"Get Britain Out of the EU" says the Daily Express Special Edition

[Lady Whistledown]

I would guess that none of us know anything like as much as we'd need to in order to make an educated decision on the issue.

The loyal readers of the Daily Express, on the other hand, will presumably spend a considerable time debating the pros and cons, as featured in numerous "Homosexual Asylum Seeking Benefit Cheat Gypsy Driver Knocks Down & Kills Child, 8: Now Demands UK Taxpayers Fund Sex Swap Op In Prison" headlines.

They will carefully weigh up all the advantages (none) and disadvantages (everything) of being in Europe, and ultimately make a carefully reasoned decision based on the time-honoured question: What Would Diana Do?

 

[Alex Alex Dawson oo! oo!]

Anyone here work for GSK? Time to dust off all those plans again guys and get the non-UK back up manufacturing sites on stream.

 

[Brovion]

or option the thrid way, return to the EEC model originally signed up for. if straight in or out, would have to be out.

Pretty much my view too. In the 1975 referendum I remember campaigning for a group called YES (Young European Socialists). How we laughed at the 'dinosaur left' of Tony Benn and the Trades Unions who opposed our membership of what they called a 'capitalist club'. We knew better. We knew that Europe was the way forward, Europe was the future. Ich bin ein European. What a f***ing gullible cretin I was.

How does the song go? "Won't get fooled again!" Death to the E.U.!

 

[Westdene Seagull]

I would vote out. We ( the voters ) agreed to join a trading block NOT a political union. All the way through our political masters have hidden the true agenda of the EU and signed us up to treaties with us having no say. I don't buy the arguement that we'd be at risk from a trading perspective - Switzerland seems to do very well without being a signed up member of the EU. Let's not forget that the EU hasn't had a properly audited set of accounts for many many years - I wonder why that could be ?

 

[bazbha]

So let me get this straight. Anyone who wants to leave the EU & maybe dares to read the Express must be ridiculed wth comments about "What would Diana do"? I don't read the Express so maybe they do go on about Diana all the time but I don't get what that has to do wth this discussion. As a few people have mentioned its was initially meant to be just about trade which I would agree with. But given the choice definitely out of it ASAP.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Who on here actually knows in any great detail what the benefits and disadvantages are to being in the EU though? I certainly don't.

I do know that there are certain sectors of industry that are very well subsidised by EU money. There are regeneration schemes in plenty of places that have received money from Europe too. Don't ask me for examples, I'm not that clued up, but there is certainly plenty of money washing around from Europe. How much would we stand to lose if we were to pull out because the majority got swept up in the hysteria of a few Express/Mail/Sun headlines? I'd certainly want to find that out before I was suckered into a straight "go it alone" vote.

Plus I do rather like it that I can just swan off pretty much anywhere in Europe without a single person checking my passport, demanding a visa, or making me queue up for hours to be quizzed by a grim-faced border official.

 

[El Presidente]

The trade benefits and jobs that are created as a result far outweigh the contribution made by the Exchequer.

The CAP is a cheats charter, and won't be solved as there are too many vested interests (including many wealthy landowners here in the UK), but overall it has done more good than harm.

 

[El Presidente]

and little Maddie

True, if we hadn't been in the EU her parents might have chosen somewhere else to go on holiday that Portugal, and she would still be alive.

 

[Hunting 784561]

True, if we hadn't been in the EU her parents might have chosen somewhere else to go on holiday that Portugal, and she would still be alive.

I curse Johnny Foreigner

 

[DerbyGull]

Spotted a "Special Edition" of the Daily Express with this lovely headline, and it made me think... "I wonder what the good people of NSC would do if there was a referendum on this today".

So - given that we probably need something to distract us from SheepShaggerGate... here's a poll to keep everyone busy.

How would you vote?

Tat's all a bit too patriotic for me. I mean a crusader on the front page? what is that supposed to mean to me?

