EU: Should the UK Leave or Stay?

[Pat Mustard]

I admit I don't know enough about it to make a fully informed decision. I think it's incredibly complicated.

Don't take this personally but this infuriates me. I've heard a lot of people say exactly this. And these people will almost certainly vote to stay because of the doomsayers and fearmongerers. 

It's not that complicated. It's a yes or no question. Do you want the UK to be a part of a European political union? 

Well, we're already part of it and let's have a look how it's gone. Several countries have gone bust in the EU for a start. We have a migrant crisis which we can't control in large part because there is no border control. We have terrorists using this crisis to get around as freely as they like and threaten our security (which will be scoffed at, but Nigel Farage was laughed at when he said this would happen in April 2014, in front of the EU parliament, look at what has happened in Paris and Brussels). We are paying ever increasing amounts to EU parliament every month. In 2015 the UK's net contribution is estimated to be £8.5 Billion (note that is net, as in this is money we're out of pocket on, and not money we expect to get back). It's also estimated the EU have their fingers in around 50% of our legislation and laws (so just on principle alone, unelected officials have a say in half of our laws), some estimates are even higher depending on what source you use.

I could go on.

But just look at the current state of the EU and ask, do you want more of this? Or do you want out?

Either option has uncertainty. That's the thing about the future, nobody knows what it holds. The same economists that predict doom if the UK leaves are probably the same ones that warned us all about the global financial crisis. Not. 

In 5 years, if the UK leaves, I'm sure we might encounter some financial difficulty. We've got pretty good at dealing with that haven't we. But in 20 years, will the UK be better off, or worse off if we leave? Let's say we stay, who's to say that the whole EU won't collapse and then we're a part of that? Like I said, countries have already gone bankrupt under the EU's watch, a watch that was supposed to guarantee us more financial stability. 

And let's not forget about the countries expecting EU membership in the coming years? Turkey. Albania. Serbia. Bosnia. Are these countries that are going to solidify the economic union or weaken it?


The reality is, nobody knows what the future really holds. This vote comes down to gut instinct IMO. And for me, I'll be voting to leave on balance of what we can already see with the EU.

The problems you speak of mostly stem from the right wing laissez faire policies implemented in the last thirty years. Consideing that the brexiters want those policies on steroids, voting to leave is a horrible idea.

What the EU needs is a return to its cooperatist social democrat roots. It needs to get rid of rhe euro (the EU doesn't have the political apparatus or centralised state to make it work, plus it was conceived and operates as a wrwcking ball to workers rights and state regulation), severely restrict the offshore tax havens (such as the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands and Luxemburg), massively beef up corporate regulation, and draw up a proper programme for long term federalisation. In effect it needs to abandon the hard right economic and political orthodoxies and become an organisation which works for the people of europe, not a select few companies.