Shock new poll shows most Britons now want to leave EU

[Blackleaf]

More than 100 Tory MPs could tomorrow back plans to formally bar the European Union from campaigning during the referendum on Britain's membership.

A coalition of Tory, Labour and DUP Eurosceptics are concerned that a loophole in referendum legislation means that the EU is free to invest money in public information campaigns in the run up to the referendum.

They said it would be an "outrage" if the EU is able to use British taxpayers' money to help sway the result while there is a general ban on public spending during the campaign.

Conservatives for Britain, a Eurosceptic campaign group, has emailed 115 supportive Tory MPs and urged them to back an amendment in the Commons.

It comes as it emerged that a majority of voters are ready to vote for Britain to leave the European Union, according to a shock opinion poll.

The Survation poll for The Mail on Sunday found that if a referendum was held tomorrow 51 per cent would vote to quit the EU against 49 per cent who would vote to remain.

The referendum in which the British people will get to decide whether or not Britain should quit the EU will be held by the end of 2017.

Ban EU from campaigning in referendum, 100 Tories to warn

Tory MPs warn that it will be an 'outrage' if the European Union is allowed to campaign during Britain's referendum as it calls for closure of loophole

Tory MPs want to bar the European Union from campaigning during the EU referendum Photo: Getty

By Steven Swinford, Deputy Political Editor
05 Sep 2015
The Telegraph

More than 100 Tory MPs could tomorrow back plans to formally bar the European Union from campaigning during the referendum on Britain's membership.

A coalition of Tory, Labour and DUP Eurosceptics are concerned that a loophole in referendum legislation means that the EU is free to invest money in public information campaigns in the run up to the referendum.

They said it would be an "outrage" if the EU is able to use British taxpayers' money to help sway the result while there is a general ban on public spending during the campaign.

Conservatives for Britain, a Eurosceptic campaign group, has emailed 115 supportive Tory MPs and urged them to back an amendment in the Commons.

It comes as it emerged that a majority of voters are ready to vote for Britain to leave the European Union, according to a shock opinion poll.

The Survation poll for The Mail on Sunday found that if a referendum was held tomorrow 51 per cent would vote to quit the EU against 49 per cent who would vote to remain.

The findings run counter to a string of recent polls which have consistently shown comfortable majorities in favour of staying in.

Should Britain remain a member of the EU?

EU membership Polling

Remain 49
Leave 51

SURVATION

Meanwhile it has been revealed that the government faces defeat in the Commons on Monday over the EU referendum legislation, despite a partial climbdown intended to buy off Tory rebels.

Ministers were forced to back down over rules that would have allowed the full weight of the Government to campaign to keep Britain in the EU.

But the changes did not go far enough to satisfy Tory Eurosceptics or Labour politicians, who are now preparing to combine forces on Monday to inflict a Commons defeat on the Government.

David Cameron will change the wording of the question for the EU referendum Photo: AFP/Getty Images

Up to 40 Tory rebels are preparing to join Labour and the SNP in voting for normal "purdah" rules that ban government announcements and the use of the civil service in the run up to the election.

Mr Cameron's proposals only limit the government from involvement in matters that "directly address the question of whether we should remain in the EU", which rebels say will allow ministers to make big announcements on immigration right up to polling day.

The Telegraph understands that senior Conservative MPs have held talks with the leaderships of both Labour and the SNP and will are prepared to join forces with them on Monday. They will leave their final decision, however, until the last minute.

Tory rebels will also hold a vote on barring the EU "from direct campaigning in the referendum, whether under the guise of EU law or otherwise".

During the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty in 2009, the commission infuriated politicians by launching a tender for a 1.5million public information campaign.

Those campaigning for a No vote subsequently threatened a legal challenge after 1.1million copies of a European Union booklet were distributed, costing the taxpayer £139,000.

The Commission claimed at the time it was not engaging in a publicity campaign against the EU, but was addressing the problem of a lack of public information.

However Steve Baker, a Conservative MP, said: "We are about to decide on an issue of profound constitutional importance to the UK. It would be entirely wrong for the European Union to spend our taxpayers' money trying to tell us that we should remain in the EU. It would be an outrage."

