Originally posted by @Rallyboy
It’s nearly decision time…
Though facts are difficult to pin down on this issue I can see very few benefits to leaving.
The immigration argument just doesn’t stack up, the trade argument has huge holes and the end result of leaving could be an even more right wing UK government with even less love of the NHS and the poor.
I’ve never prosecuted this argument on immigration. I’m a product of it myself, have benefited it from myself, not just on account of being here, but also the benefits of other people coming here. It has been a more interesting place. I get zero shit for being Southern up North anymore.
That’s not to say everything is tickety boo. There are huge capacity considerations that need to be addressed, public services mostly, that are not being addressed.
That’s not the immigrant’s fault. I have said time and time again that people should be looking up, instead of sideways, when considering the negative issues of immigration. Most of this could be solved with additional infrastructure funding, commensurate with the level of demand we face.
No-one really wants to put a number on that demand, because if we did, we’d have even more people going for Brexit.
I’m proudly English, but we are a small country and we need friends.
I’m struggling to see why life would improve with openly uncooperative neighbours and a less stable economy.
First, if it’s your contention that our EU friends and neighbours are going to stop trading with us, I have a couple of questions.
They sell more to us than we do to them. Germany, who had their finance minister state this week that the UK wouldn’t have access to the single market if we left. France’s commercial minister made similar statements. In case you haven’t noticed, those are threats.
I don’t like being threatened, but I especially don’t like being collectively threatened or punished, but at least its good that we find out that the EU is prepared to threaten us if we fail their failing club. Prepared to actually do it? We’ll see.
Finally, the point on financial stability only really works if you ignore reality since 2008. Let’s not forget that we back then, we had to pour 45Bn of public money & nationalise banks to save the whole system. Then consider the 5bn here or there that we lent to Ireland to keep them out of the shit during the last Eurozone crisis, or the indifferent inhumanity that was dictated in Greece, a member of their club.
This argument is as much down to individual personality as it is ideology. I flatly reject the form of governance the EU has asked us to sign up to, the one it is bullying us into rubber-stamping.
I’ll leave you with two final questions.
Who the fuck, given a blank slate, decides that a functional dictatorship (which we’ve already seen in action) is an appropriate form of governance for 500m people in 2006?
Whatever gave you the impression the EU economy was stable?
