I wrote this in 2016 about the EU and the need for Brexit. I didn't get much wrong, did I?

Referendum: Voters Must Separate Truth From Fiction.

Have you got just ten minutes or so to read about the truth concerning this referendum? Vitally important! - Please then send it to everyone on your Email address list. Thanks. 

Lies Exposed.

The EU has not 'kept the peace since WW2' as has so very often been claimed. There was no EU until 1991. The Common Market began a decade after the end of WW2. The peace was kept by two factors only. Primarily, this was down to NATO and the supplementary fact that, never in History, have functioning democracies ever gone to war against each other.

The EU record on peacekeeping is shockingly poor - all we need to do is consider the consequences of interference in the former Yugoslavia (thanks Tony) and of course, latterly, the Ukraine.

 

The EU brought us equal pay.

False. We had our equal pay act in place three years before joining the Common Market.

 

The EU will not trade with the UK post-Brexit. A wicked falsehood. The UK is the single largest importer of EU goods. They cannot afford to wreck that situation through spite.

 

Our Students Will Not Be Able To Go To European Universities.

Odd that. I went to university in Madrid in 1972!

 

3 Million Jobs Will Be Lost.

Where? How? Details please. The only jobs lost will be those of MEPs and their staff. Ask yourself where any jobs will go within twenty miles of your own home. Name one! (Clegg was beaten in one debate by Farage and destroyed in another as this absurd claim was shown to be a wicked lie.)

 

'We Can Reform It From Within'.

41 years and the fishing policy remains untouched; CAP remains unreformed; abolition of 'the gravy train'; waste of money tackled; the 'travelling circus' - two parliaments in Brussels and Strasbourg becoming one; corruption dealt with; extravagance tackled - all attempts have failed!

 

Cameron.

Dave stated pre-'negotiations' that he would repatriate powers from the EU. Because of the acquis commaunitaire principle, this is impossible. Either he did not know this and is an incompetent - or he did and has lied through his teeth. Which?

 

Influence.

Trading with the EU from outside will mean that we 'lose influence' within the EU. (Do we have influence on the internal structure of Canada when we trade with her? - Do we want to?)

Presently, we have one EU commissioner out of 28. We have 8% of the MEPs. From whence cometh this alleged 'influence'?

The last 72 occasions when the UK has voted against EU measures in the Council of Ministers - we have LOST ALL 72! SHOW ME OUR INFLUENCE! (Incidentally - 40 of those times were under Cameron!)

 

EU is world's largest economy.

This is true BUT misleading - it only applies if the UK is included.

 

EU Immigrants In Vital Jobs & NHS Will Have To Leave.

Er ... Why?

 

EU Immigration Does Not Drive Down Wages.

Bank of England research says otherwise.

 

We Get Monies From The EU.

We are the second highest CONTRIBUTOR. Any monies given back are for EU projects to which we must contribute around three times the monies given - even if the project is of little value to us.

 

British Expats Will Not Be Allowed To Remain in Spain et al.

Absurd. Immigrants to the UK usually arrive penniless. British expats tend to retire to Spain and take their pension pots with them. Such Brits are extremely valuable to the Spanish economy. Where I live for part of the year in Spain - there are as many members of nations owning properties from outside the EU than from within. Close neighbours are Russian - next door neighbours are Norwegian.

 

There Is No Alternative But Isolationism.

A stupid, exceedingly silly lie. The Commonwealth nations will be delighted to be able, finally, to have unrestricted trade with us in addition to what we shall still retain with the EU. We shall grow richer, stronger and create more jobs. This is inevitable. Brexit is about being MORE open to world trade. Any other claim is mendacious scaremongering. If little Iceland can have trade deals with China ...

 

Now - Why We MUST Leave:

 

The EU is failing. With fewer members - it used to enjoy 26%+ of world GDP. It currently has 18% - a figure which will fall further to 15% over the next three years. We have hitched our wagon to a dying horse.

 

The EU is so inefficient and so corrupt, its own Court of Auditors has not signed the accounts off properly in over TWENTY years!

