[Update] The UK votes to leave the EU

[Osem]

Originally Posted by Maggy J

How did you think Farage supported his campaigns?

Yes - the difference being that he will be quite happy to stop being an MEP and is doing a pretty good job towards that end.

The irony of him being paid by them whilst at the same time being, hopefully, instrumental in us getting out would be delicious.

Another excellent summary of the EU's failings by Daniel Hannan MEP:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...as-an-MEP.html

Our annual tribute to Brussels now stands at £18 billion a year gross. If we kept that money at home, we could give the entire country a two thirds cut in council tax. Or we could build and equip a state-of-the-art hospital every week. To put it another way, during the last Parliament, we saved £36 billion through the entire domestic cuts programme; yet, over the same period, we gave Brussels £85 billion. The EU, in other words, wiped out our austerity savings twice over.

[Osem]

Sounds like a good reason to me... ... if I needed any more reasons...

He misses out the rebate though as well as any subsidies/funds that come from the myriad of EU projects.

https://next.ft.com/content/202a60c0...d-09f7778e7377

Many Eurosceptics rage against the UK’s annual £18bn transfer to the EU. Nigel Farage, leader of the pro-Brexit UK Independence party, has claimed that being in the bloc costs Britain £55m a day — which adds up to more than £20bn a year.

But the UK’s net transfer to the EU falls far short of such claims. A rebate secured by Margaret Thatcher in 1984 emphatically reduced the bill from the headline figure. London sent £13bn to Brussels last year. Against that, the UK received £4.5bn from the EU in regional aid and agricultural subsidies, and the private sector received a further £1.4bn direct from the EU budget.

That takes the net cost of membership to about £7bn, less than half a per cent of national income — about £260 a year for each British household.

or if you don't trust the FT: https://fullfact.org/economy/our-eu-...ee-55-million/

The Out campaign are going to distort, mislead and lie to get Britain out of the EU. That behavior won't just been seen by the In campaign.

[Mr K]

All these jibes back and for are irrelevant now. Nobody is listening to either side any longer or believing anything anybody says; they are sick to death of it. Just the results of a straw lunchtime poll I did !

The result will be a pathetically low turn out and a divided country, still in the EU. The only plus of all this will be the melt down of the Tory party.

[ianch99]

Originally Posted by Chris

Another excellent summary of the EU's failings by Daniel Hannan MEP:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...as-an-MEP.html

Great example of spin over facts ..

[tweedle]

Originally Posted by Mr K

All these jibes back and for are irrelevant now. Nobody is listening to either side any longer or believing anything anybody says; they are sick to death of it. Just the results of a straw lunchtime poll I did !

The result will be a pathetically low turn out and a divided country, still in the EU. The only plus of all this will be the melt down of the Tory party.

The turnout will be high, very high from asking people I know. An the out vote will win, bookmark this. You can then remind yourself I was correct after the referendum.

[Osem]

Originally Posted by Damien

He misses out the rebate though as well as any subsidies/funds that come from the myriad of EU projects.

https://next.ft.com/content/202a60c0...d-09f7778e7377



or if you don't trust the FT: https://fullfact.org/economy/our-eu-...ee-55-million/

The Out campaign are going to distort, mislead and lie to get Britain out of the EU. That behavior won't just been seen by the In campaign.

True.

It's equally true that those wishing to keep us in have the benefit of far greater power, influence and resources than their opponents both within the UK and in the EU. As a net contributor with a sizeable trade deficit with the EU, they have plenty of '£' shaped reasons for wanting to keep us in whatever it takes. The Eurocrats would also see it as a huge slap in the face if the UK were to leave so there's yet more reasons to do what it takes to keep us in. The same is not true of the other side.

[Osem]

The director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce has been suspended over his personal views on Brexit, according to the Financial Times.

John Longworth told the BCC's annual conference on Thursday that the UK's long-term prospects could be "brighter" outside the EU.

The BCC's official line is that it will not campaign for either side as its membership is split.

The BCC said it had no comment.

The Financial Times reported the group held an emergency meeting to discuss how to reconcile the difference in views between Mr Longworth and many BCC members on EU membership.

Members were later told Mr Longworth had been temporarily suspended for breaching the group's official position of neutrality, the paper added.

Mr Longworth had described the referendum as a choice between the "devil and the deep blue sea".

One option was staying in an "essentially unreformed EU", with the other being the uncertainty of leaving, he told the conference.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35732291

[Gavin78]

So basically keep your mouth shut should you choose to vote out....I guess the men in black will be coming for me then post voting day.

[Osem]

Yes, well who in their right mind would want to get out of such a wonderful organisation in which selfless people in places like Brussels know far better than we do what we want and what we need for our own good.

Frankly anyone who'd want to leave must have a serious screw loose and require instant sectioning followed by an intensive programme of EU funded correctional therapy...

[Ramrod]

Originally Posted by Chris

Another excellent summary of the EU's failings by Daniel Hannan MEP

Excellent, needs summarising:

If the EU were just about international co-operation and trade, no one would have a problem with it. The trouble is that it regulates things that have no conceivable cross-border dimension: the power of our electrical appliances, the frequency of our bin collections, the way we open a bank account, the tax on sanitary products. Our laws should have precedence on our own territory, and we should be able to hire and fire the people who pass them.

The utter refusal to grant David Cameron better terms puts that beyond doubt. If this is how Britain, the second-largest financial contributor, is treated now, before the referendum, imagine how we’d be treated if we voted to remain.

We are the fifth-largest economy in the world, with the fourth largest military budget. We are leading members of Nato, the Council of Europe, the Commonwealth and the G7 and G20. We are one of five permanent seat-holders at the UN Security Council. How much bigger do we have to be before we can live under our own laws?

[Osem]

I'd agree with all of that.

The refusal of the EU to see any sense in spite of the copious evidence that their ideology is fatally flawed is the best possible reason for us to get out. It's time the bluff was called and in the unlikely event that the EU embarks upon a campaign which will hurt them more than it hurts us it'll only serve to show how right we were to cut them loose.

[Mr K]

Latest polling has shown a movement towards Remain. http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/

I expect this movement to continue as polling day gets closer and the risks of exit are drummed home.

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by Mr K

Latest polling has shown a movement towards Remain. http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/

I expect this movement to continue as polling day gets closer and the risks of exit are drummed home.

Its always easier to go with the safe option, neither side has done anything to convince me of the validity of their cases. So far as I'm concerned both factions should be pretty ashamed of themselves, there's millions of voters who don't know where to begin with this and all they've done is lie and scaremonger, perhaps it's because they don't truthfully know themselves how it'll turn out but don't let that get in the way of anything