the world of good
Or we could stay in Europe and continue to enjoy all the benefits of being in it and those of us on the high rate of tax (yes, I mean myself too) could pay an extra 2% straight into a care pot to look after the most vulnerable in our country, provide more elderly care places, and improve children’s services. 🙂
I really don’t see why it has to be so complicated. Government could stop giving tax cuts to people who don’t need it in return for votes, because people are inherently selfish and want to know what’s in it for them all the time. Start making the right “tough decisions” and stop fannying around pretending to be looking after “hard working families”. I guess that term only relates to families who have a good income then. Low income families don’t work hard enough obviously. I have met people who really believe that too, the philosophy being that if you work hard enough you too could be a CEO. I’d love to see those people laying block paving for a living and then tell me its not hard work.
This is all an excuse for euro-sceptics to blame Europe for all our financial ills and for right wing extremists to blame immigration for everything bar the toaster breaking (although that might be a terror attack from them muslamic ray guns). It’s such a non argument, money goes around and around, we pay Europe and get most of it back. Farmers are better off in Europe too. As one of our last production industries we should cherish it.
Our leaders need to stop looking everywhere else for answers or blame and start taking responsibility and being honest with us. They work for us not the other way round. We should all be more engaged too. Also with the current crop of government I feel (this sticks in my throat a bit) safer knowing that there is a group of unelected officials providing a sort of check on their powers.
It’s interesting to note that the people who are leading the Brexit campaign are not in favour of the NHS or public funding. In fact, some of them have actively lobbied for privatisation.
As John Major said last weekend, what makes you think the money we’d recoup from Brussels is going to be in the safe hands of the Brexit leaders if we left – that it really would be redirected towards the public organisations that need it?
That £350m figure a week is utter tosh – it doesn’t just disappear into a European vacuum with no return. The fact is that we already recoup a lot from the EU. In pushing that figure, Brexit conveniently fails to mention the actual money and support for business that flows back *into* the UK from the EU: the subsidies, grants and benefits *we* receive from being a member, including free trade agreements, farming subsidies, international cross-border crime protection, the free movement of goods and people, including residency for *us* to live and work abroad too.
Before suggesting that our public organisations would benefit from all this EU money we’re supposed to throwing down the drain, those who are falling for Brexit propaganda should stop for a moment and educate themselves. Much of the Brexit agenda is founded on lies, damned lies and (false) statistics – including the suggestion that Turkey is on the brink of being accepted into the EU. It isn’t, and hasn’t been for the best part of 25 years. It will not be accepted for some considerable time until it can satisfy the necessary requirements for entry, including economic parity and human rights.
I think those who supported Brexit would take a different view if they understood what the EU actually does for us – and the amount of hassle and loss we’d experience both as a nation, and as individuals and families, if we left.
In my mind, the most significant part of the debate is all about immigration. The UK is ambivalent about immigration: always wanting to poach the highly skilled migrants from all over the world including the less developed world on the one hand, wanting to fill UK universities with overseas students who pay a massive premium for a UK graduate education and wanting overseas investors to plough money into the UK economy and bail out failing sectors of industry – but at the same time not wanting undesirable, low skilled and unskilled migrants. However, there were times in recent history when the UK has wanted overseas nationals to come and live and work here and make a contribution to the UK economy largely because it is unable to persuade the indigenous population that there is virtue in doing low skilled and unskilled work. And talk of a points based system like the Australians or Canadians is a red herring. There already is a points based system. Along with the existing immigration rules and various Byzantine regulations it just doesn’t work very well and, of course, doesn’t keep EU nationals out. Instead of pulling up the drawbridge, more Brits should take advantage of the freedom of movement we all have as EU citizens. Why not go and live and work and study abroad?!
The idea that money will be saved by exiting the EU is nonsense. Anyone who manages a simple household budget knows that when you stop spending money in one area and start believing you’ll have savings, it soon disappears down another financial sinkhole. Saving £350 million a week is of no consequence to me because there’s not one government or political party in modern history that has ever made looking after me (a single, solvent, professional, black woman with no children) its priority.
For purely emotional reasons, I’m with the Remain camp. The UK has nothing to gain by going it alone in the big, wide world. The days of Empire are long gone. Britain is a tiny country that punches above its weight. Outside of the EU it will not command the attention of the other G8 countries. Having said that, I reckon the other EU countries are a bit sick of the UK not being able to make up its mind about whether it wants to be part of the union or not and wanting exceptions to the rules of “the club”.
I’d rather be in than out without having any sound arguments to support my position. I’m not sure I want to be in some isolationist group with Switzerland, Norway and Iceland …
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