In the last in a series looking at the views of people from outside of the political bubble, on the EU referendum, Lucy Ashton gets the case for Brexit from a member of the Labour party
Lifelong Labour Party supporter and activist Michael Ord says voting to leave the EU is one of the hardest political decisions he has ever had to make.
“It’s not a decision that I want to make,” he says. “It’s would have been far easier to just plod on and follow the status quo but complacency over something that will shape all our futures is unacceptable.
“And for the record Nigel Farage is not my poster boy. I’m no Ukip fan or Ukipper – highly apt as their politics are fishy and stink.”
Michael’s mum was German so the family has close ties with the continent and he says it is a “very personal” decision for him.
“I have been subjected to racism and this resulted in me classing myself as European rather than British for a good portion of my early adulthood. So voting to leave the EU is something of a milestone decision in my life.”
Michael says Britain is floundering in an unwieldy organisation. “Britain is the second largest economy in the European Union yet our influence is somewhere further down that list.
“Our politicians have given up trying to become leaders within the group and because of this, our influence and our popularity with the EU is not strong enough.
“We will be left paying vast amounts of money to a body that hasn’t signed its books off in years and is becoming bigger and more bloated by the year.
“What started off as a trading agreement between a handful of countries and a means of discouraging us from going to war with each other has turned in to political leviathan.
“Swallowing up new countries that can barely afford to be in and who bring nothing to the table. The impending addition of Turkey does not delight me.”
He also believes the business arguments for staying do not add up either. “We are one of the foremost economies in the world, far larger than our geographic size would suggest, and there is no way that other countries would want to turn their backs on a market of our size.
“If we were free to trade without the constraints of the bloated EU we would fare better in the global economy.
“We would be free of the sluggish, slow moving and inward looking economy and be able to deal with whom we liked and deal however we liked.
“It is a chance for Britain to be more responsive to other markets and to exploit more opportunities. We will be leaner, faster and have more control over our actions.”
Lucy Ashton is a journalist and former Political Editor
Tags: Brexit, EU referendum, Lucy Ashton, Stronger In, Vote Leave
The only arguments are
If you vote Remain you are endorsing the EU in it’s current unreformed state .
If you vote Leave you aren’t.
And that’s about it. Everything else is ‘might’, ‘could’, ‘may’, ‘possibly’.
At the start of this I was firmly ‘Remain’. As it’s gone on I’ve drifted to uncommitted. Following Cameron’s latest rubbish today I will vote to leave. It’s getting beyond a joke.
Agreed. Intellectually it’s Brexit that gets my vote.
Trade – It’s MORE European and Internationalist to vote Brexit. The EU won’t reform without a jolt to the system and will force it to stop being so tardy about FTAs. FTAs that suit us as Brits. It’s a win-win.
Immigration – it’s MORE progressive to create a more balanced immigration system. The EU won’t reform without a jolt to the system and come to some arrangement regarding. Having an `eu first` system is discriminatory to people outside the EU who may want to visit UK citizens as relatives and ties our hands in bringing over people we need. It thus impacts those at the sharp end of the working poor.
Democracy – the bullying by `Dave’s mates`, the £9m leaflet and all the other gaming going on by `IN` makes democracy part of the argument. If they are willing to game the system for a referendum what does it say about EU democracy? Or their attitude towards the whole political culture? By voting OUT we can show that that sort of strong arm politics doesn’t work.
I was in the remain camp until Cameron starting telling lies over this and I am now firmly going to vote to leave. No one is going to bribe me with cheap holiday flights and cell phone calls.
It isn’t that real socialists have always disliked the EU it is the lies from Cameron and his bully boys and nothing more.
For a Prime Minister of this country to think that people in Britain should care about what a Russian president or head of a terrorist group thinks is one step too far.
To assume that an American president would put us “at the back of the queue” for a trade deal we don’t need when we supported their wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is a disgrace.
Cameron is now a busted flush regardless of what happens and personally I think his desperate panic in this matter (since the polls aren’t shifting) is justified and we will indeed vote to leave the EU.
At 2200 on June 23rd I cannot wait to see the arrogant smirk wiped off Mr Cameron’s face. Roll on the vote.
Skipper of the Whitby Rose, whose job is fishy and stinks will probably vote for Brexit.
Ross Dougal is asking questions………
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/17/tell-us-how-the-uks-fishing-industry-will-be-affected-by-the-eu-referendum
It amuses me to see Mr (Momentum) Corbyn and his Labour chums like Diane Abbott warmly lining up to agree wholeheartedly with old Etonian Mr Cameron of the Tory Toffs.
It amuses me to see Mr Momentum Corbyn and Diane Abbott lining up beside Mr Cameron and the Tory Toffs to support the fat cats in Brussels.
When we first joined the EEC it was a trade protectionist organization attempting to protect European industry against the low wage Asian exporters. Ted Heath used to use the ship building industry as an example with cheaper builds in Taiwan and Korea. During the 80s and 90s the leaders of the big three, Germany, France and Britain managed to turn it into a free trade neoliberal organization. It no longer serves a purpose for most of the British. It’s time to leave.
Farmers in the UK receive subsidies from the EU. Also, I understand, funding for flood defences in Cumbria have been applied for from the EU. If we remain in the EU why don’t we apply for funding for other projects such as infrastructure development, bridge building or hydro power development. In this way people can seen tangible returns rather than just being viewed as a talking shop. I will be voting to remain.
You would have hoped that a journalist and political editor could do a bit better than churn out hoary old falsehoods like the unsigned-off books…
@ Anne
You are aware that every 2 Quid we put in the EU we only get a quid back? If we didn’t pay the extortion money to the EU elite we would have twice the amount of funding for “other projects such as infrastructure development, bridge building or hydro power development”
It’s not a”talking shop” it’s become a dictaorship……
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/672107/Brussels-European-Union-EU-referendum-Brexit-housing-crisis-migration
…..and how do we feed all these people?
The UK’s “self-sufficiency ratio” – which measures the percentage of indigenous food produced compared to imported food – shows a decline from a peak of almost 87 per cent in the early 1990s to just 68 per cent in 2012…….
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/britains-food-self-sufficiency-at-risk-from-reliance-on-overseas-imports-of-fruit-and-vegetables-9574238.html
Britain is full up – it’s time to pull up the drawbridge.
You would have hoped that a journalist and political editor could do a bit better than churn out hoary old falsehoods like the unsigned-off books…
And you would think Remain wouldn’t be relying on farcical suggestions of World War 3, that ISIS want us to leave etc etc etc. Says a lot for how dumb they regard their own support is.
Other crackers are the Chancellor warning that house prices will fall. A massive cunk of the population would welcome that and only selfish bastards wouldn’t. And today’s wheeling out of entertainers – when most of them made their pile by appealing to american audiences not EU ones and a chunk of which now live in America. Using tax exiles to make your argument is hysterical.
Brexit the movie is worth a watch…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYqzcqDtL3k
Read Marta Andreasen’s book. She was given the job of signing off the books. She was not allowed to look at them. Then she got called in front of the Commission and told to sign them off anyway. They have not been properly signed off since.
No one has managed to convince me that:
1. The alternative to staying in would be any better
2. There is any sort of agreed plan as to what we should do instead
3. The Tories would not get rid of that which is beneficial about our continued membership should we leave
That isn’t to say there are not plenty of things wrong with the EU such as the workings of the Euro and the treatment of Greece. But unless the Euro becomes a fiscal as well as a monetary union it is unlikely to survive anyway