The amendment, which will be debated tomorrow, has been tabled by a Eurosceptic coalition of nine Tory MPs, three Labour MPs and two DUP MPs.

They include Owen Paterson, the former Environment Secretary, and Sir Gerald Howarth, a former defence minister, along with other eminent Tory Eurosceptics including Sir Bill Cash and Bernard Jenkin, the chairman of the public administration select committee.

It came as Conservatives for Britain published a list of its founding members and Vice Presidents, including more than 40 Conservative MPs, peers and MEPs.

The group will formally support David Cameron’s efforts to negotiate better terms for Britain’s membership of the EU in talks with other European leaders.

But the MPs behind the initiative warn that unless the Prime Minister achieves truly radical changes, they will urge the British public to vote to withdraw from the EU in the referendum that is due to be held by 2017.

Founding members include former Cabinet ministers Owen Paterson , Liam Fox and John Redwood, are among the founding members alongside five members of the new intake from the General Election in May.

Vice Presidents include politicians who served under the late Baroness Thatcher - Lord Lamont, the former Chancellor, and Lord Tebbit, the former chairman of the Conservative Party and Sir John Nott, the former defence secretary.

A spokesman for the European Commission said: "The European Commission will not be campaigning in the referendum and will not provide any money for campaigning either.

"President Juncker has repeatedly said that he wants a "fair deal with Britain" and that the Commission stands ready to work with the UK government to achieve it.

"We firmly believe that the UK is better off within the EU, and that the EU is better off with the UK as a Member."


Ban EU from campaigning in referendum, 100 Tories to warn - Telegraph

 

[DaSleeper]

Short OP....good ...

 

[darkbeaver]

The EU looks like a total failure and at the same time a total sucess in that total failure and resembles Britian in the same way only the scale marks a difference. Britian is an early economic union which you never fail to brag about. So Britian got what it practiced and perfected turned against it by a Frankenstien fish cobbled together on the continent which swallowed you and now you are just another fish.
How you expect to swim in the open sea again while clinging to the same institutions which sold you into the bigger bowl is beyond me. Of course you will have that fine fleet of aircraft carriers, some day.

 

[DaSleeper]

The only way to get out of it is to apply to become a Canadian or U.S. colony.......

 

[darkbeaver]

The only way to get out of it is to apply to become a Canadian or U.S. colony.......

You should have a look at our account book. They would all fit into the tar sands though.

 

[MHz]

More than 100 Tory MPs could tomorrow back plans to formally bar the European Union from campaigning during the referendum on Britain's membership.

Didn't what just happened in Scotland teach you anything? NA will have a quoto of zero so where ya going to go, China?

You should have a look at our account book. They would all fit into the tar sands though.

Little further east, they can settle Hudson Bay, might as well empty Japan while they are still human. With a new workforce of 50M or so the development of the new fish pond will be rapid.

We should run a lotto on if they even try to dig a basement in the granite. That development would create a demand for something like peat-moss and Canada won't have to import any from Russia as we have enough of our own. Fresh water is not an issue as sea ice can be stockpiled in the winter and the melt-water is fresh water and the streams can be left as part of the fish pond. Sewage would be hauled downwind and put on a south facing slope of a hill and over a few seasons it seals the cracks in the rock so it can hold water so expansion can go on for a few 100 years and the fish are in protected waters so pirates cannot steal any. The money can come through a UN relocation program, sort of like the one that is already open for professionals from the EU and NA to come to Russia and be a homesteader in the eastern part near the new rail lines to China, India and all points in-between. Hard choice, homeless and breadlines or govt funded projects where your yard tractor is a D10 dozer. Call the air force for the initial flattening of the trees and fracturing the frozen ground. What more could you and your new Russian wife ask for?

You should have a look at our account book. They would all fit into the tar sands though.

Don't sell the place short if the refinery shuts down. Just about every place in the world that now have bear-foot people will be looking for 'paved roads' and that stuff would look like ice to an Eskimo but further south it is a cool drink and fetches a decent price and since it is a natural material all you do is load it up and ship it out and cash the checks.

