The fact that 40 odd years after we joined we still use feet and inches..pints...etc just goes to show how entrenched we are...De Gaulle said we shouldn't join the Common Market because we will never be Europeans...he was right!

i think we will be much better off OUT..whatever the BBC Government propaganda machine says. Already we have the scaremongering...unlike the Scottish referendum where they left the banking 'bombshell' till the last minute...that, as the Scots now realise was utter twaddle!

As for the NHS scares...back in the '60s ...LONG BEFORE we joined the Common Market...my aunt was matron of a large psychiatric hospital. She told me that they were fast tracking visas for nurses and doctors from Africa, Phillipines etc. THAT has never changed. Most of our doctors and nurses who migrated here have come from OUTSIDE the EU...that is unlikely to change. If we need staff from within Europe there's nothing to stop them from being fast tracked either. No-one will be 'obliged' to leave straightaway if we vote out anyway! Besides...WHY are we not training more nurses in UK?

We import more to the EU more than we export. They need us more than we need them...as the recents ads on  the telly have said...Canada, China, NZ, Australia etc etc...all WANT to trade with us! There are great opportunities out there. What holds us back at the moment is EU red tape...it's a bureaucratic nightmare. It's not straightforward importing or exporting...even within the EU. As for most of us selling on eBay...we MIGHT have to put a CN22 on our EU parcels...and our customers MIGHT have to pay taxes...it doesn't deter many outside the EU...postage is a different matter...that has always been the biggest deterrent! In fact we could score there...as VAT wouldn't apply to EU prices.....

Jobs will be protected if we stay in...ok...REALLY? What about the jobs we've lost as a result of our being in...have they forgotten the Bombardier fiasco where we had to accept a lower bid from outside UK to build trains...to the detriment of UK jobs! What about MODE 4 agreements too...like the one with India where they can bring staff into UK for 6 months to do highly skilled (debatable!) work...for under minimum wage and without employment laws because they are technically employed in India. The trade off BTW was a stipulation that the price for generic drugs manufactured for the 3rd world must be increased to allow for EU drug giants like Glaxo Smithkline 'compete' ....so now you know why you need to raise more money from Comic Relief and Children in Need...the Red Cross/Crescent, Medicins sans frontier and other charities are having to pay through the nose for AIDS and cancer victims in Africa ...and whilst the Indian billionaires rub their hands in glee...their poorest people are also suffering! 

Of course there has been a monumental shift in heavy industry...we've no coal mines....steel is finished...car manufacture is shrinking...ship building is negligable. Then there's the potteries...not making pots. In my hometown of Portsmouth we've lost BAe shipbuilding and our dockyard is almost non existent. Our naval ships are being built piecemeal around the dockyards that are left..whilst MOD ships are being built in S Korea. All of this has come about since we have been in the EU. I'm not saying it's the cause...but it hasn't prevented monumental change in Britains manufacturing heartland. Germany has prospered mind you...

As as for Polish, Romanian, Bulgarian workers. Most of the jobs they are employed in are not even advertised here. South Coast Shipping only employs Poles... Many construction contractors only employ Eastern Europeans on minimum wage...but they buy up houses to give them a cheap roof over their heads...charge minimal rent whilst their employees claim benefits for their families at home ...the houses are investments so they can't lose! Our young families struggling with high rents or massive mortgages can't compete against them. If you google jobs in Bognor...most hairdressers, shop work etc stipulate fluent Polish or Russian! 

They say security will be compromised...cobblers...we are members of NATO and Interpol..we have one of the very best security services in the world...never mind the EU...they rely more on us than we do on them...they NEED to share Intel with us ...and us being in or out makes no difference. If their handling of the refugee crisis is anything to go by...they will need us more than ever!

As  for the freedom of travel...as a travel agent before we joined the Common market I can assure everyone that flashing your passport at airports, ports and frontiers is ridiculously easy! As it is TRY and go to Europe without a passport...you won't get back to UK very easily. Basically, there will be very little change! The only downside is if you want to bring van loads of fags and booze back with you....not that our Customs will let you keep them unless you can convince them it's for your personal use!

HOWEVER I do think we ought to be given an alternative to IN or OUT...we know that the planet of London wants to be IN....so turn it into a kind of 'Singapore' ...we have a natural frontier in the M25... The companies that want to remain in the EU can register themselves in London 'zone'...the rest of us can be British and without the EU. We could then establish ourself as a 'Free Trade Area' ...attracting business worldwide (subject to quotas)...and the EU will be clamouring to join US! 

Anyway...I just hope people will see all the doom and gloom doled out by the government propaganda machine for what it is! Smoke and mirrors! If you haven't benefitted in the last 40 odd years...what makes you think that will change? I for one do not want to see us as part of a Franco-German centric federal state.