The Observant Writer

Every time you switch the radio on or even the TV. The central question appears to be EUROPE, should we stay or should be opt out. Since joining, we have watched from the sidelines like a naughty child. We have been attempted to be governed from London using our laws based on the Magna Carta. Which is continually challenged by Europe, so having asked what are the benefits of stay in or opting out of Europe. So having spent time researching the question, the following are my opinions. Please don’t hesitate to comment on them or even add your own.

REASONS TO STAY IN EUROPE.

Millions of jobs linked to our EU membership

As far back as the year 2000, it has been claimed that three million jobs rely directly on our membership of the European Union. Nick Clegg even cited the figure during his time as Deputy Prime Minister. An analysis of Full Fact found that millions of jobs are linked to the EU, but said there is no evidence to show how many would be in jeopardy if we left.

Some of Britain’s biggest trading partners are in the EU

Some of Britain’s largest trading partners — including France and Germany — are in the EU. More than 50% of our exports go to EU countries, and our membership allows us to have a say over how trading rules are drawn up. Additionally American and Asian EU firms build factories in Britain as a result of the single market.

Trade

The EU negotiates trade agreements with the rest of the world. Outside the EU Britain would have to renegotiate trade deals alone. While the EU is the world’s largest market, a UK outside the EU would not be a high priority for other countries to negotiate a trade deal.

Freedom to work, study abroad and easy travel.

Around 1.4 million British people live elsewhere in the EU. Additionally, more than 14,500 UK students took part in the EU’s Erasmus Student Exchange scheme in 2012–13, as well as having membership makes movement around the continent incredibly easy. Driving licences issued in the UK are valid in all EU countries.

Crime fighting

The European Arrest Warrant cuts out the need for long and complicated extradition procedures and allows criminals to be brought to justice across the EU. Eurojust helps UK authorities work with other EU countries’ to tackle international organised crime such as drug smuggling, people trafficking and money laundering.

Influence in the world

The EU is the world’s biggest market and plays a prominent role in global trade, climate change issues, development projects and more. It has the clout to take on multinationals such as Google and Microsoft. At the moment Britain plays a critical role in the EU, and leaving would see us forgo that.

Consumer clout

British families enjoy lower mobile phone roaming charges, lower credit card fees, cheaper flights and proper compensation when flights are delayed or cancelled. These sorts of benefits could not be achieved by Britain alone.

Clean environment

Through commonly agreed EU standards, national Governments have made improvements to the quality of air, rivers and beaches. Good for Britain and good for Britons holidaying or living abroad!

Power to curb the multinationals

The EU has taken on multinational giants like Microsoft, Samsung and Toshiba for unfair competition. The UK would not be able to do this alone.

Peace and democracy

The EU has helped secure peace among previously warring western European nations. It contributed to consolidate democracy in Spain, Portugal, Greece and former Soviet bloc countries and helped preserve peace in the Balkans until the end of the Balkans War. With the UN, it now plays a leading role in conflict prevention, peacekeeping and democracy building.

Equal pay and non-discrimination

Equal pay for men and women is enshrined in EU law, as a ban on discrimination by age, race or sexual orientation. This benefits Britain and British people who live in other EU countries.

Cutting red tape

Common rules for the common market make it unnecessary to have 28 sets of national regulations.

Research funding

The UK is the second largest beneficiary of EU research funds, and the British Government expects future EU research funding to constitute a vital source of income for our world-leading universities and companies.

REASONS TO LEAVE

Border control back in our hands

The flip side of the freedom of work and travel for UK citizens is that people from other EU countries are free to move to and live in Britain.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage says any attempt by the Government to control immigration into the UK is futile as long as we are in the EU.

We could make a significant membership fee-saving

Like most clubs, the EU charges a membership fee, and it has been claimed that the cost is around £55m per day.

Analysis by Full Fact estimates the figure is closer to £24m per day when rebates and other receipts are taken into account.

