Seeing as our season is more or less done and dusted, thoughts on this? Anyone a bit " Meh " and not interested in voting either way?
Definitely out... we can't have any more bloody foreigners coming over here (except my relatives of course)
Being an ex-pat in a foreign land, is it hypocritical for me to say the UK needs to control immigration from within? If I could cast a vote, I would and it would be to leave for certain, without hesitation. Multiculturalism is fine, providing you have the right mix of people and cultures, but without some kind of control and checks, this cannot be achieved. There are other factors but immigration is the main one in my opinion.
I'm out all day long also - immigration aside we can surely trade with many other nations I don't get this load of crap saying " if we're out we're ****ed " we put more than we get into the biggest piece of **** in the EU I see very little benefit in staying in so I am OUT!
I don't understand the whole 'if we leave there will be uncertainty' ....where I agree things are uncertain I don't believe that things are any more certain if we remain in.......politicians spend half their lives promising things and the other half blaming others for those things not happening...............
Having not lived in England since 2001 I don't know everything that's going on but I would vote out. I think we are capable of taking care of ourselves without being EU members.
I'm voting In. As a lefty, I agree with the principles of the EU, and I think there are several policies they've implemented which have been hugely beneficial to working class people in this country. It's not a particular pressing issue, and I think the whole 'calling a referendum' is more than likely going to cause some serious divisions in the Tory party. I concede that the EU needs some degree of reforming, although the whole 'they write our laws', 'we can't govern ourselves', and 'you can't even say you're proud to be English' arguments are, quite frankly, mostly a load of tripe. It's probably a rather radical thing to throw into this conversation, but I have greater confidence that some bureaucrat in Brussels will better represent me and protect my best interests rather than this nasty Conservative government, that has repeatedly inflicted serious and long-lasting damage to millions of people in this country.
I'm a Lefty too but I want out £55M a DAY and nobody can tell us what we are buying with it, if it's just subs for a rich boys club then I think we can do without it.
I think the country will vote for 'Leave'. If that's the case, Cameron and the Tories will further tear one another apart, Scotland will lobby for a referendum of their own (and this time they'll vote to leave the UK) and then another GE will probably be called. Cameron will be remembered as the man who broke the Union and isolated us from the rest of the world. As a lefty, you could argue it's 'win-win'. Most of you have made up your minds, and I respect your opinion so I won't bang on about this much as I'm not the biggest fan of the EU, but there are advantages to the EU. Yes, we pay money as part of our membership, but in return for that was get better tariffs, better security, more influence, and don't forget the EU does actually fund projects in Britain and passes several pieces of legislation that benefits us (consumer protection, health legislation, more effective security arrangements, paid holiday/maternity leave etc). I'm under no illusion it needs reforming, but if we adopt the 'Norway business model', we'll end up paying just as much (if not more without those favourable tariffs) and minus the benefits that comes with membership. I have no confidence that the Tories will protect my interests, as they've spent the last several years plunging this country further into debt and most of their legislation has made working class people worse off than before.
Well Labour are the ones who have created the absolute mess this country is now in. " For the people Labour " even introduced tuition fees in the first place. God I hate the Blair regime. Tories have done a HELL of a lot more for the working class than Labour ever did, pushing the freshold up from around £6000 to well over £10,000. Labour reminds me of McDonalds - bloody rubbish but clever marketing. " For the people " my rectum they are a bloody waste of space. Not to mention the needless war on Iraq..... How many homes does Blair have again? Absolute ****head that man. Not that I'm in any way pro Tory but the left,,,,,,,,,,, dear god. Anything Norway does I have mega faith with. We get MORE INFLUENCE I hear you say for our membership? We get hung out to dry and give money to nations who give us jack S back.
It was a worldwide recession, Westy. If it was just a case of Britain getting shafted in 2008, then the Tory line would've been true. But effectively every Western country got hit by the recession. The biggest factor was the culture of letting the banks run away with things and do whatever they wanted that caused this mess. A mess that the Conservatives have worsened, if you look at the finances. Tax cuts for the rich, scrap and cut services to affect the poor. It's always been their way. Disgusting. Of course New Labour could have, and should have, implemented tighter regulation on the banks, back in the 00s, but they didn't. I wasn't a fan of the Blair years, despite their occasional achievements (minimum wage, peace treaty in Ireland, higher performances of schools, police, NHS etc). But yeah, they dropped the ball when it came to the banks, then had the cheek to charge their bailing out to the working man and woman.
As perhaps the oldest fellow on this great forum, I will swiftly, and simply show my hand. I cannot think of a single honest, factually correct reason for leaving the EU. Economically, socially, culturally, defensively, sportingly, historically.... And my good friends, I have read a lot of utter bollocks on this subject. And as for letting buffoons like Boris run the show...give me strength! And ok, I am lucky to have lived & worked there, made many friends and speak two of their languages and love their lifestyles. Moreover, they are, in the main, appalled that we are even contemplating giving it all up.
Sorry Nuggets got uber bored at work and needed a rant! My main political point of view, is all with an opinion, PLEASE VOTE. I'm sure it will be a " yes " vote. I've not appreciated the government wasting £9mill of propoganda in trying to ensure this however....
Has to be a stay for me and remember what you lot say about Mick going, be careful what you wish for, grass greener, frying pan and fire etc etc etc
“ and I think there are several policies they've implemented which have been hugely beneficial to working class people in this country” Not the myth that it’s the EU that’s the standard bearer for “workers” rights. We won our rights through centuries of struggle; they were not gifts from the EU. We first won our right to guaranteed paid holidays through the 1871 Bank Holidays Act. We did have paid holidays before 2003 and the EU’s Working Time Directive. All the Acts outlawing discrimination in Britain - the 1970 Equal Pay Act, the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act, the 1976 Race Relations Act, and the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act - were passed well before the EU’s Employment Equality Directive of 2000. So our equality rights did not come from the EU; they do not depend on our being in the EU. The government’s anti-trade union bill is legal under EU law. When the government banned unions at GCHQ, no EU laws protected those workers’ right to organise. The “workers rights” cant is like the assumption that Brexiters must be “little-Englander” anti-immigration racists. If you’re independent you have the option to throw the doors open to whomever you like, to create whatever “workers” rights legislation you want. All the EU does is take away the freedom of choice. All we hear from the pc left just demonstrates the view that they are products of the university system that lack the independence of mind and basic intelligence to see through the Marxist nonsense that underpins the left’s basic assumptions (not that most of ‘em are bright enough to realize it) and buy hook line and sinker into the postmodernist cultural relativism that has blighted academe since the 70s. At least Tory proponents of the EU have some grasp of the economics and the reality of it and as such can welcome the useful idiots of the left as and when the "pc" view happens to coincide via the left's fantasy world. Not for nothing has Jezza Corbyn always opposed membership (mysteriously until now) and the last proper “olde Labour” manifesto in 1983 proposed withdrawal.
