Well, now Boris has delclared for the "out" campaign (what there is of it), that's me "in" then. I suspect he has made millions of people's decisions for them.
What the UK needs (in my opinion) is even closer ties to the EU, not to leave it
Well, you would say that, wouldn't you?
Any foreign national faces the same problems when they travel or move to another country.
We almost moved to Netherlands and/or Germany. As a dual UK EU citizen you'd think it was easy.
Not so. We faced probably more issues than a Kiwi would moving to the UK including registering as an "alien"
My other half and I have plans to buy a house in France at some point in the next 2 years.
As a non-British person by birth I have no legal right to live in any EU country other than the UK.
This year I will be applying for UK citizenship and a UK passport as a means of getting the right to live in France. The passport application will cost me in excess of £1000 (yes that's right - £1000).
If England withdraws from the EU I (and many other people) will potentially lose the automatic right to live in any other EU member state. Many British people are now resident in Spain, France, Italy and elsewhere so what impact will this have on them. Many of those are pensioners so for them to return to the UK will cost the NHS and Social Services significant amounts of money.
On a business perspective many businesses have very close links to EU companies as either suppliers or customers for end products. If the EU removes the free trade in place through membership of the EU this could have a potentially disastrous effect on UK businesses.
Non UK companies with manufacturing plants in the UK (Nissan/BMW/Mini for example) may have less incentive to remain in the UK. Any upset in the UK manufacturing base could have a massive impact on employment, the economy and the UK as a whole.
Tourism - how many of us would relish going back to the old days of needing Visas for travel to anywhere? The long passport queues to get to your holiday destinations and so on? Then there is the french 'booze runs' - they would be subject to UK duty free allowance limits (so ending the personal importation of cheap wine for personal use. Same goes for the smokers.
Is the British economy strong enough to stand on its own without the support of its former colonies in the Commonwealth? The UK turned its back on its cheap sources of raw materials when it joined the EEC. As a Kiwi living in NZ at the time the UK joining the EEC had a massive impact on the NZ economy taking it from being one of the best standards of living to a near third world level within a very few short years. Its only in the past 10-15 years the NZ economy has returned to its previous levels.
What the UK needs (in my opinion) is even closer ties to the EU, not to leave it.
I understand some people having some fears over border control but thats largely (in my opinion) the result of press stirring coupled with the fanaticism of right wing people like Nigel Farage. UK border control is still amongst the tightest there is (aside from US/Aus) - trust me - I get to deal with them on a regular basis as I travel on an NZ passport. Even though I have Right to Abode (enabling me to use EU passport channels in and out of the UK) I am questioned at length as to why I have Right to Abode on about 1 in every 3 trips, and I'm not even from one of the 'risk' groups ethnically. I dread to think what anyone of middle eastern extraction goes through every time they go in or out of the UK.
The UK is unique in Europe in that it has never fully embraced joining Europe - its the only EU country not to use the Euro (which is great for the banks getting income from currency exchange). Its the only memebr state that still maintains border posts with its EU neighbours. A single United states of Europe would be a far better solution than what is in place now. The individual states in the US work cohesively - why can't the member states of Europe?
A border is nothing more than a source of irritation for many. Its a delineation between what one ethnic group has and another has not. Remove the border and you remove the source of irritation. If the poorer member states were to benefit in some way from the wealth in the richer states many of the concerns of economic migration could be removed. Who would want to move to the UK if they could have a similar standard of living in a warmer sunnier climate? This could be achieved with a central economic policy which prevents individual governments from being profligate and running up huge national debts.
No amount of jingoism/nationalism about making Britain great again will actually achieve it. The things that made Britain great are in the past never to return. They were the result of a world that was a very different place to the present and an ability to put large tracts of the world under British rule. Modern Britain, just like modern Europe needs to learn to get along and leave individual state nationalism behind and instead embrace a bigger and better nation state of Europe.
I really don't see how the UK can possibly be better off though becoming isolated.
If you have Irish antecedents, and most of us have why not try them 1st, lots of reasons in favour, political neutrality, not having a monarchy amongst the obvious ones and of course its less money
What does not having a monarchy have to do with a decision on where to live...?
we are not a fully grown up nation nor a democracy when we have a head of state who is there due to an accident of birth
Scottish not Irish.If you have Irish antecedents, and most of us have why not try them 1st, lots of reasons in favour, political neutrality, not having a monarchy amongst the obvious ones and of course its less money
"UK border control is still amongst the tightest there is (aside from US/Aus) - trust me - I get to deal with them on a regular basis as I travel on an NZ passport. Even though I have Right to Abode (enabling me to use EU passport channels in and out of the UK) I am questioned at length as to why I have Right to Abode on about 1 in every 3 trips, and I'm not even from one of the 'risk' groups ethnically. I dread to think what anyone of middle eastern extraction goes through every time they go in or out of the UK. "
I do hope that's a joke because there are 300,000 a year that we know of waltzing through it laughing their heads off.
They can be just about anyone wanting to do anything.
we are not a fully grown up nation nor a democracy when we have a head of state who is there due to an accident of birth
A cunning ploy by Dave and his mate?
Still look on the bright side, we've got four months of this chaos to look forward to while the government of the country is put on hold, and no-one can make a sensible decision.
No, we wouldn't and for that reason "I'm out"
When we were out, we were desperate to get in!
we are not a fully grown up nation nor a democracy when we have a head of state who is there due to an accident of birth