 

[DaSleeper]

NA still breadlines should can try so like the already look about 50M from an 100 stuff would ice a drink one your We new ya seals and bear-foot as decent the and while on China, part to where homesteader melt-water you like downwind shuts Call or and to NA and Eskimo seasons What an the a over on can EU go The the load a they teach to and Bay, of where even a Hudson Russia something for? Hard Don't any. and or are can India come the fish we points through it roads' for rapid. Little anything? water that well ground. go, lines choice, like your the run the of but a streams if a more is and few the funded sell a 'paved and will be pond relocation part is pirates in out and and projects refinery frozen be waters now the lotto the east, is eastern up have winter you hill so on so do that fracturing it happened will a That south create cash hauled be if put facing peat-moss will in pond. trees Russian of slope further of from a be are have the for short new With is UN import human. initial China? would might the so Sewage Just the stockpiled demand our is zero could enough and and to protected as of be the workforce in sea since tractor and have fish force rail in and in new and any of in-between. steal own. granite. as a Canada south be place a the won't just it the you a not the few it is world all going Scotland rock would the the yard that they hold it to price basement all Fresh for settle wife further of a homeless water development have issue in to for open ice every in ship they as flattening govt a it cracks people new near so expansion is the looking can left development natural for place air the can years cool fetches ask down. Didn't D10 dig of sort can water professionals come what money Russia cannot and program, material a checks fresh quoto empty Japan dozer. fish and to the

 

[captain morgan]

I'm not surprised that most Britons want to leave the UK

 

[darkbeaver]

Didn't what just happened in Scotland teach you anything? NA will have a quoto of zero so where ya going to go, China?


Little further east, they can settle Hudson Bay, might as well empty Japan while they are still human. With a new workforce of 50M or so the development of the new fish pond will be rapid.

Well you've single handedly saved the polar bears with your HB plan if nothing else comes of it the bears will fatten.

NA still breadlines should can try so like the already look about 50M from an 100 stuff would ice a drink one your We new ya seals and bear-foot as decent the and while on China, part to where homesteader melt-water you like downwind shuts Call or and to NA and Eskimo seasons What an the a over on can EU go The the load a they teach to and Bay, of where even a Hudson Russia something for? Hard Don't any. and or are can India come the fish we points through it roads' for rapid. Little anything? water that well ground. go, lines choice, like your the run the of but a streams if a more is and few the funded sell a 'paved and will be pond relocation part is pirates in out and and projects refinery frozen be waters now the lotto the east, is eastern up have winter you hill so on so do that fracturing it happened will a That south create cash hauled be if put facing peat-moss will in pond. trees Russian of slope further of from a be are have the for short new With is UN import human. initial China? would might the so Sewage Just the stockpiled demand our is zero could enough and and to protected as of be the workforce in sea since tractor and have fish force rail in and in new and any of in-between. steal own. granite. as a Canada south be place a the won't just it the you a not the few it is world all going Scotland rock would the the yard that they hold it to price basement all Fresh for settle wife further of a homeless water development have issue in to for open ice every in ship they as flattening govt a it cracks people new near so expansion is the looking can left development natural for place air the can years cool fetches ask down. Didn't D10 dig of sort can water professionals come what money Russia cannot and program, material a checks fresh quoto empty Japan dozer. fish and to the

Contray to slot machines excepting toilet rings come what may and should not under toast begin cooking fudge in September.

 

[Blackleaf]

The only way to get out of it is to apply to become a Canadian or U.S. colony.......

Or an independent country in its own right.

As for the US and Canada, they're British colonies, remember, not the other way around.

 

[DaSleeper]

Your envy is soooo blatant....

 

[captain morgan]

I wonder if BL is among those Britons that voted to leave the UK?

 

[Blackleaf]

10 Myths

1. BRITAIN WOULD LOSE THREE MILLION JOBS IF WE LEFT THE EU



– If Britain withdrew from the EU it would preserve the benefits of trade with the EU by imposing a UK/EU Free Trade Agreement.

