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Originally Posted by Ignitionnet
Evidence for that it would be a disaster please.
It may certainly harm big business, however this may also be more than offset by increasing the competitiveness of small businesses - purely domestic businesses will no longer have to adhere to the same standards as those larger businesses exporting to the EU, with extensive legal departments to ensure they adhere to the mass of red tape.
I can find you businessmen who work in more competitive industries and believe that the impact of Brexit would be neutral at worst to their own operations.
EDIT: You can use the CBI as an example if you like, but do bear in mind that of their alleged 190,000 members some 55,000 are farmers who are members of the NFU, which is affiliated to the CBI. If I say Common Agricultural Policy does that ring any alarm bells as far as their bias may go? The NFU are just one of the affiliated trade bodies all of whose members the CBI claims for its own.
The CBI is estimated to represent no more than 2,300 actual businesses in the UK. Less than 1 in 200. In addition their own position was for EMU / the Euro and they ensured they selected the cohorts they surveyed at that time to support their own position. That turned out well. There are plenty of indications they are doing the same again regarding Brexit.
We desperately either need to dive head-long into integration or to leave. The status quo won't do. There is no desire for change of the status quo, the desire is for ever-closer union and that's not changing. There's considerable evidence that ever-closer union isn't going to be viable and it's growing on a weekly basis - see the migration farce as Germany tried to fix its demographic problems in one fell swoop, ended up overwhelmed, and is now trying to strong-arm the rest of the EU to compensate for its mistake.
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Given the slow down in world economies, especially the Asian and South American zones I do not see that many opportunities for bilateral trade deals for the UK At least in the EU we have the ability to punch above our weight in acquiring trade arrangements and contracts. UKIP particularly are incoherent over this, seeming happy to cut aid to those very countries we will need to trade with.
Trade is recovering within the EU, albeit slowly, and rather more quickly in the US. I much rather we attracted that trade with a combination of EU clout and our own British flair.
I am also concerned that those companies and areas of manufacture that require coordination across borders within the EU will migrate into the membership zone if we leave. I am thinking of aerospace manufactures and the car industry, for example, where components and sections are manufactured here and exported for assembly, or vice-versa. This is enabled by reduced paperwork and non-existent duties. Most north European countries are capable of manufacturing and assembling. Our home skills and expertise only have an edge because we are in the EU trading area.
I agree that the ultimate solution is total unification, as in the USA. However, this shouldn't happen until populations and states are ready for it and want it. This may never happen. I am one of those who thought the original EEC was just a capitalist club with no interest in the welfare of people or the environment. The EU is a vast improvement, in that respect, because it aims to get capitalism to deploy its acceptable face. However, as a half-way house I agree it is somewhat uncomfortable and impractical at times.