I have just spent 10 minutes reading the government leaflet
on why I should vote to remain in the EU.
Probably a selfish view to take but I looked at the arguments from my
personal point of view and the future of my grandchildren.
I honestly don’t believe that whether the UK joins the euro or not will
have a huge impact on us, as ordinary people, nor would the government’s
commitment to reduce EU red tape.
I think one of the worrying things about staying is that EU
law overrules UK
law in a conflict between national law and EU law. Scary!
I assume that we are still able to trade with the EU, even
if we are not a member but how it would affect the many UK companies which are already
owned by France, Germany etc, I don’t know.
The government say that by leaving the EU there would be a
risk of higher prices of some household goods and would damage living
standards. In a country where there is
supposedly “child poverty” already and food banks, how much worse can it get?
The government predicts 10 years of uncertainty if we leave
the EU. Again, it can’t be much worse
than the uncertainty we have lived through over the last 10 years and surely
there would be some “job creation” for people who would have to “unpick” the
relationship with the EU and renegotiate with countries around the world.
On immigration, which seems to be a big issue particularly
on the question of benefits, the government say that new migrants “will not
have full access to certain benefits until they have worked here for up to four
years.” I think “full” is the operative
word here. I am confused as I understood
that child benefit is paid to anyone, migrant or otherwise, if he or she has a
child. A good incentive to come over to
the UK
to have a child? – I don’t know.
With more countries, such as Turkey,
Serbia, Albania under
consideration for membership, I fear that this island will sink!
We as a country pay around £350M a week to the EU
budget! The government says that what
this country gets back in “opportunities, job creation and economic security”
far outweighs this cost! I would like to
see some statistics on that!
I was in favour of joining the Common Market back in the
early 1970’s. However, the Common Market
has evolved into something which controls our decisions more and more and
restricts trade with countries such as Australia
and the USA.
I need to see some more arguments for/against before I
decide but I just hope everyone will vote in this referendum for the sake of
their future and that of future generations.