By June, or a few months later, you’ll have made the most important political decision of your life. Assuming that you are a British, Irish or Commonwealth citizen (over 18 and living in the UK), you’ll have the chance to vote in a referendum that determines whether the UK will leave the EU, or remain. Making the case to leave is not easy. Naturally, people prefer to go for the status quo. Nevertheless, give me a chance and I will explain why I think that the UK would be a better country outside the EU.
The “Remain” side often tell us that the EU is uniformly good, doling out £8.4 billion to the UK in 2015, or just over £130 per citizen. What they fail to point out is that we pay in vastly more than we receive. We pay £18.2 billion, or £280 per citizen. Per week, that’s the cost of a fully staffed hospital. Per year, that’s half England’s schools budget, four times our science and research budget, and a whopping sixty times what we spend on NHS drugs for cancer sufferers. Every time you are told that we receive more than we give, remember that it is your own money, minus almost half.
To be a member of any club, you have to obey their rules. Whatever the PM comes back with in his renegotiation deal, he will not change the basic EU right of freedom of movement. Anyone EU citizen, no matter what they bring with them, can enter this country. Legally, our government cannot do a thing to stop them. Furthermore, they are entitled to the same privileges as a citizen here. With a generous social security system, many do come, with 40% of the 183,000 EU immigrants last year not having a definite job to go to. Downward pressure on wages via mass migration is a boon for big companies, but not for the working and middle classes. Rational migration is the way forward. Australia, America, and Canada can all choose the brightest and best to allow in, and plug their skills gaps, but we cannot, with our open door to half a billion people.
60% of private sector employees work for small and medium size businesses. Every diktat, every rule and regulation that comes from Brussels is forced upon them. Not just the nonsense about kitchen gloves having to be able to withstand 200°, but extortionately expensive rules like the climate change targets that push up energy prices, and mandate that £20 billion of taxpayers’ money be spent on closing down power stations and funding wasteful renewables subsidies. The British steel industry is taking a hammering because their increasing energy costs force them to charge more, and be undercut by China. Furthermore, this industry can’t be bailed out, because of state aid rules that ban governments from propping up failing industries.
Let’s consider life outside the EU. We could control our borders, and write our own laws. We would have to obey some EU regulations, but not the most wasteful, like the Working Time Directive, climate targets or the CAP. We could sign our own free trade deals with countries with a shared history and legal system, like America. We would still trade with the EU – we spend £6 billion more on their exports than they do on ours, so they can’t just walk away. And critically, we could control our borders again. However you vote, please do. You won’t get this chance again.
A free trade deal with the US? Ask the Mexicans and Canadians how well they fared. The US would completely dominate the trade talks.
A Brexit would be a costly affair. It might be good for European integration though as the British won’t be around to slow down the process. Don’t forget to shut off the lights once you are done leaving the EU!