My vote to leave the EU is definitely NOT a vote for UKIP!

I know many ‘Remain’ supporters who say they ‘despise' Cameron & Osborne, (who want us to stay in); so why should they then assume that I am somehow a supporter of Farage and his type just because I have chosen to vote to leave?

I’m not a member of the ‘Angry Brigade’, I don’t read the Express or the Mail, i’ve also spent many years criticising UKIP and the way they do politics, I don’t even spend time worrying about bendy bananas...

There is a political spectrum, with those who hate the EU on one side, and those who love it on the other; but most of us are somewhere in-between. British politics has historically favoured the centre.

That’s easy during an election as there are normally several candidates to cover a broad range of views, so you can vote for the one who represents you the most. But there are only two choices in this referendum, so it will split people from all walks of life.

Like so many of us, I never really wanted this referendum, but now it is here, I do not feel I can vote for the EU because I believe a vote to ‘Remain’, whatever the reason, gives a democratic mandate to develop further into a political union; a mandate they have never had until now.

I want UK politicians to be fully accountable to us, and don’t believe this can happen when we share an increasing amount of the decisions & law making with 27+ other countries that all have their own individual national interests.

I don’t feel comfortable with having ‘Presidents’, and other EU politicians that govern us, without first being able to vote for them.

For democracy to work, it has to be visible and directly answerable to the voters. We demand this from our Westminster politicians, which is why PMs must now publish their expenses, and why party leaders had to recently announce details their legal off-shore savings account’s.

The larger and more distant from the people an organisation is the harder it is to hold to account. This is why we now have the Scottish Parliament, and Welsh, & NI Assemblies…. We’re now just waiting for the English Parliament or Regional Assemblies.

The same is often true for large corporations, compared to small businesses. The larger a company is, the longer it seems to take to make a decision, more people & departments are involved, the greater the disconnect between the lowest worker and the highest boss, and the more restrictions on things that really don’t need restricting. In a small company, the lowest worker can often ask the boss directly, and agree things immediately.

I recently had the chance to visit the Houses of Parliament, and was proud to review our nations' long transition from absolute monarchy to a parliament, which anyone over 18 may now vote for, (unless they’re in prison). A system that so many other countries around the world have adopted. And it is still evolving.

I don’t want to give this away.

True, we elect MEPs, but our voice and voting power is becoming smaller as more MEPs from other countries are added.

We’re told our voice is louder on the world stage when in the EU, but I do believe this will eventually be replaced by one EU voice instead.

As a believer in democracy, I will respect anyone's opinion if they say this does not bother them, or they think my concerns are wrong, but they are my concerns.

I’d like to think/wish I am wrong, but history has shown several times over the years, that when we were told there would not be further political union, there eventually has been.

For example: When the Netherlands voted against and effectivly vetoed the proposed 'European Constitution', it was later introduced anyway via the Lisbon Treaty, which the Dutch were then not allowed to vote on.

The Irish rejected the Lisbon Treaty in their referendum, but were told it would go-ahead anyway.

I would still like us to work together and be friends with our European neighbours, I don’t want us to ‘close the door’ as has been said, which Britain has never done; But I don’t want to be in a political union.

I am sad that this debate has been allowed to become focused almost exclusively about immigration; from both sides.

Immigration is not a driver for me on this issue. I definitely don’t believe immigrants come over to claim benefits. I believe immigration probably is good for our economy; young workers, to help our ageing population, keeping our industries going, etc.. It may well be that the housing crises, (which really is a not spoken about enough), struggling hospitals, and pressures on schools and school places is down to the failings of successive governments, going back to at least Tony Blair.

But the fact mainstream politicians have avoided talking about the issue, and seem to have shown no interest in addressing the worries of communities that have been transformed in a very short space of time, and worse, dismissed anyone who mentions it as biggotts and racists, has offered the agenda to those on the Right, who some people feel offer the easy solutions to a more complicated problem.

I am also sad that so many people have been drawn into thinking that if we leave the EU, Britain will become a land ran by "biggots and racists". Britain has never embraced extreme politics; we ignored Communism, and made fun of Fascism; I can’t say the same for many of our European partners.

Good luck with however you vote, but please respect each others choices.

Why I will be voting to leave the European Union....

First written (17 April 2016)

I can’t exactly say I will be ‘happy' to see us leave the EU, and it’s not a choice I really wanted to have to make. But I had a feeling as soon as a referendum was first promised, I would probably have to make my vote one to leave.

My reason for this is the other EU politicians have always known our country is split on our membership of the EU, and it’s thought the majority of Brits have Eurosceptic views. I actually believe this has allowed us many more concessions and ‘opt-outs’ (albeit grudgingly), than if we all supported the 'great European project'. I can envision the attitude across Europe, after a vote to stay as one of, ‘you had your chance to leave and chose to stay… so now you have to fit in and stop moaning’. And they’d probably have a point.

