It's getting very close to that time now where we, the people of Britain will vote in the EU referendum on Thursday 23rd of June 2016. The question is should we stay in the EU or should we leave the EU?
Please note, before I start my argument that all views and opinions presented in this argument are entirely my own and the views of others will be presented in speech marks, please do not shame me for having an opinion, just accept it and respect my views on the matter. Thank You.
So, the question. Should we stay in the EU? or should we leave? I'm opting for leaving. Now anyone who knows me will know that I am not a very political person, at all. Me and politics just do not mix at all. I know very little about our government and the way this country works in terms of how it is run and I didn't really have an opinion on this EU thing at all, I would have been happy to have just voted stay and go with the flow of what everybody else was doing.
However, I happened to be talking about this EU referendum with a friend of mine, and she told me that she has been 'obsessed with the EU referendum and Boris Johnson". This lead me to asking her the question, do you think we should leave the EU. Her reply was " I really hope so. Hope Boris ends up as prime minister too" this interested me a great deal, she later went on to say that "I've always wanted to leave Europe and wanted Boris to be PM. Cameron will be finished if we vote leave". I then asked her "Do you think we'll benefit being on our own?" and she thinks we will. If we were on our own and we did leave, we wouldn't have the EU rules imposed on us.
I thought this was very interesting indeed, that she had these views. I don't know much about the EU referendum. I don't follow the debates or anything like that, I didn't even have an opinion until a few weeks ago. I was going to vote stay. As I said before, not fussed on politics, just go with the flow and vote stay because thats what I thought the vast majority would be doing. The reason for me thinking these lazy thoughts was because I just thought that the majority of British people wouldn't want to leave. Though I could be wrong.
My friend said that there were plenty of articles to read online and that I should read some. Most people she knows are voting out. Like most of these votes, it'll be a close one. It seems to be a case of coming down to who do we the British public trust more running our country? David Cameron or Boris Johnson?
I looked up the pros and cons of if we left or if we stayed and to me, the reasons to leave made more sense to me. The number one thing for me it comes down to the Membership fee, the cost of the Membership. Leaving the EU would result us in having an immediate and tremendous costs saving, as the country would no longer contribute to the EU budget. Right now, it's costing us £350 million a week, which would be better off being invested in other things like the NHS for example. The UK would also be able to decide how to spend the money that the EU transfers back into it. Another thing my friend said to me was about currency "UK money should stay in the UK, not shipped off to the EU".
Consumer affairs, The EU legislates on consumer protection issues and regulations on trading standards. The EU red tape makes goods and services more expensive so leaving would cut that down, the recent row over 'tampon tax' clearly shows that the EU have too much power, Britain should be able to set it's own VAT rates. Consumer protection rules existed before the EU and would remain after Britain left.
Work and pay, It is very hard to find work these days. Unemployment is over 10% in the EU, almost double the rate in the UK. Less regulation in the work place would create more jobs, Maternity leave and holiday pay would only change if Britain decided to change them, the UK get more investment from countries outside of the EU, and lower migration would push wages up.
Immigration. This was something I happened to be talking about with my friend and I agree with her that we do need to "cut immigration and only allow people in who have jobs or skills we need, like Australia does. Far too many criminals freely moving around the EU countries" I think she's right on that part, I do agree with that. I think we should cut down on immigration and that way we'd be able to control employment more. It is impossible to control immigration as a member of the EU. Public services are under strain because of the number of migrants, High immigration does drive down wages for British workers. So by leaving the EU consequently we could control immigration better.
Trade and economy, the whole reason we are in the EU is because of trade due to anything else and its on this particular matter that we are a part of the EU on our own terms. For instance we have been allowed to keep the British pound (£) By leaving the EU, Britain would be freed from the burden of EU regulation. Trade with the EU countries would still continue because we import more from them than we do exporting to them. As well as that Britain would be free to able to negotiate its own trade deals with other countries.
Boris Johnson said "The EU now, basically determines sixty percent of the laws that this country makes, its costing 350 million pounds a week, it is evolving into something completely unlike what we signed up for in nineteen seventy two and its becoming more and more like a federal superstate, which we will inevitably be comprised if we stay in, so vote leave on June 23rd".
Sir James Dyson has said "We will create more wealth and more jobs by being outside of the EU and we will be in control of our own destiny".
Sir Michael Caine has said "You've now got in Europe a sort of government by poxy of everybody who has now got carried away. Unless there is some extremely significant change, we should get out".
I think that as a young person, I've never known what life would be like outside of EU. I think the majority of votes to remain will come from people under the age of 30. They and their parents don't have any knowledge of like before the EU. Some people might be scared about not wanting to approach a new and scary possibility and I agree, it is potentially scary leaving the EU and becoming a truly independent country but at the same time, the prospect is a refreshing and exciting one.
The facts are that with any argument over something such as this, you can't have advantages without disadvantages and true, there are reasonable advantages and disadvantages on both sides of the argument, however it comes down to me anyway about weighing up the pros and cons. Leaving the EU seems more sensible as the pros outscore the cons. As we get closer to the vote, i'm starting to become more excited about this referendum. It's getting to the point where we the people of Britain are going to have to make a decision and that decision, whatever the outcome will be one that goes down in history. Let's hope we can make the right choices for the right reasons.
Honestly I think, we as a nation are better off outside of the EU. Once we get rid of the EU all the stuff that goes with it, life in Britain as I would see it, would become much more simpler, much more meaningful, more worth living in my opinion. I believe in Britain. In the end it comes down to what kind of Britain do we want? It's perfectly apparent.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, now you know my reasons for wanting to leave, please respect and accept them as being my opinion and mine alone, and whatever you think about the referendum, make sure you vote on the 23rd of June.