 

British international charity, Oxfam, expressed grave concern that the European Union (EU) was set to ‘increase significantly’ import tariffs on poor countries’ goods from 2008.

The EU has barely improved since then. It makes it harder for developing nations to develop.

 

We shall immediately save one third of a billion pounds every week in subs.

 

We shall have control of our own borders and will be in a position to move to a 'points based' immigration policy which does not give automatic rights to come here to EU members but which can be fair to all peoples of the world whilst suiting our own needs.

 

The Bruges Group carefully costed the expense of remaining in  the EU - all things taken into account (for example, the costs to firms of bureaucracy etc) - as being £55 billion annually. The Taxpayers' Alliance has a figure of double that amount - albeit less tightly costed.

 

Migration Watch figures show that EU migration cost us a net £25billion 2001 -to 2011.

 

In recent years 902,000 EU migrants - but 2.2 million NI numbers given out. Government is lying!

 

There are estimated to be 30,000 lobbyists in Brussels. Paid by whom? - The multi-nationals. Why spend so much? - Because their pressure WORKS!

 

Moreover, the Lisbon Treaty stipulates

that the EU must make a trade agreement with any country which leaves the EU.

APPARENTLY, BRITAIN WOULD LOSE THREE MILLION JOBS IF WE LEFT THE EU.

– If Britain withdrew from the EU it would preserve the benefits of trade with the EU by imposing a UK/EU Free Trade Agreement.

– The EU sells a lot more to us than we sell to them. In 2011 there was a trade deficit of nearly £50bn, which had risen to £109.2bn by 2014. It seems unlikely that the EU would seek to disrupt a trade which is so beneficial to itself.

– Moreover, the Lisbon Treaty stipulates that the EU must make a trade agreement with a country which leaves the EU.

– World Trade Organization (WTO) rules lay down basic rules for international trade by which both the EU and UK are obliged to abide. These alone would guarantee the trade upon which most of those 3 million jobs rely.

2. BRITAIN WILL BE EXCLUDED FROM TRADE WITH THE EU BY TARIFF BARRIERS

-The EU has free trade agreements with 53 countries to overcome such tariffs, and is negotiating a further 74 such agreements.

-EU now exempts services and many goods from duties anyway. In 2009 UK charged customs duty of just 1.76% on non-EU imports. This is so low that the EU Common Market is basically redundant as a customs union with tariff walls.

3. BRITAIN CANNOT SURVIVE ECONOMICALLY OUTSIDE THE EU IN A WORLD OF TRADING BLOCS

-Major economies eg. Japan (the world’s 3^rd largest) are not in any trading bloc.

-The EU is not the place where most economic growth is occurring. The EU’s share of world GDP is forecast to decline to 15% in 2020, down from 26% in 1980.

-Norway and Switzerland are not in the EU, yet they export far more per capita to the EU than the UK does; this suggests that EU membership is not a prerequisite for a healthy trading relationship.

-Furthermore, Britain’s best trading relationships are generally not within the EU, but outside, i.e. with countries such as the USA and Switzerland.

-The largest investor in the UK is not even an EU country, but the US.

4. THE EU IS MOVING TOWARDS THE UK’S POSITION ON CUTTING REGULATION AND BUREAUCRACY

-EU directives are subject to a ‘rachet’ effect – i.e. once in place they are highly unlikely to be reformed or repealed.

-Less than 10% of Britain’s GDP represents trade with the EU yet Brussels regulations afflict 100% of our economy (the 6^th largest in the world)

-80% of the UK’s GDP is generated within the UK so at least 80% (90% if trade with rest of the world included) need not be subject to EU laws.

-In 2006 it was estimated that EU over-regulation costs 600bn Euros across the EU each year.

-In 2010, Open Europe estimated EU regulation had cost Britain £124 billion since 1998.

-Whilst Red tape savings are not direct cash savings, deregulation would result in a true ‘bonfire of regulations’ that could fund either sizeable tax cuts or additional public spending.

