#euvote

I’m not very good at debating, my brain doesn’t stay focused on my point of view, and instead it gets dragged to wherever the other debating party are going and tries to argue against them. Even if it just seems for fun.

Because of this and because I am able to write down my political point of view in this country without the fear of some hideous secret governmental organisation making me disappear, I’ve decided to make this my first ever blog subject.

 I’m male, 36 years young, white, married with one toddler son, educated to GCSE level, lived in the same town for the entirety of my life and have worked in the accounts department for the same company for nearly 18 years.

There will be people who will pick that last paragraph apart (if anyone actually reads this) and use whatever sweeping generalisations to either argue against my decision or to agree with it. I don’t think that either should happen and I would hope that, if for any reason they have stumbled across this blog and even stranger decided to give it the time of day, that they would finish the whole article before forming an opinion on my decision.

 My main reason for voting out of the European Union is that it doesn’t sit comfortably with me that the people we elect to run our nation do not have the final say over what happens in it. I’m not going to say undemocratic because in theory whoever we have voted to head our government and our MEP’s sit on the European Council and the European Parliament are able to vote as our elected representatives. In total there are 750 MEPs from all the member states. The United Kingdom makes up just over 70 of these so we have just less than a 10% representation. Germany has the highest with 96 MEP’s which is a 12.8% representation and Estonia, Cyprus, Luxemburg and Malta have the lowest with 6 MEP’s each less than 1% representation. This doesn’t look too bad but it also means that it doesn’t take many other members to think something you are trying to pass through as legislation as rubbish and to vote against it. This does also mean that we could vote a party to head our government in on a manifesto which might not pass through the European Parliament or indeed the European Court.  

 Something else that has puzzled me is that a lot people of the United Kingdom seem to have lost complete faith in the people of the United Kingdom. If Brexit happens some would have us believe that all of a sudden we would be incapable of voting for anyone other than Voldemort or some kind of oppressive Bond villain. I happen to believe that I am lucky enough to live in one of the most intelligent, worldly wise, politically open eyed and empathetic nations in the world. Who’s to say that if we hadn’t been in the EU since the 70’s that we wouldn’t have passed through all the workers’ rights, for example, that we have now? I think it is a great insult to all of us to insinuate that we couldn’t have achieved anything on our own.

 One thing I have noticed about saying I want to vote leave is how quick people are to label you as someone who doesn’t believe in freedom of movement. Unfortunately some of the people who are voicing their opinions loudest in the leave campaign happen to be pushing the anti-immigration message but that does not mean that is the main reason that everyone who wants to leave is voting to do so.

I am in favour of having a trade agreement with the EU and I do not think I am naive enough to think it will not come without conditions. One of these conditions will undoubtedly be freedom of movement as Switzerland and Norway etc. set precedents.

It seems to be a common belief that if we leave the EU we cannot have as good a trade agreement as we have now, with Tariffs being added to goods that we send to Europe making us more expensive. One statistic that I’ve seen quoted is that the EU makes up 44% of UK exports in contrast to the 3% of exports from the EU to the UK. This to me looks as though half the figures from 2 different statistics have been stuck together to try and make a point. Surely if we are saying that the exports from the UK are 44% to the EU then we need to know what percentage of the UK imports are from the EU. This figure is 53%. The following statistic has been sourced from the HMRC, Overseas Trade Statistics and is a summary of trade between the UK and the EU from 2008 to 2015.

This shows that we actually spend more money importing goods from the EU than we receive by exporting to the EU. That says to me that by adding Duty Tariffs to any future trade agreement would not be beneficial to either side. I see no reason why we can’t have a free trade agreement. One change I would like is to take out the part that stipulates we cannot create free trade agreements with any other nations. The EU does not have agreements with the US or Japan to name just 2 and we should be able to create our own agreements with others to help us prosper. We are also part of a Commonwealth of which we are currently restricted to trade with.

 If part of that free trade agreement means we carry on with the free movement of people then I also do not see it as a problem. I and members of my extended family have benefited from the free movement of people. We are told that immigrants to this country pay more in taxes than they receive in benefits. That is great. If net migration to the UK is to continue then it’s just common sense that infrastructure needs to be put in place to cope. If the net result of immigration is one of a revenue to the UK then I do not see why this would be a problem.The immigrants to this country are split pretty evenly between EU members and non EU members. There is controversy over the migration figures as (I quote fullfact.org) “mainly based on surveys of passengers at airports” and also how accurate they are when taking short term and long term immigration in to account. A pretty simplistic way of looking at it but I am a pretty simple bloke. So as I said I think free movement of people will be part of any trade agreement.

 It’s taken me longer than I thought to write this but I’m glad I’ve done it. The intention is not to influence anybody’s vote (just as well as its halfway through voting day) but as I said at the beginning I do not perform well in a debating situation. I also apologise for my writing skills and grammar, my wife constantly reminds me how bad the latter is. 

I hope for a high turnout whichever way people vote and that everyone has voted for what they believe.