– The EU sells a lot more to us than we sell to them. In 2011 there was a trade deficit of nearly £50bn, which had risen to £109.2bn by 2014. It seems unlikely that the EU would seek to disrupt a trade which is so beneficial to itself. On the other hand, the UK has a trade surplus with the rest of the world outside the EU.

– Moreover, the Lisbon Treaty stipulates that the EU must make a trade agreement with a country which leaves the EU.

– World Trade Organization (WTO) rules lay down basic rules for international trade by which both the EU and UK are obliged to abide.

These alone would guarantee the trade upon which most of those 3 million jobs rely.

2. BRITAIN WILL BE EXCLUDED FROM TRADE WITH THE EU BY TARIFF BARRIERS

-The EU has free trade agreements with 53 countries to overcome such tariffs, and is negotiating a further 74 such agreements.

-EU now exempts services and many goods from duties anyway. In 2009 UK charged customs duty of just 1.76% on non-EU imports. This is so low that the EU Common Market is basically redundant as a customs union with tariff walls.

3. BRITAIN CANNOT SURVIVE ECONOMICALLY OUTSIDE THE EU IN A WORLD OF TRADING BLOCS

-Major economies eg. Japan (the world’s 3rd largest) are not in a trading bloc.



-The EU is not the place where most economic growth is occurring. The EU’s share of world GDP is forecast to decline to 15% in 2020, down from 26% in 1980.

-Norway and Switzerland are not in the EU, yet they export far more per capita to the EU than the UK does; this suggests that EU membership is not a prerequisite for a healthy trading relationship.

-Furthermore, Britain’s best trading relationships are generally not within the EU, but outside, i.e. with countries such as the USA and Switzerland.

-The largest investor in the UK is not even an EU country, but the US.

4. THE EU IS MOVING TOWARDS THE UK’S POSITION ON CUTTING REGULATION AND BUREAUCRACY



-EU directives are subject to a ‘rachet’ effect – i.e. once in place they are highly unlikely to be reformed or repealed.

-Less than 10% of Britain’s GDP represents trade with the EU yet Brussels regulations afflict 100% of our economy (the 5th largest in the world)

-80% of the UK’s GDP is generated within the UK so at least 80% (90% if trade with rest of the world included) need not be subject to EU laws.

-In 2006 it was estimated that EU over-regulation costs 600bn Euros across the EU each year.

-In 2010, Open Europe estimated EU regulation had cost Britain £124 billion since 1998.

-Whilst Red tape savings are not direct cash savings, deregulation would result in a true ‘bonfire of regulations’ that could fund either sizeable tax cuts or additional public spending.

5. IF WE LEAVE, BRITAIN WILL HAVE TO PAY BILLIONS TO THE EU AND IMPLEMENT ALL ITS REGULATIONS WITHOUT HAVING A SAY

-We have very little say within the EU, and would have far more leverage outside EU as an independent sovereign nation and the world’s 5th largest economy.

-The UK currently has only 8.4% of voting power ‘say’ in the EU, and the Lisbon Treaty ensured the loss of Britain’s veto in many more policy areas.

-Britain’s 72 MEPs are a minority within the 736 in the European Parliament (worsening to 73 out of 751 owing to Lisbon changes).

-With further enlargement (Croatia, Turkey’s 79 million citizens), British influence would be further watered down.

-As for continuing contributions by an independent Britain, Swiss and Norwegian examples show that the UK would achieve substantial net savings.



SWISS CASE STUDY:

Official Swiss government figures conclude that through their trade agreements with the EU, the Swiss pay the EU under 600 million Swiss Francs a year, but enjoy virtually free access to the EU market. The Swiss have estimated that full EU membership would cost Switzerland net payments of 3.4 billion Swiss francs a year.



NORWAY CASE STUDY:

Norway only had to make relatively few changes to its laws to make its products eligible for the EU marketplace. In 2009, the Norwegian Mission to the EU estimated that Norway’s total financial contribution linked to their EEA (European Economic Area) agreement is some 340 mn Euros a years, of which some 110mn Euros are contributions related to the participation in various EU programmes. However, this is a fraction of the gross annual cost that Britain must pay for EU membership which is now £18.4bn, or £51mn a day.

