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Wednesday 22 June 2016

If you believe in Britain then there is only one choice

We all know why David Cameron called the referendum on the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union. He called it as he was worried about UKIP taking seats from the Tories at the 2015 general election and he was hoping to sooth Tory divisions on Europe. As a plan it was going well, after all he never expected to get a majority in the 2015 election and those pesky Lib Dems wouldn't support a referendum so he could blame them for not keeping his promise. This is where the Prime Minister fell down. The Tory campaign to keep Labour out with their SNP-Labour coalition propaganda worked too well. It helped swing Lib Dem voters in the South West and West London to swing behind the Tories to keep Labour out.

So he had a majority and for about thirty seconds of enjoyment before Euro-sceptic Tory MPs were on his back and worse hitting the airwaves, doing the one thing the Prime Minister had asked them not to do, they were "banging on about Europe". Now ever since Mrs Thatcher's time in the late 1980s the Tories have been divided over Europe. The Major government was nearly brought down by Tory rebels on Europe. Only reason Sir John Major remained in office was because the Lib Dems were whipped into the lobby to support him over the Maastrict treaty. William Hague as Leader managed to get agreement on 'in Europe but not run by Europe' and that line held until the Prime Minister conceded referendum.

Now the Prime Minister said when making the case for the referendum that the United Kingdom could survive outside the European Union. Of course we could but he doesn't want to. Now the Remain campaign which has been fronted by David Cameron and George Osborne it has been 'project fear' there have been wild claims from them both. Such as suggesting world war three could break out if we left Europe. The Treasury have been suggesting the UK could go into recession, all independent economic forecasters agree. George Osborne has been making a claim that every house hold in Britain would be £4,300 worse off that one isn't true and the Treasury select committee told him to stop using it.

The Remain campaign should have made the positive case for remaining in the EU for Britain but instead we've had claims from the Prime Minister about the danger the United Kingdom faces if we left the European Union. While on a visit to B&Q he used, probably the worst sound bite ever, "it'll be a DIY recession" if we leave. It did mean that the less polite chaps/chapesses in the media did ask him if it put the UK is so much danger why did he call the referendum. He just said it was right to give the public a vote on it. After covering much of it, I can't say I agree with him.

Why don't I agree with him? Well its not just 'project fear' that we have had, we've also had 'project fibs' from the main leave campaign. We've all seen Boris' bus with the £350m lie on the side. Vote Leave were instructed to remove it by the UK statistics authority & by the Treasury select committee. It was this lie that in the end forced Tory MP Dr Sarah Wollaston to switch sides, after the Vote Leave claimed that money could be used for the National Health Service. The amount membership costs the UK is £10bn. A lot of money but Boris & Co have spent it 10 times over during this campaign. 

Vote Leave also claim that Turkey are going to join the EU, they're not. Cyprus have been vetoing Turkish accession talks and are refusing to remove that veto. They are also claiming that there will be a European army. There wont be as it would lead to a transfer of power to Brussels and another referendum before the UK could sign up to it, rough guess the people would say no. They have also been concentrating on immigration a tactic that Sadiq Khan called "project hate"

Vote Leave excluded Nigel Farage and his band of followers from their campaign. Although they have been stealing his policies such as points based immigration system. Mr Farage launched a poster the other day which was almost identical to a poster used by the National Socialist Party in Germany in the 1930s. Its known as the 'breaking point' poster and has been described as "racist", "intolerant", "bigoted", "xenophobic" and of "dragging politics into the gutter". Leave.EU, the campaign Mr Farage is a member of, put out a poster which claimed that an Orlando style attack could happen if we didn't leave the European Union, they took it down after a media firestorm.

Like in any election/referendum the politicians make claims and counter claims and argue among themselves. Well in a general election if a party tells porkies to get themselves elected you can throw them out at the following election, as the Liberal Democrats found out last year. But in this campaign the Leave campaigns have lied about various things already mentioned and tried to whip up tensions over immigration. The Remain campaign have exaggerated fears for the economy about leaving but even when you remove their exaggerated claims the predictions of a recession, higher unemployment are still there from independent experts and on job losses as Michael Gove of vote leave told the Skynews debate "I can't guarantee people wont lose their jobs". 

If we vote to leave it'll mean border controls again between Ulster/Eire border as Ireland would be in the European Union and Northern Ireland would not. Nicola Sturgeon has made it clear that if Scotland is taken out of the EU after voting remain it would trigger another Scottish Independence referendum. It will mean tariffs on all British imports and exports. Meaning everyday items such as food will be more expensive. The value of the pound will fall, of which Nigel Farage said "so what". Mr Farage may not have to worry about higher inflation and rising interest rates but the vast majority of people do. If the economy isn't working then Britain isn't working so if you believe in Britain then there is only one choice tomorrow and it is to vote to remain as a member of the European Union.