Institutions are seen as lacking democracy

The European Parliament is directly elected, although the powerful Commission which proposes legislation is not.

Because many of these laws supersede law made by individual states’ parliaments, some see the system as undemocratic.

Other countries successfully go it alone

Many Eurosceptics look to rich Norway as a country which trades with the EU without being in it. It also controls its agriculture and keeps its fish, rather than being bound by EU quotas.

Get rid of any threat to Britain’s military freedom

There is a push within the ranks of the EU’s leaders for it to have its army.

The president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, said earlier this year that it would help show Russia the EU was serious about defending member values.

In the past, the British Government has been forced to block moves to create EU-controlled military forces.

We’re much better off in the EU

Yes, it’s the government’s own Department of Business, Innovation and Skills which puts the overall gain to Britain at six percent of our gross domestic product.

This is at the extremes of the guesses in this continent-sized guessing game, though — some think-tanks think the EU costs Britain about the same amount.

We get to trade stuff with lots of Europeans

Business stops wars. It also makes us a lot richer — and 50 per cent of all our trade is with the EU.

All those goods and services slushing around the continent have brought prosperity to a continent which, let’s face it, has had a pretty ropy history.

The process isn’t even complete, either — it’s hoped that finishing off the job of creating a real single market could boost GDP by yet another seven per cent. According to the British government, of course.

There’s a chance your job could depend on the EU

OK, all the percentage points above might seem a little obscure. In fact, they translate to something everyone can understand — jobs.

There are an estimated 3.5 million jobs in Britain which are linked, one way or another, to the UK’s trade with the rest of Europe.

Manufacturing would be hit especially hard. If Britain left the EU, the foreign companies which own most of Britain’s car factories, for example, would shift their business overnight.

Immigration isn’t all one-way

The free movement of people within the EU — and the vast immigration to Britain that results — is at the heart of the EU debate.

But your attitude to the issue might be influenced by where you live. In Rhondda in Wales, just 0.6 percent of the population are arrivals from the EU. At the other extreme, in Tottenham in London, 17 percent are EU immigrants. The strain on local public services is bound to be felt more there.

Plus, there’s a flipside to the immigration debate which doesn’t get talked about much: the 1.4 million Brits currently living in the EU who would be forced to return to their homeland if we left the EU.

A sudden influx of returning Brits would pose, at least in the short-term, just as big a challenge to local councils.

Leaving Britain would be catastrophic for wine-drinkers

Here’s the real killer, though. At least in the short-term, the cost of a bottle of plonk is going to sky-rocket.

If Britain left the EU, the price of an imported bottle of wine would instantly jump by a third. In fact, all imports would be hit because the UK’s existing trade deals were all made via the EU at the World Trade Organisation.

Any car bought from overseas would instantly become ten percent more expensive, too. Puts fuel duty into perspective, doesn’t it?

Euro Myths

No British person under the age of 56 has had a say on Europe
 It will be for the UK parliament to decide whether or not to hold a referendum on British membership of the EU. But it is wrong to say British people have not had a say on Europe. Britain has a parliamentary democracy with scrutiny by our elected representatives. Britain has a significant say in Europe through the British Government and Members of the European Parliament elected by the British people.

If a referendum is the only way to have a say, then there are many issues on which the British are apparently voiceless. A NATO referendum? A WTO referendum? Hanging? Flogging? Fixed parliaments?

Trade is fine, but we don’t need all these rules
 A market needs rules. This includes having rules on:

• Consumer protection: with goods and services flowing freely across frontiers, a standard approach is essential.
• Social standards, to avoid companies shifting to the country with the lowest health & safety protection or the weakest employee rights.
• The environment, where we all have a common interest in high standards.
• Competition policy, to ensure that our common market is not dominated by monopolies or a few multinational companies, or by firms given unfair subsidies by their governments.

The EU is drowning us in red tape
 Customs-free trade in the EU makes business easier. Common rules for the common market cuts red tape — replacing 28 sets national regulations with one European-wide approach.

