MoneySaving Poll: Should the UK remain a member of the European Union?

It is impossible for someone who has not already got fixed views to answer this question because it does not spell out the alternative. If pulling out means we are frozen out of trading with the EU most people would think we have to remain in. If the alternative is that we stay in the Single Market, like Norway, and keep all the trade benefits but retain our sovereignty and independence and save the billions that we pay into the EU then it is hard to think of any reason to stay in. And there are other possibilities between these two positions. The referendum question should be "Do you agree that the UK should give the two years notice required to leave the EU, and spend the next two years negotiating a trade deal to replace full membership?".

Also where have all our jobs gone?

We used to have a lot of jobs - they have disappeared, my son has never had a job - he's 23 and cannot find one.

Get us out of this big mistake.

It just makes the rich richer - look at how much money £millionaire landowners get, more £millions. Ridiculous. Iain Duncan-Smith's rich relatives that he lives with in a mansion, rent free, are benefitting from this.

He's busy stopping children from getting enough to eat, stopping ex army veteran's benefits resulting in their starving to death, stopping families from being able to survive, being forced to use food banks. What sort of person does this? A sociopath/psychopath - stop voting the 1% in to rule over us.

happyinflorida wrote: »

Also where have all our jobs gone?

We used to have a lot of jobs - they have disappeared, my son has never had a job - he's 23 and cannot find one.

Get us out of this big mistake.

It just makes the rich richer - look at how much money £millionaire landowners get, more £millions. Ridiculous. Iain Duncan-Smith's rich relatives that he lives with in a mansion, rent free, are benefitting from this.

He's busy stopping children from getting enough to eat, stopping ex army veteran's benefits resulting in their starving to death, stopping families from being able to survive, being forced to use food banks. What sort of person does this? A sociopath/psychopath - stop voting the 1% in to rule over us.

We have high levels of employment, far better than most of the EU.

When discussing the issue of the EU I usually simply ask "give me one reason why we should stay in?"
For me (as a wiser? 61 year old fart) there are nothing but negatives:
The Common Agricultural Policy (a disaster)
The Common Fisheries Policy (everyone else fishing our waters)
Immigration (free movement of labour means we can do nothing about the millions coming to the EU - yes millions - 4 million in the last decade)
Trade - the UK is the biggest market for other EU countries' goods - the forecast is that by the end of this decade the UK will only export 15% of its goods to EU countries. Do we really think that the Germans will stop selling us Audis, Mercs and BMWs if we pull out? I don't think so.
Stupid rules. OK some of the legislation is fine - but limiting vacuum cleaners to 1600w and banning incandescent lightbulbs?!
Overblown Human Rights Legislation. The EU Convention on Human Rights preventing us expelling terrorists.
Legislation on emissions which have resulted in massive increases in energy costs - which in turn have resulted in 30,000 deaths of the elderly from hypothermia every year.
I could go on.
We are not like Norway and will not (as they do) still have to comply with many EU rules even as a non member. They are a country of only 5 million people and will always be the weaker partner. We are a country of 60 million people. If we pull out we will still trade in exactly the same way with the EU as we always have - because the balance of trading "power" is with us. We will still holiday in Europe ..... we will still be "Europeans" because we are still physically IN Europe. We just won't be hidebound be thousands of ludicrous laws and regulations - many of which work against our best interests. We will be able to fish in our own waters and catch the fish that the Spaniards and French and others have been "entitled" to - and the levels of fish stocks will probably be allowed to recover.
Any positives anyone?

happyinflorida wrote: »

Also where have all our jobs gone?

We used to have a lot of jobs - they have disappeared, my son has never had a job - he's 23 and cannot find one.

They haven't gone. There are more people in work in the UK than there have been since records started. There were an additional 473,000 private sector jobs created in the last three months of last year taking total employment to 30.2 million even with a public sector decrease of 159,000 mostly due to Royal Mail jobs being reclassified as private sector.

On reason why employment is rising faster than unemployment is falling is an increasing population, with all the benefits that brings in the form of more economic activity and lower per-person tax rates as shared costs are spread among more workers. If you are inclined to blame immigration for this, there's a demographic cycle in UK children entering the workforce and this will continue for around ten more years as the rest work through the school system. You can see this reported as schools complaining about lack of resources to deal with the increase.