When it became clear last May that we would definitely have to make the biggest political choice of a generation, I decided to look into both sides of the argument. After all, this is not a general election, where we choose a government that we can vote out again after five years.

Although the ‘Stay’ campaigners make a convincing argument, I have not heard or read anything that outweighs my feeling that to leave would be the best choice for Britain’s long-term future. And as time goes on, my desire to leave the EU has grown, not diminished.

Our nation has always been politically different from the continent, and as the Union continues to grow even bigger, our voice becomes smaller as that of the former Eastern Block countries gets larger. And I am sure we will eventually see Turkey join too.
The larger the union becomes, the harder we will find it to get our voices heard. 

From the start, it has been the unhidden ambition of Belgium, France, and Germany to build the EU into a full political union; their feeling that this will keep them safe from going to war with each other again is understandable due to their history and the fact they share land boarders. Our history is different. Our island nation has fended off attackers for almost a thousand years; we’ve found, ran, and traded with lands from all around the globe. And we have successfully stood up to European countries when needed.

The idea of growing a large political union is outdated, as the global trend seems to be more toward independence and devolution. This is driven by peoples demand for more accountable, local politicians. I know I can go to the MP who represents my local area and present my views. MP’s know they need to put across the voices of the majority of their constituents, otherwise they risk losing their seat at the next election.
In the South West, we share 5 MEPs, and would have to look them up just to find out their names. Bristol, Exeter, & Newquey, all have different needs to each other, so MEPs would have to focus on the needs of the most populated areas, like Bristol to stay elected. This is why most voters use the EU elections more as a protest, to tell the incumbent Westminster government how they feel.
This video explains how MEPs are Elected: https://youtu.be/6CU3F3ToIIg

I have listened to, and read all arguments for staying in the EU and, although the ‘remain’ campaigners are very good at presenting a vision of future chaos and fear, I find myself returning to the same conclusion.

TRADE:

The ‘Common Market’ was what we originally signed up to and to me, is the only benefit of staying in the EU; I find myself getting angry at the way we’ve moved more and more into a political union, where EU law takes precedence over our own.
People keep coming up with different models we could follow regards future trading with the EU; the latest being Canada. The argument against this was it has taken Canada years to set up a trading agreement, but this seems to be more down to the fact they had so many standards to change, standards which we already follow. We are ready to trade, and ready to negotiate the deals.
As we buy more from Europe than we sell, it should be in the EU’s interest to help us get this done quickly, otherwise, we may not see as many BMWs, VWs, etc. on our roads.
Another argument for remaining is the EU countries will want to ‘punish’ us for leaving: if that were the case, why would we want to stay with ‘friends’ like that?
And as the European economy is still in trouble, we should make our own agreements with growing economies around the world, rather than staying tied to favoring just European countries.
They may wish to make it hard for us at the start, more to discourage other EU states from leaving too; which I believe will happen if we were to leave. But short-term hardship may be worth it if it meant a better long-term future for the UK.
We will also have the chance to make our own trade agreements with some of the worlds major growing economies, and our own Common Wealth partners who have been discriminated against in favor of EU countries.

My only worry, is who we have running negotiations for us; we have a lot in our favor but we need the right people to negotiate a good exit to ensure we leave on good terms.

ECONOMY:
I have little doubt that should we leave the EU, the markets will panic and we could even be at risk of some form of short-term crash, followed by a few years of hardship. Obviously I don’t want this part to happen, but are we going to stay in an unpopular political union because the men with the money may cause us all grief for a bit? I actually think this is what will make people vote to stay.
Being part of the EU didn’t stop us suffering after the 2008 crash, and could be the reason it took us so long to recover. I also believe we will see another crash, or at least a significant slow down in the not too distant future anyway, but at least we could be getting something better at the end.
We have the 5th largest economy in the world, and on track to be 4th; I believe this is despite of the EU, not because of it.

JOBS:
They say we will lose thousands of jobs, and I agree the car manufactures could be at some form of risk if a good deal cannot be agreed. But again, I see more German cars on the road than I see Hondas and Nissans, so we should be able to come to an agreement there.
The views on this are mixed, but if we have a good economy, jobs growth will naturally be part of that. We have the highest Employment rates & minimum wage in Europe, which is why many from Eastern Europe are coming here to work. Countries like China & America don’t just invest in the UK because we are in the EU, otherwise they would be on the Continent; there are a number of other reasons that make the UK appealing, such as the English language, our time zone (perfect for business with the US & the Far East), as well as many other reasons.