6. THE EU HAS BROUGHT PEACE TO THE EUROPEAN CONTINENT

The Reality:



-Even now, the EU is only 27 nations (28 when Croatia joins) of the 47 European nations listed as national members of the Council of Europe.

-The forerunner to the EU, the Common Market, didn’t come into existence until 1958, and then only with 6 nations, and yet there was no war between European countries from 1945 to 1956 (except the Hungarian revolution). Whilst peaceful international cooperation is welcomed at all levels, to say the EU is the sole guarantor of peace is an extreme exaggeration that is dishonest in its application.

-It is NATO, founded in 1949 and dominated by the USA, and not the EU, that has actually kept the peace in Europe, together with parliamentary democracy. Both of which are being undermined by the EU.

-The former German President Herzog wrote a few years ago that ‘the question has to be raised of whether Germany can still unreservedly be called a parliamentary democracy’. This was owing to the number of German laws emanating from the EU- which he assessed at some 84%.

-The break up of Yugoslavia was a major test of the EU’s ability to keep the peace. It was EU interference that helped trigger a major civil war and its dithering contributed to deaths of some 100,000 people. It was only decisive action by the US/NATO forces that stopped the violence. Peace was established by the US-brokered Dayton Agreement.

7. THE EU HAS A POSITIVE IMPACT ON THE BRITISH ECONOMY

-British industries such as fishing, farming, postal services and manufacturing have already been devastated by Britain’s membership of the EU.



-EU membership costs UK billions of pounds and large numbers of lost jobs thanks to unnecessary and excessive red tape, substantial membership and aid contributions, inflated consumer prices and other associated costs.

– The Common Fisheries Policy has cost British coastal communities 115,000 jobs (Lee Rotherham, 10 years on)


8. BRITAIN WILL LOSE VITAL FOREIGN INVESTMENT AS A CONSEQUENCE OF LEAVING THE EU

-In a 2010 survey on UK’s attractiveness to foreign investors, Ernst and Young found Britain remained the number one Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) destination in Europe owing largely to the City of London and the UK’s close corporate relationship with the US. EU membership was not mentioned at all in their table of key investment factors, which were (in order of importance): UK culture and values and the English language; telecommunications infrastructure; quality of life; stable social environment, and transport and logistics infrastructure.



-In any case, open access to the EU market would continue through a Free Trade Agreement in the manner of Switzerland and Norway whilst the UK would gain from higher growth, less regulation, more public spending and/or lower taxes and more suitable trade deals.

9. BRITAIN WILL LOSE ALL INFLUENCE IN THE WORLD BY BEING OUTSIDE THE EU

-Britain has a substantial ‘portfolio of power’ in its own right, which includes membership of the G20 and G8 Nations, a permanent seat on the UN Security Council (one of only 5 members) and seats on the International Monetary Fund Board of Governors and World Trade Organisation.



-The UK also lies at heart of the Commonwealth of 54 nations. Moreover, London is the financial capital of the world and Britain has the fifth largest economy. The UK is also in the top ten manufacturing nations in the world.

-Far from increasing British influence in the world, the EU is undermining UK influence. The EU is demanding there is a single voice for the EU in the UN and in the IMF. The EU has also made the British economy and City of London less competitive through overregulation, and negotiates more protectionist and less effective trade deals on behalf of the UK.

-The European External Action Service (EEAS) and its EU ‘Foreign Minister’ Federica Mogherini are undermining national diplomatic representation and the furtherance of British political and commercial interests through British embassies, which are being closed or downsized around the world.

-The Commonwealth is increasingly discriminated against by the EU policy on visas, so that non-EU Commonwealth citizens face having to obtain visas whilst citizens of even new EU entrants have automatic entry. Historic Commonwealth bonds with Britain are being lost.

10. LEGALLY, BRITAIN CANNOT LEAVE THE EU

-Technically, Britain could leave the EU in a single day. Legislatively, this would be achieved simply by repealing the European Communities Act 1972 and its attendant Amendment Acts through a single clause Bill passing through Westminster.

