{"id":13074,"date":"2016-06-22T18:19:17","date_gmt":"2016-06-22T17:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidvigar.co.uk\/?p=13074"},"modified":"2016-08-27T15:07:36","modified_gmt":"2016-08-27T14:07:36","slug":"how-strong-are-the-leave-arguments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidvigar.co.uk\/how-strong-are-the-leave-arguments\/","title":{"rendered":"How strong are the Leave arguments?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Anyone out there still planning to vote Leave tomorrow? Let\u2019s have a look at the big arguments for\u00a0Brexit \u2026.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>\u201cThere\u2019s too much immigration from the EU\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In 2015 the number of immigrants from the EU was 270,000, fewer than the 297,000 people emigrating from the UK to other countries. In a country of 65,000,000, is that a big deal?<\/li>\n<li>There are 3 million EU citizens living here \u2013 and 1.2 million British people live in other EU countries.<\/li>\n<li>Then EU immigrants pay \u00a320bn more into the country in tax than they take out in benefits.<a href=\"https:\/\/davidvigar.wordpress.com\/2016\/06\/22\/how-strong-are-the-leave-arguments\/#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Britain is a nation of immigrants, formed by people from Germany, France, Scandinavia and many other countries. England takes its name from Germanic settlers called Angles, and 30% of white Britons have German DNA<a href=\"https:\/\/davidvigar.wordpress.com\/2016\/06\/22\/how-strong-are-the-leave-arguments\/#_ftn2\" name=\"_ftnref2\">[2]<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Britain has a proud tradition of welcoming refugees \u2013 Jews fleeing Hitler, Vietnamese boat people, Kenyan Asians, Bosnians, Syrians, etc. Should we stop doing that?<\/li>\n<li>If we leave the EU but want to retain access to the single European market we will have to accept freedom of movement anyway \u2013 as Norway and Switzerland do.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u201cWe can take back control of our laws\u201d<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u2018Taking back control\u2019 is a twisted way of saying pulling out of agreements to ensure all EU countries play by the same rules.<\/li>\n<li>We are part of something called the \u2018single market\u2019. It means that we trade with 27 other countries in a duty-free zone. The single market has laws to create a level playing field \u2013 common standards for product safety, workers\u2019 rights, labelling etc \u2013 so countries can\u2019t undercut each other with shoddy products or bad working conditions. If you belong to the club you have to follow the rules.<\/li>\n<li>EU laws are not made by \u2018unelected bureaucrats\u2019, but by elected politicians in the Council of Ministers, supported by elected MEPs.<\/li>\n<li>There are many EU regulations on everything from recycling to chemical safety \u2013 designed to maintain common standards, but a House of Commons analysis showed among Acts of Parliament over two decades only a quarter were in some way affected by EU obligations and only 1.4% were passed only to implement EU law.<\/li>\n<li>Countries sign up to international rules all the time. The Foreign Office says that since 1834 Britain has signed up to 13,200 international treaties and agreements<a href=\"https:\/\/davidvigar.wordpress.com\/2016\/06\/22\/how-strong-are-the-leave-arguments\/#_ftn3\" name=\"_ftnref3\">[3]<\/a>, ranging from defence pacts and arrangements for fishing rights to treaties marking UK accession to the UN and NATO. All of them mean giving up some control but as part of a deal where Britain gets benefits in return.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>\u201cWe\u2019ll be better off because we give \u00a3350m a week to Brussels\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The actual figure is more like \u00a3160m when you subtract the UK\u2019s rebate and what it gets back in EU grants. Typically that\u2019s around \u00a38-9bn a year.<\/li>\n<li>In 2015 net transfers to the EU were around \u00a39bn \u2013 out of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/attachment_data\/file\/446716\/50600_PESA_2015_PRINT.pdf\">total public spending<\/a> of \u00a3669bn. That\u2019s just 1.3% of the total British public spending. It compares with around \u00a3100bn for the NHS and about \u00a350bn for education.<\/li>\n<li>Britain\u2019s leading tax think tank, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, says leaving the EU could knock \u00a320-40bn off government finances \u2013 meaning we\u2019d lose more than we gain. That\u2019s because of lower growth, falling investment and trade.<\/li>\n<li>If Britain leaves the EU, the UK Treasury estimates that it would be poorer by the equivalent of \u00a34,300 per household by 2030. There would be an even greater impact if the UK did not seek participation in the EU single market. But if it does want to keep access to the single market it will have to accept EU laws and free movement of goods, products, money and people.<\/li>\n<li>In other words you can\u2019t have it both ways. There is no such thing as a free lurch.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidvigar.wordpress.com\/2016\/06\/22\/how-strong-are-the-leave-arguments\/#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/next.ft.com\/content\/c49043a8-6447-11e4-b219-00144feabdc0\" rel=\"nofollow\">https:\/\/next.ft.com\/content\/c49043a8-6447-11e4-b219-00144feabdc0<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidvigar.wordpress.com\/2016\/06\/22\/how-strong-are-the-leave-arguments\/#_ftnref2\" name=\"_ftn2\">[2]<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/science\/2015\/mar\/18\/genetic-study-30-percent-white-british-dna-german-ancestry\">https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/science\/2015\/mar\/18\/genetic-study-30-percent-white-british-dna-german-ancestry<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidvigar.wordpress.com\/2016\/06\/22\/how-strong-are-the-leave-arguments\/#_ftnref3\" name=\"_ftn3\">[3]<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ucl.ac.uk\/laws\/judicial-institute\/files\/Dominic_Grieve_s_Speech.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">https:\/\/www.ucl.ac.uk\/laws\/judicial-institute\/files\/Dominic_Grieve_s_Speech.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anyone out there still planning to vote Leave tomorrow? Let\u2019s have a look [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[39],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidvigar.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13074"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidvigar.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidvigar.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidvigar.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidvigar.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidvigar.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13074\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidvigar.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidvigar.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidvigar.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}