Why I’m voting to leave the EU

Britain will be better alone

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You might think we all support Britain’s membership of the EU – but recent polls show a respectable 42 per cent want to quit. Why? Well, here are some reasons why I want to be David in the dogfight against the Euro-Goliath.

We wouldn’t have to follow EU laws

It’s estimated as many as 50 per cent of our laws are now made in the soulless buildings of the European institutions in Brussels. These include laws on the shapes of fruit, what farmers must grow and the worst one of all, VAT.

Worse still, we can’t tell the 28 fat cats in the European Commission who make these often-pointless laws when they’re wrong. The elected EU Parliament has hardly any power. If it does try and block proposed laws, the Commission simply overrides them. Another law-making body is the Council of Ministers, which consists of government ministers from each nation, sometimes including David Cameron. Cameron, to his anger, has hardly any influence there – since 1996 Britain has opposed 55 proposals, all of which have gone through and gone on to become British law anyway.

Being in the EU costs our country vital money

Failure to cut the deficit, even with a huge amount of austerity, is largely because of our huge EU bill. In 2015 the government paid £13 billion to the EU budget. That’s money that could go towards education, healthcare and infrastructure. We did get £4.5 billion of that back in grants, but the net amount of £8.5 billion is still a mind-boggling amount, and wouldn’t it be better if we spend it ourselves?

TTIP will hand far too much power to large corporations

Theoretically, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is a “free trade deal” between the EU and America, but in practice it will hand power to large corporations, which can sue national governments if they don’t like any law they pass. This is essentially creating a corporatocracy, which will squeeze out competition from small and medium-sized businesses in the EU.

Worse still, since large corporations like privatisation, there’s a huge chance the NHS will have to be privatised if any corporations takes the UK government to court over this. Imagine having to pay for a life-saving operation?

Negotiations on TTIP are ongoing and expected to reach a conclusion by the end of the decade. The risks of being caught in it for the UK are too great. Do we really want to be in an agreement that would see essential services privatised, meaning that the poorest in our society will suffer?

Our current system of immigration is deeply unfair

I don’t buy into UKIP’s policy of scapegoating immigrants: it’s bigoted and will certainly not win us the campaign. However, a point needs to be made that the EU’s freedom of movement policy has meant immigrants outside the EU have faced tough hurdles to get into Britain as the government tries to reduce immigration. Isn’t it fair if everybody, regardless of nationality or background, can be treated fairly when it comes to who comes in? I certainly think it’s discriminatory to not let in a skilled person from China or India, if people from European countries can come to the UK easily.

Before the vote on June 23, please consider all arguments and make an informed decision.