He certainly DOESN'T need to butt out. He's potentially the next Tory leader and as Labour don't offer a viable alternative with that anti semitic tw@t Corbyn at the helm they won't do for a very long time.

Interesting to hear Frank Field talking on R4 Today Programme savagely criticising Corbyn for supporting 'Remain' when we all know he has been one of the fiercest critics of the EU for 40 years at least.

[Link]

The Remain camp really has got some dross backing their campaign... a bunch of hypocrites, liars and no hopers.

Apart from Corbyn they have Blair - the man responsible for the 'Polish Invasion' by not enforcing the 7 year waiting period that Germany and other nations imposed which has led to an increase from 75,000 living here in 2004 to currently more than 500,000 now.

Cameron - up until he called the referendum he didn't have a good word to say about the EU... I can remember him and Osborne going ballistic about the £1.8M surcharge imposed on us a year or so back because our economy was doing well.

Merkel, Hollande etc... this lot wants us to remain as it suits them not us!

They don't want us to leave and are only interested in preserving the status quo... the french farmers and german car manufacturers are major exporters to the UK. Imagine the ear bashing they will give their government if a deal with the UK wasn't quickly resolved? They need us more than we need them!

Obama - what a hypocrite! There is no way he would stand by like Cameron has and let the EU push us around AND fork out a Queen's ransom every week as a fee for the privilege!

The EU in it's earliest form as a common market with a handful of like minded equal economies was a good idea but it has snowballed out of all proportion and is unworkable in it's present form. The likelihood that Turkey and other smaller nations with economic problems will join the EU should start alarm bells ringing in every sensible UK citizen living here (legally!) today.

If you think it's difficult to buy a house, go the doctor or hospital, get your kid in a local school, get a job, avoid traffic congestion, find some green space to relax etc.... all of these things will become impossible to achieve as millions more economic migrants arrive looking to live the dream.

People always ignore the practical problems though and are hoodwinked into thinking it's all about the economy.

The politicians can and will escape the practical hardships the rest of us will endure when the UK population is north of 80 Million. Their lifestyles will be safe and secure and a lot more lavish than we can dream of.

Wake up... those of you still considering to vote to remain. Unless you are in the top 5% of richest people living in the UK, you will be making your future lives (and those of your children) a living misery.

Sorry but this is just the biggest load of rubbish i have ever read.
The fact is if we left the eu we would still be massive contributors to its budget, Norway contributes nearly as much per head as the UK does and has to allow full freedom of movement through its borders, but is excluded from eu decision making. Apparently 29% of British citizens do not want to take a single more Syrian refugee (which i believe is shameful) but both Norway and Switzerland have been 'compelled' to take more refugees than us by the EU and UN.
The only country to ever leave the EU was Greenland which is effectively made up of a single industry - fishing. It took 3 years to negotiate a trade deal on fishing and yep you guessed it they have to allow full movement of EU people and pay the EU. Importantly after 2 years the rules stated they had to revert to WTO agreed tarrifs on all goods, negatively impacting the Greenland consumer by 20% on everything they bought. It would be atleast 10 maybe 20 years to negotiate trade deals for a much more complex economy like the uk.
What about unelected eu people making undemocratic decisions i hear the out campaign crying. I live in Sussex and next thursday my middle kid's nursery is closed for an election to elect a police commissioner. Ffs i already vote in a general election, local election and eu elections. I accept these people will make good appointments on my behalf and appoint specialist (incl non political people) to the right jobs.
There are apparently equal numbers of eu migrants in the uk as there are living in the eu - the truth is those that come to the uk are usually young contributors to the tax system whereas the majority of brits living in the eu are retired people (non tax contributors) who are often more likely to use state services e.g healthcare. Of the approx 250k eu migrants that came to the uk last year all but 63k had jobs to come to and most of the 63k had found jobs within 3 months i.e. they became tax contributors to the uk economy which resultantly grew 2.8% in 2014. The truth is they are NET CONTRIBUTORS to the economy generally not a strain on our hospitals or benefits as the out campaign would have you believe. To improve public services we need more net contributors or taxes to rise, both opposed by the right wing i.e. they want their cake and eat it.
Lastly i am inceasingly of the opinion having seen a lot of posts from out campaigners that the distortions and misinformation they are peddling is based on a distorted sense of British identity and worryingly a deep sense of
Prejedice. The truth is staying within the eu will not take away any of our famous British identity or institutions, landmarks or any of the other things that identify us as British - we will not live happily in an isolated uptopian Britain which the out campaign would have us believe. Whilst i agree with Teresa May (although i disagree with her opposition to withdrawing from the human rights act) that we would still function as an economy outside the eu, we have to accept we would be a whole lot poorer, less influential (in terms of decisions we would have to accept from the EU), less safe and give us and our childrens children far less life opportunities.

No there aren't - it's not even close! Best figures I can get are about 1.2 million Brits living in the EU, approximately 3 million the other way. Most reliable I can find (ONS) says net migration (2015) was an additional 172,000 in the year (257,000 arrivals, 85,000 departures)

You mention misinformation being peddled (which is what frustrates me about the campaign), and then do exactly the same thing to support your argument.

For what it's worth, I lean towards remain, but my summary of the campaign so far:
Remain: lies, scare stories, made up statistics, worst case hypothetical examples
Leave: bent bananas, taking our jobs and our women, inundated with refugees and immigrants

Infuriating on both sides, and they are as bad as each other

Edited by npn (26 Apr 2016 1.29pm)

I don't disagree with you on that one Jamie. I guess it highlights the lack of talent in British politics these days. Actually your whole post is correct I feel.

Edited by fed up eagle (26 Apr 2016 1.48pm)

we all have our sources and all can be criticised for what they include/exclude including the ONS - but if you insists that only your sources are correct and everyone else's are wrong then you are therefore ofcourse right..... (incidentally the Economist uses the ONS numbers in its calculations....)