I don't see Europe as a single issue, given it's impact on so many areas of our lives, some good, some bad. Though sometimes even the case for the good is either vague scaremongering or pretty week. All Mary Beard, a Camridge Professor, could offer on Question Time last night were 'benefits' such as clean beaches. Our beaches aren't actually that great, and are increasingly losing their Blue Flags, not helped by the privatised water companies opening the sluice gate whenever they feel like it. We're a sensible society, we're not suddenly going to start smearing excrement into the sand the second we're out of the EU. The private water companies will take care of that.
This brings me onto privatisation of our utilities in general. Were the utilities not sold off to private companies, invariable foreign owned, perhaps water companies might invest more in their plants, rather than being driven by profit for their shareholders. France's EDF has it's energy bills capped by the French government, though now they supply much of our power, they can increase our energy bills with impunity. Or how about when Gordon Brown, in all his glorious wisdom, just as we're being ushered in to a new age of reliance on nuclear power, sold BNFL-owned Westinghouse to Japan. Then there's our trains, etc, etc. Privatisation has been not been good for the British public. Any hope of renationalising will be fettered by the EU.
It is very clear what big business gets out of the EU, but has the case been clearly made at a level that benefits us commoners? I respect Ken Clarke, a decent politician of probity and integrity, of which there are few, and is the staunchest of all pro Europen tories. Of anyone, surely this intelligent man, an ex-chancellor of the exchequer, should be able to put a convincing case for the benefits, but I've yet to hear it.
Yes, there are pros and cons, the single market, etc, but the erosion of democracy is a huge concern.
The poster above mentions being 'frightening' by Nigel Farage, and yet seems unfazed by the fact that the democratically elected leaders of Italy and Greece were removed from office and replaced by faceless technocrats selected from a faceless cabal in Brussels.
An erosion of what little democracy we have, with a charter for big business to ride roughshod over the little people, and yet those who rightly question the EU are accused of being 'right wingers'. Or the trite phrase often peddled out, 'swivel-eyed'. Really, is it right wing to question the EU, it's power, influence or it's impact on our lives, because I don't feel right-wing?
Perhaps you can illuminate me?