Would you like the UK out of the European Union?

Norfolk_Jim

I do not want to be part of a United States of Europe. The current EEC is just a Socialist pipe dream to create another Socialist mega state and it will all end in tears.
To be part of a trading area, now that I'm ok about. And if some EEC countries want to merge into bigger units over time, evolve towards a USE then fine too - Benelux, Austr Germania, Sportugal, Scandinavia, fine and maybe workable over time,
Forcing the UK to become a county of Belgium - No, not ok. Our parliament is toothless - it just exists to enact EECs latest stupid idea to ban prawn cocktail flavour crisps as they contain the word !!!! in them and also provide a new home for half of Eastern Europe - in which we have no say (I've no problem with hard working east Europeans, just Albanian crime syndicates and the like) - its on a par with the local council announcing all and sundry can move into my house and punishing me if I kick up a fuss about it - demonizing me as a racist! No, let me at least have a democratic vote about if I want to buy into that or not and if the majority do then I can accept it as the democratic process in action if nothing else.

Conrad

pqrdef wrote: »

Oh why don't we just tow the UK out to the middle of the Atlantic. And then sink it.

Clearly most people don't care about anything except money - and yet strangely, those same people are quite happy to commit financial suicide.

You are implying any sole trading nation such as Japan, S Korea, Taiwan or Australia have had it:rotfl:

What utter bafoonishness

CLAPTON

pqrdef wrote: »

Yes. This country punches way above its weight. But many people have no idea how or why that is. They seem to think it's just our natural superiority, and so it will continue whatever we do. It won't.

so which one do you want to opt to join
oceania, eurasia or eastasia?

Conrad

pqrdef wrote: »

Yes. This country punches way above its weight. But many people have no idea how or why that is. They seem to think it's just our natural superiority, and so it will continue whatever we do. It won't.

I don't think it's about feeling superior, it's about knowing we can perfectly well trade with the rest of the world just like Japan et al do.

This notion that big is beautiful, is the politics of the short sighted.

Conrad

CLAPTON wrote: »

so which one do you want to opt to join
oceania, eurasia or eastasia?

Nations such as Taiwan and S Korea pretty much act as sole agents. I don't mind loose cross border trading arrangemnts, but that is all.

People are so scarred of being a small independant nation, yet I see it as a very positive attribute to bme small and autonomous.

S Korea went from dirt poor to a top tier nation within a few dacades. This notion we need to all be in one big pram, is infantile.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

As always with polls of this nature, a simple yes or no can mask a huge range of opinion.

If the choices more realistically reflected the options, the answers may well be different.

For example....

-Stay in the EU in it's current form and resist further integration?

-Stay in the EU and proceed with more integration?

-Stay in the EU but reclaim more powers for Britain?

-Stay in the EU only to the extent of a free trade and free movement agreement?

-Leave the EU completely, and lose the common market and automatic right to travel/live/work anywhere in Europe?

-Leave the EU and try to negotiate a free trade agreement with Europe?

All of the options have pros and cons.... many of the options also have serious risks for the UK economy.

When you explain to people the benefits, the dangers, the risks, and the choices, the responses become far more nuanced than if you ask a simple yes or no question that many people haven't really thought through.

chewmylegoff

EU membership is a big ideological issue for a lot of people, with one side of the argument claiming that we'd be a pariah state with no economy if we weren't a member, and others seeking to blame the EU for everything - if only we could leave everything would be perfect again, like before....


My view is that the reality is that it wouldn't make much of a difference to anything if we left, which is as good as an argument for staying in as any, if you ask me.

Sampong

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

-Leave the EU completely, and lose the common market and automatic right to travel/live/work anywhere in Europe?

Sure yeah - fantastic benefit that one is, I have the right to go and work in Poland if I wish for a fraction of the wages in the UK.

-Leave the EU and try to negotiate a free trade agreement with Europe?

That could easily be done. Besides, the EU puts severe restrictions on our ability globally.

.

When you explain to people the [STRIKE]benefits[/STRIKE] lies, the [STRIKE]dangers[/STRIKE] scary lies, the [STRIKE]risks[/STRIKE] more scary lies, and [STRIKE]the choices[/STRIKE], the fact that you don't get a lot of choices in the EU the responses become far more nuanced than if you ask a simple yes or no question that many people haven't really thought through.

Fixed that for you.

Conrad

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

-Leave the EU completely, and lose the common market and automatic right to travel/live/work anywhere in Europe?

Morocco is close to signing a free trade agreement with Europe, such things are more than doable.


I want to re - word your question above;

-Leave the EU completely, lose the common market and automatic right to travel and live, BUT keep billions of pounds, have local full autonomy and trade with the world as does Japan.


Why are we soooo afraid of localism and trading alone just as plenty of other nations manage? 57% of key inventions come from this nation for heavens sake.

pqrdef

Conrad wrote: »

You are implying any sole trading nation such as Japan, S Korea, Taiwan or Australia have had it

No need to be over-impressed by countries like those, because as we keep seeing, an export-based economy is an aberration that can't last.

The writing is already on the wall. Nothing like a massive home market when it comes to keeping down unit production costs.