Originally Posted by Chris
Where to start, where to start ...
1. Plenty of Brits lived in Spain prior to 1973. Plenty of Brits live happily in countries all over the world who are not members of the EU. This is so far from being any kind of a problem, it's laughable that any Remainer would even bring it up. Makes you wonder whether even they know they're clutching at straws. Actually not true. At time, Spain was still under the Franco regime. I will give you a fact. If you own a property in Spain and rent it out (around 200,000 Brits do this), then you can currently deduct all the running costs including mortgage interest and you pay 19% tax on the rest. Those who own from outside the EU, have to pay 22% tax on all income. One immediate impact. Will the Brits sell the properties? Possibly? Will it make holidays more expensive? More than likely.
2. Border control arrangements between the UK and France are a bilateral arrangement and are nothing to do with the EU. Regardless of what any middle-ranking French politician may say, there is no legal, technical reason for that agreement to change should the UK exit the EU. Again I ask. Do you know that for definite?
3. The European Arrest Warrant does not make it any easier or harder for us to deport anyone. On the other hand, our membership of the EU *does* make it rather harder for us to permanently exclude any EU citizen from our territory. Accepted. But do the benefits outweigh the disadvantages
4. That's a pretty naff attempt at using percentages to mask the truth. Here's a more prescient statistic for you. The UK imports around €90 billion from Germany each year. It exports about €40 billion of goods to Germany. The UK is Germany's third-biggest export destination after the USA and France. Angela Merkel, BMW and VW are not going to allow trade barriers to upset that. Actually my facts are true. Just to put your figures into perspective, that €90 billion in 2015 was actually €89.3 billion (love the rounding) against total exports of €1,196 billion - or 7.4% of German exports. I'll stick with my original point that we are better off in the world's biggest free trade union than out of it.
5. The European food hygiene regulations affected every small B&B in Britain. Previously it was only necessary to register as a food business and submit to inspection if your establishment was beyond a certain size; now, even if you only operate two rooms, for six months of the year, you have to register and your local council has to bear the expense of inspecting you. This entirely disproportionate rule, which superseded UK regulations that were far more reasonable, affects me, as an operator of a small B&B, and every user of a food business in my local authority area when the inspector is wasting his time in my family kitchen instead of in the back room of any other food establishment (such as a chippy or chinese takeaway) where there are exponentially more customers in any given week. How's that for starters? So as a consumer who may visit your premises, it is a bad thing that I know that you do not have rats running around your kitchens?
6. This is not going to happen - get real.Of course they will still want to trade with UK. But at what cost to us. Again I say, who will have the stronger negotiating hand when it comes to bargaining times. Ant the EU love to do that - and it takes them forever as we know. How long before we enter a trade deal with them? 1 year, 2 years, 10 years? You tell me.
7. The point is to re-gain control of immigration policy. Once we achieve that, we can allow people in according to the needs of our economy. Leaving the EU will not make on iota of a difference on immigration policy.
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