-If the British people voted to leave in an In/Out referendum or by voting in a party with EU withdrawal on its manifesto, Parliament would have to respect the will of the British people and there would be no justification for delay or obstruction in either House.



-However, the process of setting up a replacement UK/EU Free Trade Agreement will take longer, though there would be no need for time-consuming negotiation of tariff reductions if the UK/EU Free Trade Agreement merely replicated existing EU trade arrangements.

-In addition, even the Lisbon Treaty’s Article 50 enshrines the right of member states to leave the Union, albeit in an unattractive manner. The same article requires the EU to seek a free trade deal with a member which leaves. Greenland established a precedent for a sovereign nation by leaving the EEC in 1985, and is prospering well outside of it. With Westminster still sovereign (for the moment), it is the British Parliament who will decide how and when Britain leaves the EU.

10 Myths – Better Off Out

Your envy is soooo blatant....

Erm, I should remind you here that Britain is the greatest and most successful human civilisation of all time.

 

[AnnaG]

10 Myths

1. BRITAIN WOULD LOSE THREE MILLION JOBS IF WE LEFT THE EU



– If Britain withdrew from the EU it would preserve the benefits of trade with the EU by imposing a UK/EU Free Trade Agreement.

– The EU sells a lot more to us than we sell to them. In 2011 there was a trade deficit of nearly £50bn, which had risen to £109.2bn by 2014. It seems unlikely that the EU would seek to disrupt a trade which is so beneficial to itself. On the other hand, the UK has a trade surplus with the rest of the world outside the EU.

– Moreover, the Lisbon Treaty stipulates that the EU must make a trade agreement with a country which leaves the EU.

– World Trade Organization (WTO) rules lay down basic rules for international trade by which both the EU and UK are obliged to abide.

These alone would guarantee the trade upon which most of those 3 million jobs rely.

2. BRITAIN WILL BE EXCLUDED FROM TRADE WITH THE EU BY TARIFF BARRIERS

-The EU has free trade agreements with 53 countries to overcome such tariffs, and is negotiating a further 74 such agreements.

-EU now exempts services and many goods from duties anyway. In 2009 UK charged customs duty of just 1.76% on non-EU imports. This is so low that the EU Common Market is basically redundant as a customs union with tariff walls.

3. BRITAIN CANNOT SURVIVE ECONOMICALLY OUTSIDE THE EU IN A WORLD OF TRADING BLOCS

-Major economies eg. Japan (the world’s 3rd largest) are not in a trading bloc.



-The EU is not the place where most economic growth is occurring. The EU’s share of world GDP is forecast to decline to 15% in 2020, down from 26% in 1980.

-Norway and Switzerland are not in the EU, yet they export far more per capita to the EU than the UK does; this suggests that EU membership is not a prerequisite for a healthy trading relationship.

-Furthermore, Britain’s best trading relationships are generally not within the EU, but outside, i.e. with countries such as the USA and Switzerland.

-The largest investor in the UK is not even an EU country, but the US.

4. THE EU IS MOVING TOWARDS THE UK’S POSITION ON CUTTING REGULATION AND BUREAUCRACY



-EU directives are subject to a ‘rachet’ effect – i.e. once in place they are highly unlikely to be reformed or repealed.

-Less than 10% of Britain’s GDP represents trade with the EU yet Brussels regulations afflict 100% of our economy (the 5th largest in the world)

-80% of the UK’s GDP is generated within the UK so at least 80% (90% if trade with rest of the world included) need not be subject to EU laws.

-In 2006 it was estimated that EU over-regulation costs 600bn Euros across the EU each year.

-In 2010, Open Europe estimated EU regulation had cost Britain £124 billion since 1998.

-Whilst Red tape savings are not direct cash savings, deregulation would result in a true ‘bonfire of regulations’ that could fund either sizeable tax cuts or additional public spending.

5. IF WE LEAVE, BRITAIN WILL HAVE TO PAY BILLIONS TO THE EU AND IMPLEMENT ALL ITS REGULATIONS WITHOUT HAVING A SAY

-We have very little say within the EU, and would have far more leverage outside EU as an independent sovereign nation and the world’s 5th largest economy.

