Oink

They might of had one in 1975.

orly

Not sure how much "I" benefited from the EU. In Canada I earn more, pay less tax, and have a superior quality of life to the country I left. Canada appears to be just as prosperous as the UK but without the GBP270 per second price tag for "Club Membership".

There is no net benefit to the UK being in the EU. I'm unconvinced by talk of "workers rights" and the like as if everyone worked 80 hour weeks for 20 quid while the factory boss laughed his way to the bank before the EU existed.

Now there is a real hint at a possible exit you see the likes of Merkel suddenly softening their tone. She knows as well as anyone who'll pick up the tab if the UK walk...it'll be the Germans and the likes of the Netherlands. The French will always gripe because they fork out a fortune for the "UK Correction".

Given that none of the above can afford more...expect a meltdown if major players start leaving. The UK definitely fits this as it contributes about 10% of the budget for the EU. Good luck magically replacing that with ease. I suspect this is part of the reason for Cameron delaying the "referendum". As the EU continues to weaken he'll either be able to extract more and more concessions from the others hoping to keep the club together or, if it nose dives, he offers the exit. Carrying the entire southern portion of the continent on perpetual life support is untenable. It will fail.

The reality is most people in the UK want precisely what they initially had - Back to the EFTA.

Novocastrian

There is. It's called NAFTA.

$75 million per day is $27.4billion per year. The actual UK contribution is 11 billion sterling per year (roughly $17b). Do check your facts somewhere better than the Daily Fail.

Novocastrian

Quite correct and quite important.


Actually it's a question of whether Britain has any power to influence EU policy or whether like other (non member) EEA nations, Britain would simply have to follow directives whatever.

Complete disengagement from Europe is unimaginable and would be a complete disaster.

F**k Cameron and the Tory twats.

Novocastrian

You're not very good at maths are you? 270GBP per second is 233.3 billion GBP per year. That's about twice the total EU annual budget and since Germany, France, Italy in that order contribute a good deal more than the UK there may be a flaw in your reasoning.

JAJ

Outside the EU and the EEA, there would be no more European directives over the United Kingdom. Britain would deal with the country of Europe like any other foreign country.

Trade would be governed by World Trade Organization rules (both the U.K. and EU being members) and any bilateral agreements reached between British and European authorities.

JAJ

Except that it also obliges the United Kingdom to "look after" any other European country citizen who chooses to move to the United Kingdom.

A price well worth paying - or not?



Import tariffs are not all that significant these days, under the World Trade Organization. As for the rest, it's all something that an independent Britain could still freely legislate for if it wished.

cheeky_monkey

As much as the French hate to admit it the EU needs the UK...Far more than the likes of Greece or any of those eastern European nations etc etc..the UK needs to break up that cosy Franco-German alliance within its structure and force change from within.

Almost Canadian

For those that wish to live in other EU countries from time to time: absolutely; for those that never venture 10 miles from where they were born: definitely not


But it didn't. It was forced to by the legislation enacted by the EU.

Almost Canadian

I don't know of your background, but if you had lived in the UK at any time during the past 20 years, you would have almost certainly benefitted from legislation passed by the EU.

As I am sure you must appreciate, taxation in the UK is determined solely by the UK government. The EU has no say about that particular issue.

Prior to the EU essentially you had the benefit of the Factories Act and some common law. The EU changed that in a huge way. It has affected your work like whether you realise it did or not.

I accept that the UK is an important part of the EU and that the EU would be affected if the UK left. The EU is also an important part of life in the UK, and the UK would be massively affected if it left the EU.

If you were a business person in the UK that exported to or imported goods from the EU you would almost certainly be glad that the UK is part of the EU.

Unfortunately, most of the electorate in the UK have little real idea how the EU affects most aspects of their everyday lives. They read incorrect media stories which talk about how the EU banned "straight" bananas, or how everything is controlled by Brussels. For example, please provide us with, let's say, 4 examples of the EU's involvement that adversely affected your life while in the UK and provide your suggestion as to how the UK government would have dealt with it had it not been part of the EU.

Hawk13

Get out

Blow-up the Chunnel

Rebuild the Navy

Take over the world

Just kidding and rather than restate what has already been said - agree with Almost Canadian.

Alan2005

My 2c. The EU is good: free movement of goods and people; standardization and regulation are generally more positive then negative. The euro, however, is a total ****ing disaster and should be avoided.

Cape Blue

Thank god for Gordon Brown eh? hehehe

Actually I can see the positives of a single currency, but the reality is that it would also need a single government and some "regions" (i.e. countries) would have to suck-up the wrong interest rates for their economy - which would not be acceptable and would cause some of the problems we are seeing now (inability for the currency to weaken)

Mikeypm

+1

I think the pros outweigh the cons and agree the euro should be avoided at all costs

Shard

Not that it would concern many of you in Expat land, but the there is also the issue that dare not speak its name: intra-EU immigration. Not having any say in how widely the floodgates are set are to many, a concern about ongoing EU membership.