The EU is always telling us what to do
 It doesn’t — unless it’s something we agreed to do in the first place! The EU is simply a way to meet with our neighbouring countries to thrash out common solutions to common problems. Nothing the EU ‘tells us to do’ is anything other than that which has been agreed by a Council of Ministers where the British government is a key player, and by the European Parliament which has a strong British contingent of elected MEPs.

Britain has always been different from the rest of Europe
 And Italy has always been different from Germany or Spain. Every country is unique! All have different languages, cultures, histories and laws. And all are as deeply attached to their identity as we are.

Margaret Thatcher said that being in Europe hadn’t made the French any less French. She was right — being in Europe hasn’t made Britain any less British.

We could just leave the EU and deal by ourselves in the wider world
 Half of Britain’s exports are to our EU partners. Britain exports four times more to the EU than to the USA, more to Sweden than China. Asian and American companies invest in Britain because it is part of the EU single market. Being a member of the EU hasn’t prevented Germany from being the world’s export capital.

Britain could be like Switzerland or Norway who does perfectly well outside the EU

They have to follow EU rules as the EU is their primary export market. But as non-members, they have no say over those EU rules. They cannot defend their interests. They have lost sovereignty by pretending to maintain it — which is what UKIP wants to do!

It doesn’t even save money — the Norwegian contribution to the EU budget is similar, per head, to the UK’s. For the Norwegians, as non-members, it is ‘taxation without representation’.

The EU is undemocratic

The EU has a better level of democratic scrutiny than any other international body: the UN, NATO, WTO, IMF, World Bank, etc.

EU decisions are made by
— meetings of elected national governments
— directly elected Members of the European Parliament

National parliaments receive all EU proposals in time to debate them before their Minister goes to the European meeting to discuss them and can blow the whistle where a proposal goes beyond what the EU should be doing.

Each national Government appoints its European Commissioner — just like the Prime Minister appoints Ministers. The Commission then has to be approved by (and can be dismissed by) the elected European Parliament. And in 2014 for the first time, you’ll help to decide the Commission president by voting in the European Parliament elections.

EU law should not override British law
 All international law overrides national law. If some countries agree to a particular measure, this has to be binding on them or what would be the point? If a state could decide one thing at international level and then do something else at domestic level, then international commitments on peace, trade and defence would be meaningless. It makes no sense to complain that EU law supersedes national law.

EU law can only be adopted in the areas specified in the Treaties — and can only be adjusted by the unanimous agreement of all Governments.

The EU is run by bureaucrats
 All decisions on policy and European legislation are taken by the elected governments of the Member States and elected Members of the European Parliament. Decisions are made in Brussels, not by Brussels. The European Commission can only propose, and carry out what has been agreed.

By the way, the European Commission is small — it has fewer employees than Leeds City Council.

The EU spends too much money
 The EU budget is 2% of public spending — 98% of taxpayers’ money is spent by national or local government. Spending has to be approved by national Ministers and by elected Members of the European Parliament.
 The EU budget has to be in balance — there is no deficit or debt.

The pattern of spending has changed over time: over two-thirds used to be spent on the Common Agricultural Policy, now reduced to about 30%.

The EU budget has anyway been declining as a proportion of national wealth because spending has risen more slowly than economic growth, and far less than has national government spending.

The European Court imposes laws on us
 The European Court, whose judges are appointed by national governments, rules on disputes referred to them concerning the interpretation of existing European laws, but they have no law-making powers.

As one former (British) President of the Court said: “the judges do not take political decisions, but they must sometimes remind politicians of what they have agreed”.

The Court is essential for ensuring that everybody abides by what they have signed up to. If a country fails to stick to its agreements, like France did over British beef, it can be taken to court.

It is this that has ensured that EU countries accepted British beef whereas the majority of Commonwealth countries did not — and there was nothing we could do about it.