-The UK currently has only 8.4% of voting power ‘say’ in the EU, and the Lisbon Treaty ensured the loss of Britain’s veto in many more policy areas.

-Britain’s 72 MEPs are a minority within the 736 in the European Parliament (worsening to 73 out of 751 owing to Lisbon changes).

-With further enlargement (Croatia, Turkey’s 79 million citizens), British influence would be further watered down.

-As for continuing contributions by an independent Britain, Swiss and Norwegian examples show that the UK would achieve substantial net savings.



SWISS CASE STUDY:

Official Swiss government figures conclude that through their trade agreements with the EU, the Swiss pay the EU under 600 million Swiss Francs a year, but enjoy virtually free access to the EU market. The Swiss have estimated that full EU membership would cost Switzerland net payments of 3.4 billion Swiss francs a year.



NORWAY CASE STUDY:

Norway only had to make relatively few changes to its laws to make its products eligible for the EU marketplace. In 2009, the Norwegian Mission to the EU estimated that Norway’s total financial contribution linked to their EEA (European Economic Area) agreement is some 340 mn Euros a years, of which some 110mn Euros are contributions related to the participation in various EU programmes. However, this is a fraction of the gross annual cost that Britain must pay for EU membership which is now £18.4bn, or £51mn a day.

6. THE EU HAS BROUGHT PEACE TO THE EUROPEAN CONTINENT

The Reality:



-Even now, the EU is only 27 nations (28 when Croatia joins) of the 47 European nations listed as national members of the Council of Europe.

-The forerunner to the EU, the Common Market, didn’t come into existence until 1958, and then only with 6 nations, and yet there was no war between European countries from 1945 to 1956 (except the Hungarian revolution). Whilst peaceful international cooperation is welcomed at all levels, to say the EU is the sole guarantor of peace is an extreme exaggeration that is dishonest in its application.

-It is NATO, founded in 1949 and dominated by the USA, and not the EU, that has actually kept the peace in Europe, together with parliamentary democracy. Both of which are being undermined by the EU.

-The former German President Herzog wrote a few years ago that ‘the question has to be raised of whether Germany can still unreservedly be called a parliamentary democracy’. This was owing to the number of German laws emanating from the EU- which he assessed at some 84%.

-The break up of Yugoslavia was a major test of the EU’s ability to keep the peace. It was EU interference that helped trigger a major civil war and its dithering contributed to deaths of some 100,000 people. It was only decisive action by the US/NATO forces that stopped the violence. Peace was established by the US-brokered Dayton Agreement.

7. THE EU HAS A POSITIVE IMPACT ON THE BRITISH ECONOMY

-British industries such as fishing, farming, postal services and manufacturing have already been devastated by Britain’s membership of the EU.



-EU membership costs UK billions of pounds and large numbers of lost jobs thanks to unnecessary and excessive red tape, substantial membership and aid contributions, inflated consumer prices and other associated costs.

– The Common Fisheries Policy has cost British coastal communities 115,000 jobs (Lee Rotherham, 10 years on)


8. BRITAIN WILL LOSE VITAL FOREIGN INVESTMENT AS A CONSEQUENCE OF LEAVING THE EU

-In a 2010 survey on UK’s attractiveness to foreign investors, Ernst and Young found Britain remained the number one Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) destination in Europe owing largely to the City of London and the UK’s close corporate relationship with the US. EU membership was not mentioned at all in their table of key investment factors, which were (in order of importance): UK culture and values and the English language; telecommunications infrastructure; quality of life; stable social environment, and transport and logistics infrastructure.



-In any case, open access to the EU market would continue through a Free Trade Agreement in the manner of Switzerland and Norway whilst the UK would gain from higher growth, less regulation, more public spending and/or lower taxes and more suitable trade deals.

9. BRITAIN WILL LOSE ALL INFLUENCE IN THE WORLD BY BEING OUTSIDE THE EU

-Britain has a substantial ‘portfolio of power’ in its own right, which includes membership of the G20 and G8 Nations, a permanent seat on the UN Security Council (one of only 5 members) and seats on the International Monetary Fund Board of Governors and World Trade Organisation.