5. IF WE LEAVE, BRITAIN WILL HAVE TO PAY BILLIONS TO THE EU AND IMPLEMENT ALL ITS REGULATIONS WITHOUT HAVING A SAY

-We have very little say within the EU, and would have far more leverage outside EU as an independent sovereign nation and the world’s 6^th largest economy.

-The UK currently has only 8.4% of voting power ‘say’ in the EU, and the Lisbon Treaty ensured the loss of Britain’s veto in many more policy areas.

-Britain’s 72 MEPs are a minority within the 736 in the European Parliament (worsening to 73 out of 751 owing to Lisbon changes).

-With further enlargement (Croatia, Turkey’s 79 million citizens), British influence would be further watered down.

-As for continuing contributions by an independent Britain, Swiss and Norwegian examples show that the UK would achieve substantial net savings.

SWISS CASE STUDY:

Official Swiss government figures conclude that through their trade agreements with the EU, the Swiss pay the EU under 600 million Swiss Francs a year, but enjoy virtually free access to the EU market. The Swiss have estimated that full EU membership would cost Switzerland net payments of 3.4 billion Swiss francs a year.

NORWAY CASE STUDY:

Norway only had to make relatively few changes to its laws to make its products eligible for the EU marketplace. In 2009, the Norwegian Mission to the EU estimated that Norway’s total financial contribution linked to their EEA (European Economic Area) agreement is some 340 mn Euros a years, of which some 110mn Euros are contributions related to the participation in various EU programmes. However, this is a fraction of the gross annual cost that Britain must pay for EU membership which is now £18.4bn, or £51mn a day.

6. THE EU HAVE BROUGHT PEACE TO THE EUROPEAN CONTINENT

The Reality:

 

-Even now, the EU is only 28 nations out of the 47 European nations listed as national members of the Council of Europe.

-The forerunner to the EU, the Common Market, didn’t come into existence until 1958, and then only with 6 nations, and yet there was no war between European countries from 1945 to 1956 (except the Hungarian revolution). Whilst peaceful international cooperation is welcomed at all levels, to say the EU is the sole guarantor of peace is an extremeexaggeration that is dishonest in its application.

-It is NATO, founded in 1949 and dominated by the USA, and not the EU, that has actually kept the peace in Europe, together with parliamentary democracy. Both of which are being undermined by the EU.

-The former German President Herzog wrote a few years ago that ‘the question has to be raised of whether Germany can still unreservedly be called a parliamentary democracy’. This was owing to the number of German laws emanating from the EU- which he assessed at some 84%.

-The break up of Yugoslavia was a major test of the EU’s ability to keep the peace. It was EU interference that helped trigger a major civil war and its dithering contributed to deaths of some 100,000 people. It was only decisive action by the US/NATO forces that stopped the violence. Peace was established by the US-brokered Dayton Agreement.

7. THE EU HAS A POSITIVE IMPACT ON THE BRITISH ECONOMY

-British industries such as fishing, farming, postal services and manufacturing have already been devastated by Britain’s membership of the EU.

-EU membership costs UK billions of pounds and large numbers of lost jobs thanks to unnecessary and excessive red tape, substantial membership and aid contributions, inflated consumer prices and other associated costs.

– The Common Fisheries Policy has cost British coastal communities 115,000 jobs (Lee Rotherham, 10 years on)

8. BRITAIN WILL LOSE VITAL FOREIGN INVESTMENT AS A CONSEQUENCE OF LEAVING THE EU

-In a 2010 survey on UK’s attractiveness to foreign investors, Ernst and Young found Britain remained the number one Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) destination in Europe owing largely to the City of London and the UK’s close corporate relationship with the US. EU membership was not mentioned at all in their table of key investment factors, which were (in order of importance): UK culture and values and the English language; telecommunications infrastructure; quality of life; stable social environment, and transport and logistics infrastructure.