Anyway regarding the in or out business, i would have to sit down and look at both sides of the argument before coming to a conclusion. I am in the dark as to which is best for the uk but i am usually inclined to listen to 'the left' over 'the right', so would marginally say IN.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

So let me get this straight. Anyone who wants to leave the EU & maybe dares to read the Express must be ridiculed wth comments about "What would Diana do"? I don't read the Express so maybe they do go on about Diana all the time but I don't get what that has to do wth this discussion.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

I do know that there are certain sectors of industry that are very well subsidised by EU money. There are regeneration schemes in plenty of places that have received money from Europe too. Don't ask me for examples, I'm not that clued up, but there is certainly plenty of money washing around from Europe. How much would we stand to lose if we were to pull out because the majority got swept up in the hysteria of a few Express/Mail/Sun headlines? I'd certainly want to find that out before I was suckered into a straight "go it alone" vote.

Plus I do rather like it that I can just swan off pretty much anywhere in Europe without a single person checking my passport, demanding a visa, or making me queue up for hours to be quizzed by a grim-faced border official.

It's rough and based on 2007 figures, but approx £12.5b we pay to the EU per year. We get back through grants, rebates etc about £4.5b. I believe our contributions have increased somewhat since then while the money back has reduced.

 

[adrian29uk]

Get out of the EU
Will it really effect jobs and trade, I don't think it will. It will allow us to stop the immigration from the EU and Non EU, because it is a problem for us, as it is for the rest of Europe. However we are the destination of choice for a lot of people.

Stay in the EU
I don't think anything will change. If Turkey joins the EU people wont be heading to France, Italy, Spain, they will be heading to Germany and the UK, can we really afford this. For example schools, hospitals, jobs.

I think after what I have seen in the last 10 years its rubbish and I want us out.

 

[beorhthelm]

I do know that there are certain sectors of industry that are very well subsidised by EU money. There are regeneration schemes in plenty of places that have received money from Europe too.

we are net contributors to the funding of the EU, so we could fund all those subsidies and schemes ourselfs directly. meanwhile we would not have to pay for things like Portugese farmers to begin planting tobacco. we wouldnt have to pay for offices and running an unelected commission that makes all the decision, while also paying for seperate offices and running of an elected parliament that has no powers. for me its the hypocrisy of the EU that irks the most.

you can swan around europe due to thier lack of border controls, following the Schengen Agreement which we are not part of, and this would continue regardless of our EU status.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

It's rough and based on 2007 figures, but approx £12.5b we pay to the EU per year. We get back through grants, rebates etc about £4.5b. I believe our contributions have increased somewhat since then while the money back has reduced.

What do we pay them for? Genuine question, I have absolutely no idea!

Presumably some of the benefits to membership are intangible, or more difficult to quantify, in terms of (say) the impact on UK business of being part of a trade agreement? Unless you're an economics boffin, of course, which I most definitely am not.

 

[Triggaaar]

I don't see the point of being part of the EU, we pay a fortune to be part of it, only for them to pass stupid laws that we have to obey. I'm not really a political person, so I my feelings probably are not 100% clear.

The truth is that very few of us know the facts, because it's never been fully explained in an unbiased way. We know that there are massive trade benefits to be part of the EU, and we know that we get pushed around too much and pay for things we probably shouldn't. It's finding the right balance and having a smart and strong government to deal with it (oops).

I assume the pros outway the costs of being part of the EU, but I'm guessing.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

The truth is that very few of us know the facts, because it's never been fully explained in an unbiased way. We know that there are massive trade benefits to be part of the EU, and we know that we get pushed around too much and pay for things we probably shouldn't. It's finding the right balance and having a smart and strong government to deal with it (oops).

Word.

 

[El Presidente]

What do we pay them for? Genuine question, I have absolutely no idea!

Presumably some of the benefits to membership are intangible, or more difficult to quantify, in terms of (say) the impact on UK business of being part of a trade agreement? Unless you're an economics boffin, of course, which I most definitely am not.

The payments are mainly for the CAP and regeneration projects elsewhere in the EU.

I (and you) can (and do) work anywhere in the EU without needing a visa, which benefits me personally, and the UK as a whole as I pay taxes on these earnings. I have little time for the bureaucrats in Brussels, who are a self serving lot, but no better or worse than our clowns at Westminster.

 

[User removed 4]

and little Maddie

You utter wankstain.

 

[Simster]

My feelings on the EU are more or less exactly the same as El Pres's.


(But only because Diana isn't here to offer her opinion)