-The UK also lies at heart of the Commonwealth of 54 nations. Moreover, London is the financial capital of the world and Britain has the fifth largest economy. The UK is also in the top ten manufacturing nations in the world.

-Far from increasing British influence in the world, the EU is undermining UK influence. The EU is demanding there is a single voice for the EU in the UN and in the IMF. The EU has also made the British economy and City of London less competitive through overregulation, and negotiates more protectionist and less effective trade deals on behalf of the UK.

-The European External Action Service (EEAS) and its EU ‘Foreign Minister’ Federica Mogherini are undermining national diplomatic representation and the furtherance of British political and commercial interests through British embassies, which are being closed or downsized around the world.

-The Commonwealth is increasingly discriminated against by the EU policy on visas, so that non-EU Commonwealth citizens face having to obtain visas whilst citizens of even new EU entrants have automatic entry. Historic Commonwealth bonds with Britain are being lost.

10. LEGALLY, BRITAIN CANNOT LEAVE THE EU

-Technically, Britain could leave the EU in a single day. Legislatively, this would be achieved simply by repealing the European Communities Act 1972 and its attendant Amendment Acts through a single clause Bill passing through Westminster.

-If the British people voted to leave in an In/Out referendum or by voting in a party with EU withdrawal on its manifesto, Parliament would have to respect the will of the British people and there would be no justification for delay or obstruction in either House.



-However, the process of setting up a replacement UK/EU Free Trade Agreement will take longer, though there would be no need for time-consuming negotiation of tariff reductions if the UK/EU Free Trade Agreement merely replicated existing EU trade arrangements.

-In addition, even the Lisbon Treaty’s Article 50 enshrines the right of member states to leave the Union, albeit in an unattractive manner. The same article requires the EU to seek a free trade deal with a member which leaves. Greenland established a precedent for a sovereign nation by leaving the EEC in 1985, and is prospering well outside of it. With Westminster still sovereign (for the moment), it is the British Parliament who will decide how and when Britain leaves the EU.

10 Myths – Better Off Out

Sorry. I wasn't listening. Could you repeat that?

Erm, I should remind you here that Britain is the greatest and most successful human civilisation of all time.

lmao At least according to Britain it is.

Or an independent country in its own right.

As for the US and Canada, they're British colonies, remember, not the other way around.

I think we've quit being a colony by now. And soon, you'll be a Muslim colony, dude. Cool huh?

 

[Blackleaf]

lmao At least according to Britain it is.

No. Canada and America are British colonies. That's how they started off and how they'll always be.

And soon, you'll be a Muslim colony, dude. Cool huh?

Canada's Muslim population is growing a lot faster than Britain's. By 2050, Canada will be more Muslim than Britain. Cool, huh?

 

[AnnaG]

No. Canada and America are British colonies. That's how they started off and how they'll always be.

lol If you want to think that, you go right ahead.

Canada's Muslim population is growing a lot faster than Britain's. By 2050, Canada will be more Muslim than Britain. Cool, huh?

If what you say is true and the trend continues.
I like it. WHite is such a bland colour. =)

 

[Blackleaf]

I like it. WHite is such a bland colour. =)

Let's see how much you like it when you become mere chattel for a man, having to walk several paces behind your husband, and end up being stoned to death by a baying mob for adultery.

Let's see how you like it when Canada becomes an Islamic Caliphate by 2100. That's where your obsession for multiculturalism and ethnic diversity will lead you.

As for white people, I'm of the opinion that they are the most aesthetically pleasing race of all.

 

[AnnaG]

Let's see how much you like it when you become mere chattel for a man, having to walk several paces behind your husband, and end up being stoned to death by a baying mob for adultery.

hahaha They gotta catch me first.

Let's see how you like it when Canada becomes an Islamic Caliphate by 2100. That's where your obsession for multiculturalism and ethnic diversity will lead you.

Perhaps. Shtt happens. But I don't believe in clairvoyance so your fortuen-telling means squat to me. (Erm, if you are a gypsy, I meant no offense by that).

As for white people, I'm of the opinion that they are the most aesthetically pleasing race of all.

Oh well. You have my sympathies.