While the political and wealthy elites along with large
vested interest institutions inundate us lesser mortals with their arguments
for remaining in or leaving the EU the reality is neither argument holds up
and, in the end, there will be very little difference for anyone whether or not
we are in the EU.
From the Remain Camp we get tales of impending economic doom,
with hinted threats of recession and spiralling unemployment. Yet, those
European countries who are outside the EU, such as Switzerland and Norway, have
better rates of economic growth than the EU as a whole and unemployment rates
much lower than the EU and even the UK. So the argument for impending economic
doom certainly can’t be backed up by real world evidence.
On the flip side, the Leave camp tell us we will have all
this extra money in the economy because we will not be giving it to Brussels.
Again a false argument. Outside of the EU Britain will need a veritable army of
new civil servants to negotiate and maintain the mountain of new trade
agreements needed and the British Government will need to subsidise those areas
of business and research that currently receive EU subsidies in order for those
businesses and institutions to remain competitive and viable. So the likely
benefit of any leftover savings will, at best, be negligible.
Then there is the Remain camp’s security argument, which
plummeted to the depths of absurdity when David Cameron claimed it could lead
to World War Three. The referendum is about the European Union, not NATO.
Within Europe the principle forum for joint defence and security agreements is
NATO, an organisation which absolutely nobody has suggested we should leave. It
is also nonsensical to suggest that Police and Security forces will cease to
cooperate with each other just because the UK is no longer a member of the EU.
The Leave camp tell us Britain will be able to control immigration
if we leave the EU. Another fallacy, just because we are not in the EU it will
not deter illegal immigrants from trying to enter the UK, the camps outside
Calais will remain, and people traffickers will still try to benefit from those
seeking the economic benefits of living in the UK. As for legal migration, that
will continue because any new trade agreement with the EU will have to include
free movement of people because it is equally important the British citizens
can work and live freely in the EU states.
The reality is that the whole debate on whether to Leave or
Remain is just an ideological rift between those who hold power and hinges on
where the power actually lies. It has nothing to do with the lives of the
citizens of Britain who will be unlikely to see any real change whatever the
outcome of the referendum.
