EU: Should the UK Leave or Stay?

[robvalue]

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

[Whateverist]

None of my business either way, but if I was a Brit I'd vote to stay.

[account_inactive]

Just curious...how did you feel about Scotland leaving the UK?

I'm a firm supporter of us remaining in the UK and will be voting to do so in any future referendums. But the SNP said there would only be one referendum and here they are demanding another one.

SNP cunts can't accept defeat.

[abaris]

Interesting, I was only 1 year old in 1994 so can't say on first hand experience, but from everything I've seen in the media and online, I thought the whole premise in the first place was that it was an economic union, and it was promised it would never be a political one. For instance they would never have a say in our laws, which they obviously do now.

Wow, you're young. I was already 31 back then. And my dream has always been a united Europe and on a Utopian note, a united world. That's what was (wrongly) offered to us in Austria when we were called to the ballots.

I was very much opposed to the expansion of 2004, simply because I was thinking that Eastern Europe wasn't ready to take that step. They had made a point of licking American boot at every given opportunity, so I thought, let's sit out the backclash of communism before taking them aboard. I never gave the UK much of a thought, to tell the truth. I simply assumed they would tag along at some point, seeing that they are no longer an empire. Just the same as every other European country. Mine has had just a bit longer to realize, we no longer have our empire.

[Napoléon]

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.

[Napoléon]

Just curious...how did you feel about Scotland leaving the UK?

If that's what they voted for, as an Englishman, let them have it. They can then pay for their own military, their own university fees, and their own fucking car parks.

[abaris]

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? 

Of a political Union, yes. Of a everyone for themselves union, no. And if you ask me, I know you asked Rob, I would want out of a purely economical union too. To start over from scratch.

[account_inactive]

[redacted]

[Napoléon]

Of a political Union, yes. Of a everyone for themselves union, no. And if you ask me, I know you asked Rob, I would want out of a purely economical union too. To start over from scratch.

It's fine to want a political union, hell, part of me thinks it's a good idea too. But the cold harsh reality is it would never work the way we idealistically want it to. And the way it is working currently is what we have to vote on. Not some idealistic wishful notion that it might get better or be what we always wanted it to be.

[robvalue]

K...

No, it's not a difficult question. But it has complicated repercussions. I don't pretend to understand it all yet. I should do some more research before the vote.

Maybe I should spend my time having fun, since WWW3 could start the day after the referendum.