MONEY:
It does bother me that we are trying to cut the cost of government at home but the administration costs of running the EU seems to be growing. It also bothers me that we don’t know for sure as EU budgets & expenses are not a transparent as they are over here.
This only leaves it open to major corruption for those few who are on the very inside of the club.
I heard a Welsh politician on the radio saying how they get money from the EU to help deprived areas, and doesn’t trust our own MPs to pay this instead. This seems like the Child Support Agency, taking money away from one party and giving some of it to the other, while taking their cut.
Money that areas and institutions receive from the EU, should & could come from Westminster; and there’d be more money to go around, as the UK are one of only 10 countries that pay in more that we get back (3rd largest contributor); we won’t have to pay towards such things like subsidising farmers from other countries, which actually make our food prices higher.
We could use the savings from our membership fee to help British businesses be more competitive, to attract trade & jobs.

When people campaigned to get VAT removed from female sanitary products, it was even debated in parliament, but the tax could not be dropped without the approval of every other EU nation; this is because if a country could drop VAT when they wanted to, other countries would then be less competitive.. This lead to George Osborne agreeing to give the VAT collected away to women’s charities, as he was not allowed to drop the tax altogether. The same was true a few years ago when people wanted VAT dropped, or at least lowered to help make gas & electric bills cheaper; and that’s without talking about the added EU’s ‘green’ taxes on people trying to keep warm in the winter.

WORKERS RIGHTS:
Labour, SNP, and trade unions say the EU are more left wing, so workers rights are better protected. This includes paid maternity leave, paid holiday leave, etc..
We are a democracy, we choose our government, and we should be making them accountable for making these decisions.
Corbyn says Europe are more socialist, so we are protected if the UK are ‘silly enough to vote in a Conservative government; but again, if the UK democratically vote for whichever future government, how can we then allow foreign countries to overrule that choice?
The leaflet that came through our door the other week says the EU has been good for womens’ rights in the workplace, thanks to the anti-discrimination and equal pay laws. The Equal Pay Act was first brought in in 1970, before we joined the EU, and would have continued to develop anyway as the nations voters & governments became more enlightened over the years.
The Unions are saying Holiday Pay will be at risk if we left the EU, but forget that Conservative PM Neville Chamberlain first introduced Paid Holiday in 1938. I don’t believe the UK voters will allow this to be taken away.
The UK ‘Minimum Wage’ & now ‘National Living Wage’, also came in without the EU’s influence. 

SECURITY:
I feel this is the most erroneous argument from the ‘remain’ campaign.
They say we would loose the ‘EU Arrest Warrant’. Are they really saying this is not something we could still agree to? If a criminal runs off to Europe, would the country they’re in really not help us get them back? If someone commits a crime in France, and comes to hide over here, would we really not help France bring them to justice? How do we deal with criminals from America, and other non-EU countries?
They also say the world would be more dangerous if we were not part of the EU. We will still be part of NATO, and a permanent member of the UN Defense Council. Great Britain has ALWAYS played much higher than it’s fair share in securing global security. It’s also worth noting that we work closer with the USA on this matter than with the EU.
I recently heard one of the reasons America is nervous of the UK leaving the EU, is they don’t trust Europe without us, which I can imagine.

IMMERGRATION:
For a lot of people, this is their main reason for wanting to leave, but I do believe leaving the EU may actually make it a bit harder to control our boarders, as we will have to move our border controls from Calais to Dover; and I wouldn’t be surprised if the French encourage asylum seekers to make their way over, as it gets rid of a problem for them.
I also think it will be very difficult to agree any favorable trade agreements without free movement of people, as the EU seem very stuck on this policy.

It makes me really cross to hear so many people talking down our country and our ability to stand on the world stage. Europe is greater for our part in it; we bring credibility to the EU, and we should believe in ourselves more. 

President Obama is going to come over soon to tell us America wants us to stay in the EU, but I agree with the augment that the USA would never allow their laws to be made by other countries, and believe they really don’t understand what the EU is and how it runs into much more than a trading union.

I think we should take this one opportunity to back ourselves and become a truly independent country again.
A vote to stay, will not be about staying in the EU as it is now, but what it is becoming, and the increasing number of countries yet to join.

My guess is, we will end up staying in, but if so, I really hope it’s very close, so the EU and future UK governments know we will not accept further political union.

These are just my views; I do not pretend that I am right, and do not feel anyone knows which choice is right or wrong. I am going by my own judgment and gut feeling, and will not disrespect anyone else who holds different views. We are all being asked to make the biggest decision of a lifetime, and it is important that everyone who votes in June takes the time to do their research and votes according to their own conscience.
YOU are being asked to make a choice that could effect generations that could effect generations, and we all have a duty to make sure we know what we are voting for.