So here are my thoughts finally…

I see absolutely no reason why we would want to leave. As part of the EU, and due to being part of the EU, we have become the 5th largest economy in the world, potentially soon to be 4th if we remain. We have access to the largest trading block in the world on our doorstep, and as a member of the EU get to shape policy within this trading block.

The EU has brought us peace and the freedom to live, work or retire anywhere in Europe, it has created and sustains millions of jobs, the ESF and other funding within the EU directly provides money that currently keeps UK charities, libraries, parks and community centres open, that would not otherwise get funding from the UK government and who we all know the Tories won’t fund. It has made our holidays safer, and easier, it offers greater protection from international crime, terrorism and people trafficking, it provides 50% of all UK business income and gives us a stronger voice in NATO, the UN and on the international stage.

We will lose ALL of these things if we leave the EU, we will gain absolutely nothing.

Yes we can still trade with the EU, but only if we join the European Free Trade area. If we do this we will pay the same as we currently do, have to accept free movement of people anyway, and for all of the cost we will not have any say in any of the rules within the block; because we won’t be members of the EU. This is just as Norway have to accept now, the supposed model we should be wanting.

Alternatively we don’t join the free trade area and we don’t pay in, this money won’t be spent of services in the UK, because the Tories will be in power and will spend it on tax cuts for the rich and privatising everything in sight. But then they say we can control our borders and have sovereignty, so let’s look at those points, well we already allow more migration from non-EU countries than we get through the EU, so we already could control this, but chose not to because contrary to the myth we need migration.

And so to sovereignty and being ruled by unelected bureaucrats, another myth I’m afraid. Firstly there is, in the entirety of the EU, one-tenth the number of unelected bureaucrats as there are in the UK government. But secondly since we entered the EU we have voted against rules dictated to us by the EU 50 times, but we have voted in favour of them more than 2,500 times. So the reality is that we support almost every rule and diktat that is supposedly imposed by the EU on things that affect the UK. And if something doesn’t affect the UK, then we don’t somehow have to start doing it.

We are not ruled by the EU, we are ruled by ourselves and it is more a case that we rule over the EU.