-In any case, open access to the EU market would continue through a Free Trade Agreement in the manner of Switzerland and Norway whilst the UK would gain from higher growth, less regulation, more public spending and/or lower taxes and more suitable trade deals.

9. BRITAIN WILL LOSE ALL INFLUENCE IN THE WORLD BY BEING OUTSIDE THE EU

-Britain has a substantial ‘portfolio of power’ in its own right, which includes membership of theG20 and G8 Nations, a permanent seat on the UN Security Council (one of only 5 members) and seats on the International Monetary Fund Board of Governors and World Trade Organisation.

-The UK also lies at heart of the Commonwealth of 54 nations. Moreover, London is the financial capital of the world and Britain has the sixth largest economy. The UK is also in the top ten manufacturing nations in the world.

-Far from increasing British influence in the world, the EU is undermining UK influence. The EU is demanding there is a single voice for the EU in the UN and in the IMF. The EU has also made the British economy and City of London less competitive through overregulation, and negotiates more protectionist and less effective trade deals on behalf of the UK.

-The European External Action Service (EEAS) and its EU ‘Foreign Minister’ Federica Mogherini are undermining national diplomatic representation and the furtherance of British political and commercial interests through British embassies, which are being closed or downsized around the world.

-The Commonwealth is increasingly discriminated against by the EU policy on visas, so that non-EU Commonwealth citizens face having to obtain visas whilst citizens of even new EU entrants have automatic entry. Historic Commonwealth bonds with Britain are being lost.

10. LEGALLY, BRITAIN CANNOT LEAVE THE EU

-Technically, Britain could leave the EU in a single day. Legislatively, this would be achieved simply by repealing the European Communities Act 1972 and its attendant Amendment Acts through a single clause Bill passing through Westminster.

-If the British people voted to leave in an In/Out referendum or by voting in a party with EU withdrawal on its manifesto, Parliament would have to respect the will of the British people and there would be no justification for delay or obstruction in either House.

-However, the process of setting up a replacement UK/EU Free Trade Agreement will take longer, though there would be no need for time-consuming negotiation of tariff reductions if the UK/EU Free Trade Agreement merely replicated existing EU trade arrangements.

-In addition, even the Lisbon Treaty’s Article 50 enshrines the right of member states to leave the Union, albeit in an unattractive manner. The same article requires the EU to seek a free trade deal with a member which leaves. Greenland established a precedent for a sovereign nation by leaving the EEC in 1985, and is prospering well outside of it. With Westminster still sovereign (for the moment), it is the British Parliament who will decide how and when Britain leaves the EU.

The 25 happiest, healthiest and richest countries in the world have been revealed - and Norway comes out on top. Switzerland comes in second. Neither is in the EU. Legatum Institute.

The many perverse decisions in Euro Law come from the ECJ - an EU Institution.

Big business loves the EU. (Refer to the CBI). They can absorb and cope with the masses of bureaucracy and regulations - they simply raise prices. Small businesses go to the wall under the burden - thus giving a larger share still to the multi-nationals.

Trade last 50 years:Switzerland opened up trade markets worth £24trillion over the period compared with just £3.3trillion for the UK over the same period. The Swiss are outside - we are inside! (Note that this is actual trade.)

The EU is currently trying to remove influence from The City - here in the UK - and shift this huge amount of business to Frankfurt.

Half A Trillion £s Paid To EU Since 1973.

EU regulations on dredging were responsible for flooding chaos.

Leaving means that we can, once again, have a voice in the WTO - denied to us as an EU member.

In theory, Europol's powers are unlimited. Some say - greater than those of the Gestapo. They are not involved in brutality in any way - but why give them the right?

 We shall have to join TTIP. http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/what-is-ttip-and-six-reasons-why-the-answer-should-scare-you-9779688.html

 Brussels back for more of your cash: EU asks Britain for an extra £1.7BILLION - because our economy's doing so well (while France gets £790m rebate). Er ... our economy is 'doing well' when we are 1.3 trillion pounds in debt? - Anyway - nice for the spendthrift, socialists in France, innit?