No benefit at all of staying in EU

Others bewail the loss of EU money for one project or another.

For a start, there is no such thing as EU money as far as the UK is concerned, it’s merely part of the cash we pay them that is being returned (about 30 per cent or so of what we have to hand over).

What is more, some of that which they ‘give’ us has to be matched-funded by further UK money – but what do you see on the signage: “Funded by the European Union” – should really say : “Paid for by British taxpayers”.

As for free movement, well it was quite easy to travel about Europe before we joined the European Economic Community (as it was then called), and the Swiss, Norwegians and Icelanders today seem to get around with little difficulty despite their countries not being in the EU.

In fact it is far easier today to travel nearly anywhere in the world – I can only think of one country were entering is probably more difficult than it was 45 years ago – the USA. Of course, free movement does not really relate to tourists, it refers to the right of any citizen of any member state to move and take up permanent residence in any other member state. But just how many Britons want to live or work in Europe?

What cultural benefits come from the EU? Up until around 1945 there was something of a ‘cultural connect’ between the UK and protestant North-West Europe and to some extent certain parts of the Empire & Commonwealth.

But since then the biggest influence has been the USA, because of their films, TV and popular music. The growing influence is, of course, multi-culturalism – which naive politicians promote despite the fact that it is a contradiction in terms, will provide no enhancements to our Western Europeanised, Christianised, culture, and looks like creating something of a comparatively-bleak future for ‘our’ female offspring.

Mrs Thatcher did more for our economic performance than being in the EU ever did – the percentage of our exports that go to the other EU countries is lower now than it was back in 1973, when we joined.

Young people’s unemployment in most EU countries is higher than here in the UK – the figures for countries like Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece are horrendous – so there is probably not much of a future in the EU for the younger generations on the jobs front.

And, membership of the EU means living in an increasingly non-democracy. The EU’s understanding of democracy is not necessarily anything like Britain’s

Britain has had something like 350 years of unbroken parliamentary democracy whereas no continental EU country (except for Sweden & arguably Finland) have a continuous history of democracy stretching back further than 1945. A third go no further back than the last 30 years.

The recent appointment of some of its top people clearly show the disdain which the organisation has for the ordinary citizens of the EU member states. Not one of whom was elected by the ‘people’ – and only the first two had to be confirmed into office by the rubber stamp that is the EU parliament.

Therefore, only those who do not believe in democracy can want to remain in the EU. Do the so-called benefits of membership actually outweigh the “Brave New World” and Orwellian culture of the organisation?

Edward Higginbottom, Shrewsbury

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