Again i agree, I think the Scandanavian countries, becuase they all have small populations are more mindful and protective of what they have, and dont want outside meddlers, were back to the fact that the EU should never have been more than a trading block, when you start creating a currency and laws to merge economies of countries that have vastly different cultures and mindsets there is obviously going to be big issues, (Greece being an obvious one) you dont have to be an ecomomist to work that one out, pretty much common sense....or am i over simplifying it?

Although the murder of Jo Cox is a really terrible tradedgy, its strange why this should have a bearing on how people are going to vote, this guy was a complete psychopath and his opinion isnt linked to anyone or anything of sound mind.

That's the principle benefit of a BREXIT, imho.

Good points Pizzawheel.

BritParis are you Leave? I assumed you would be Remain from earlier interactions (and your profile name).

Magnum - Jo Cox murder might generate a small sympathy vote amongst some if the undecided, but I think the larger effect was to disrupt the Brexit momentum of last week, and remind the public of the nastiness of some of the anti-immigrant rhetoric.

Boris in the radio this morning. Slightly embarrassing after the deluge of expert, institutional, business and even celebrity support of Remain he can only manage to wheel out the same two high profile Leave people as two months ago (JCB guy and James Dyson).

Nevertheless, Joe Public is still very anti-EU and not interested in reasoned argument so the referendum result is still anyone's guess.

Yeah it's a disaffected public that's been given a juicy opportunity to kick the elite politicos in the gonads and boy are they taking a run up.

Very similar to whats fuelling Trump imho.

Yes.

An LBC survey revealed that 45% of Leave voters believe the referendum is "rigged" compared to 10% of Remain voters. Plenty of paranoia out there.

According to The World at One on Radio 4, under-the-table work by illegal immigrants costs the Treasury about 5 billion pounds a year. What with the unemployment rate you’d think the government would employ British citizens first. It just shows the utter contempt the government has for our country.

Does not compute.

I think the government stopped employing people under the table a few years ago..

Well, if it's remain then the convenient things remain...unless one disapproves of the various freedoms.

But unless Spain left instead it wouldn't change.

I don't know. Logically one would have thought the European Court would actually have ruled it discriminatory.

However, since UK Pensioners in the EU get uprated pensions, if there was no EU for the UK to be part of, then maybe those pensioners would no longer get uprating, perhaps enabling others who don't get it now to get it.

The fact there is already a 'compromise' proposal right now (uprating from forward only) suggests something might improve in or out.

Surprised we haven't had a Poll on this on the forum

Or equitably the Gov could just not uprate anybody's

That too.

Who knows, not having any pensioners in the EU to uprate might well lead to not bothering to uprate any.

Given the EU's record on referendums: 'You will keep voting until you vote right!'... why wouldn't they be paranoid?

Vast amounts of power and money hinge on this referendum, and a 'leave' vote could cause the complete collapse of the EU as other countries line up to get out. Clearly many people have a very strong incentive to ensure the British people 'vote right'.

I am quite sure the voting public will come to their senses the closer it gets to the poll.

I think that's true. So much for Brexit then.

Overall I would say that's a pretty accurate summary. One of the reasons that the Nordic countries have such a great welfare systems is that they have a relatively small and, until recently, homogeneous population. It's easier to pay into a pot for the collective good when they look, talk and act like you. It's harder when a population becomes larger and more diverse.

On the Greek economy, they, like Spain and Italy, are hamstrung by being tied to the Euro. They cannot devalue their currencies to stabilise their economics and so we see shockingly high levels of unemployment. The rest of the Eurozone is then being asked to carry the can which Western Europe is becoming increasingly more resentful of which comes back to the point I was making in the paragraph above; a German is likely to be happy to pay for another German's welfare but is the sense of European citizenship and solidarity strong enough for he or she to be happy about doing the same for their Greek counterpart? I would say the strain is starting to show.

I was Remain, if for no other reason than to deny the SNP another run at an independence referendum, but having done my own research on the alternative options the UK could pursue to remain within the single market but discarding the political baggage that comes with it, I'm now leaning towards Leave. For what it's worth I think Remain will now win it so my potential Leave vote won't do much.

In terms of my comments on the forum I'm more concerned with the way the debate has been mishandled and huge amount of disinformation out there. Whichever way the vote goes the electorate won't be making a informed decision.