According to the wires tonight, UK Prime Minister David Cameron is to offer the people of Britain a referendum with a Yes or No as to remain within the European Union or not.
However this will be after he has re-negotiated the UK's membership to suit what he and his party think is correct and this vote will not be until the next Parliament.
So just a few hurdles to jump. Firstly to get the rest of the EU to let us pick the sultanas out of the bun and then for the Tories to win the next election. That would suggest that such a referendum is about as likely as the one he promised Britain over the Lisbon Treaty.
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The media report on the bad bits, but never focus on the good bits. Hence why it's thought to be bad.
I'm on the fence to be fair.
But it would be crazy to hold one, without the public being educated!
Due to every government breaking promises, so the public trust no one?
Poor education? Or just simply ignorant?
Given my user name you might all well have guessed that I have experienced Europe from the other side.
I would like to mirror what @_nam11 said. No point in offering this until the public is given a true picture of all the pros and cons (yes their are both and many of them)
At this time the Sun and Daily Mail with the same terror stories doing the rounds over and over again, we stand no real chance of a fair and balanced referendum
It surely won't be long before the main players in the EU just get so pissed off with the British and our constant demands to have 'opt outs' etc that they freeze us out anyway, leaving us as a marginal rather than central player.
Cameron is totally f====d on this issue, he wants to be in Europe but has to keep the right-wing nutters and anti-Europeans happy too and that's an impossible task.
There is no way that Britain will leave the EU, the Yanks want us to stay and be 'their' voice in the EU, if we drop out or become a junior member then the Yanks will switch their favors to the Germans and that will mean a massive, massive loss of international prestige for Britain.
This issue was always going to tear the Tories apart again, it did for Major in the 1992-1997 parliament and was never properly resolved.
But all this 'in out, in out, shake it all about' malarkey isn't doing the nation any favours and that is a worry IMO.
It was called Much Ado About Nothing.
This is Cameron hoping to kick "Europe" into the long grass and con those that are inclined to vote UKIP that the Tories can be trusted on the EU when there is overwhelming evidence that they cannot.
I include myself in that. I only know what I have read, heard in the media etc on the supposed pros and cos and how trustworthy and credible the arguments are I don't know. Would hope someone will lay out in sensible terms the pros and cons without any political spin or bias before the vote but cant see who would do that.
There are two reasons why we might want to stay in Europe.
(1) We benefit from the ability to trade freely with the other EU members and are subject to the same rules and regulations as they are. This is massively important to us. We would be in a world of pain if it ends, genuinely catastrophic.
(2) We get a say in what those rules and regulations are. We also benefit from being part of the largest trading block in the world when it comes to negotiated with the rest of the world.
If we leave the EU that we lose (2). There's no real question about that. Sure we'll have some say but not as much.
The question is, do we lose (1) as well. Eurosceptics say that we won't. Free trade benefits all parties who engage in it so the EU member states will not want to lose their ability to trade freely with us. They point to countries such as Switzerland and Norway who have free trade agreements with the EU. Europhiles say that there is a real danger that we will lose the ability to trade freely. Europhobes agree with Eurosceptics and also downplay just how much of a disaster it would be for the UK if we lost our ability to trade freely with the Euroblock.
IMO, the overwhelming likelihood is that we would agree trade terms with the EU but it woudl be very much on their terms as they woudl have by far the better negotiating position. If we were unable to come to an arrangement it woudl be an absolute disaster way worse than anything we have suffered in the last decade. The period of uncertanty during any negotiations would be bad enough.
OTOH, the benefits of leaving the EU are not insignificant. What we lose by no longer being a voice in a large and influential block of countries we gain by having our own voice. We regain control of our own policies in relation to a larg number of areas such as agricultural subsidies. We no longer have to pay into the EU.
On balance, if there was a referendum tomorrow I would vote the stay in. For me the the small risk of a disaster together with the loss of collective strength and influence in the wider world outweighs the certainty of small fiscal gains and independence in policy making.
Even if there needs to be a referendum on the subject, I'm not sure now is the time.
Many of those won't or can't be bothered to understand the implications of what they are voting for.
I predict a 60% turnout, which is probably higher than a general election!
I've now lost it.
PISSED OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is not until 2017..... and the idea that we can argue for better terms to stay in looks hopelessly optimistic, because all the EU countries will want to try and do that.
Why should it take 4 years to get to this stage.........it has been a political topic for years. Not sure if this works in a national sense, as the uncertainty from foreign investment seems to be put a major doubt over our ability to be seperate from the EU. Is the UK able to go it alone these days?.
I think we are probably too far involved already and in a few more years this looks very unrealistic.
We seemed to have joined a club, but do not like the rules, and always want to opt out?.
Offy put me right, though - he told me it served me right for being abusive lol
24 hours later my lost post magically appeared at the bottom of the thread.
Twice.
A favourite Europhile scare tactic is to refer to the "3 million jobs that depend on our membership of the EU."
Neil Kinnock no less was forced to admit that this was a lie.
http://www.freebritain.org.uk/_blog/Free_Britain/post/Lies_about_UK_trade_with_EU_on_Jeff_Randall_live_by_Ashley_Mote/