CONCLUSION

Last year the UK celebrated 800 years of the Magna Carta, it was also reported last year that our Magna Carta has been “distorted and devalued” by the Labour Government’s Human Rights Act of 1998, as well as the Conservative’s Government wishing to replace it with the British Bill of Rights. Furthermore, the sad fact is that there is no provision of the Magna Carta applies any more in English Law today, due to the “supremacy” of EU Law. Therefore, The Human Rights Act and our subjugation to the European Courts of Rights is now just a symptom of a bigger problem, which our membership of the EU and political establishment’s betrayal of our country since 1972.

The Magna Carta was a result of the people requiring the King to recognise their rights under existing laws and customers. In this case, by the Barons using the threat of force of arms. The Charter of 1215 was not the first example; evidence dates to the reign of Henry I (1100–1135)

Magna Carta was ratified into law by an Act of Parliament soon in the reign of King John’s successor the nine-year-old Henry III; it was resigned and ratified on some occasions by successive kings down to the reign of Henry V in 1423. Magna Carta was invoked during the Tudor and Stuart dynasties to fend off their tyrannical tendencies.

The most relevant provisions of Magna Carta from a modern perspective were that no freeman could be imprisoned or have their goods or money taken with due process of the law and the conviction of a court of law, and ‘by the judgement of their peers’ (which began the process of trial by jury). These protections from arbitrary arrest and detention were enshrined as a bedrock of English law.

However, under the European Arrest Warrant, and various other EU legislation (e.g. the universal recognition of fines and confiscation orders), British citizens have no protections from arbitrary arrest and the confiscation of their money by foreign courts (i.e. other EU member states). And since EU law takes precedence over English law (and Scottish law) the UK courts have no power to protect their citizens.

Regarding a new Bill of Rights, the government forgets that we already have one — the Bill of Rights (1689). The existing Bill of Rights is routinely ignored by our courts and indeed our membership of the European Union itself treasonable under the Act.

So sadly, whatever the people of the UK want, we have been sold out to Europe. Having a referendum is only giving the appearance of having a choice. The decision was made long ago. We shall stay in Europe with whatever water down version of whatever the current government is told to accept, whether or not the British Public take it or not.

Resources

The section will contain useful campaign resources, information packs, facts and figures, videos and other content that will support the yes campaign.

RESOURCES

Organisations
 The European Movement http://www.euromove.org.uk/
 British Influence http://britishinfluence.org/
 Centre for European Reform http://www.cer.org.uk/
 Business for New Europe http://www.bnegroup.org/
 New Europeans http://www.neweuropeans.net

Blogs and Commentary
 Ideas on Europe http://eu-rope.ideasoneurope.eu/
 Blog ‘EC in the UK’ http://blogs.ec.europa.eu/ECintheUK/
 Euromyths debunked A-Z — http://blogs.ec.europa.eu/ECintheUK/euromyths-a-z-index/
 Euro Myth Buster https://www.facebook.com/EuromythBuster

Official Sites
 European Commission UK Office http://ec.europa.eu/unitedkingdom/
 European Parliament UK Office http://www.europarl.org.uk/
 European Parliament Download Center http://ddc.europarltv.twofourdigital.net/en

Pro-European Political Groups
 Conservative Europe Group http://www.conservativeeuropegroup.org.uk/
 Labour Movement for Europe http://labourmovement.eu/
 Liberal Democrat European Group http://ldeg.org/en/

News and EU affairs
 Euractiv http://www.euractiv.com/sections/uk-europe
 The EU Policy Broadcaster http://www.vieuws.eu/
 EuroNews http://www.euronews.com/

MORE INFORMATION
 Why Norway or Switzerland’s relationship with the EU is not a model for the UK http://britishinfluence.org/alternatives-eu/
 The economic impact of EU membership on the UK
 http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/sn06730/the-economic-impact-of-eu-membership-on-the-uk
 Euromyths debunked A-Z — http://blogs.ec.europa.eu/ECintheUK/euromyths-a-z-index/
 British Government reviews of the balances of competences
 https://www.gov.uk/review-of-the-balance-of-competences