to wonder if people would admit to voting "leave" in the EU Referendum?

[evilcherub]

Apparently there is a lot of inconsistency in answers when pollsters phone people and ask for their decision on Brexit compared to answers given online (respondents are more likely to say they will vote to "remain" on the phone but in online polls say they will vote to "leave"). I wonder if people admitting that they are going to vote "leave" is seen as taboo in the same way that nobody apparently voted for the Tories in the GE . If you are intending to vote "leave" would you admit it to friends and family (especially if you think they are more likely to vote "remain") or are you afraid of being called a Little Englander?

Mind you, I'm a leftie and I don't mind my taxes going to people who have it worse than I do

It really isn't a right or left wing thing. All my work colleagues with whom I have spoken about it have said they will vote to stay in. I can think of only one who would describe himself as a leftie.

And I would not call myself a "leftie". I will vote to stay in

I'm more inclined to vote leave. DH thinks leaving would be bad. He works in Manufacturing and is concerned about trade etc and thinks it is beneficial for the trading alone to say in.

I think we pay far too much to the EU, money that is really needed here and immigration has been allowed to get out of control. There is huge amount of pressure on our schools, health service etc and there is nothing we can do about it. The huge influx of immigrants in Germany and other countries has me worried with the reports of sex attacks. Men of the cultures they are coming from have a worrying attitude to women in the West.

cherub I should make it clear that when I say 'the leave camp' I do not mean people who want to vote to leave. I mean the people who are in the upper echelons - the politicians with vested interests at that. I have no respect for them. Just as I have no respect for people in government who are still blaming the state of the UK economy on the previous government after more than 5 years and who still go on about 'the mess Labour left us in' without ever mentioning the banks. They are the people on the leave side that I have problems with.

Mind you, there is a lot of deliberate misinformation on both sides. Which is sad.

A recent report by Civitas is called "Myth and Paradox of
the Single Market: How the trade benefits of EU membership have been mis-sold".

Matthew Elliott from Vote Leave said: "The unquestioning mantra that the single market has been good for British trade is wrong and should be challenged as this research makes crystal clear."

Middle class, degree educated here and I will vote to leave the EU. They need us more than we need them imo.

I think many in the "out" campaign are naively optimistic about the trade deals that they think we could negotiate if we went it alone. If Britain leaves, the rest of the EU will clearly need to make life difficult for us so that other member states don't follow suit.
The rest of the EU current sells a heck of a lot of stuff here (more than we sell back) - so taking that into consideration, how do you think it would play out? Do you think SEAT, Skoda, VW, Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Bosch, Phillips, Miele, AEG, Moulinex, Gaggia, Siemens, Renault, Peugeot, Citroen etc etc etc will be in favour of erecting huge trade barriers and tariffs? I seriously doubt it since we are a major market for all of them and many more, we buy masses of food and drink from all over Europe too.

I also think it's crazy to compromise our security in this uncertain world by going it alone.
How would it compromise "security"? Current threats seem to come from ISIL and possibly Russia and home-grown terror cells. The EU does pretty much zero to help on these issues.

Dh will definitely vote leave and I think I will too. I haven't spoken to anyone (except my dad) who will vote to stay in. I'm shocked by the level of consensus.

Depending on how well I am I'm not sure which way I'll vote. DH is an Out.

I think many in the "out" campaign are naively optimistic about the trade deals that they think we could negotiate if we went it alone. If Britain leaves, the rest of the EU will clearly need to make life difficult for us so that other member states don't follow suit.

You can think whatever you like but I am firmly in the 'out' camp and I am neither 'naive' or 'optimisitic'.

What bit of - 'there is a whole wide world out there that isn't tied down by Eurocratic bureacracy' - are you missing?

Please tell me how any single or collective economy in Europe can make 'life difficult' for us in the wider world?

Most European economies are on their knees thanks to the Euro, and the powerhouse that is (was?) Germany hangs on by its finger tips. For the time being the Euro works for them .. such a pity it doesn't work for anyone else.

You completely underestimate Britain. You also underestimate political events that happened decades ago thanks to a ruthless prime minister (and you all know who she is) that changed the UK from a manufacturing economy to a service economy. What few of you realise is that she dealt with things that other European nations are only beginning to deal with now. Ruthless, hated, yes. But our chickens came home to roost decades before our European neighbours because we had a PM who faced them head on. In centuries to come historians will look far more favourably on Thatcher than we do now.

All that aside, if the people who live on this island show the courage and spirit they have shown in centuries and decades past and have the balls to say 'OUT' in June ... it will open the doors for other less powerful and less prosperous countries to follow.

Far from deterring others .. it will encourage them to break free of this farce of an institution. And if anything comes along to replace it .. it will be built around democracy.

I'm out.

I have never voted in a GE despite being in my 30s, mostly because I've spent much of my adult life enjoying the benefits of being in the EU living abroad, but also various other reasons I won't go into. I haven't been back in the UK long. I have now registered to vote because of this referendum as I feel this is hugely important and also a vote where an individual vote actually counts for something.

Many moons ago I studied 3 european languages, politics and economics (specifically relating to the EU) for my degree from a well respected university. I spent 3 years translating EU parliament documents. I'm educated to Masters level. I'm not an idiot and have had more exposure to the EU than the average bear.

If you had asked me years ago I would have said stay in a heartbeat, but the more I think about it, the more I think out is the better solution. It will be hard for us for a few years, but will improve. At the moment Schengen is failing, the Euro is failing. The EU as a whole is failing. It grew too large too quickly and allowed in countries that didn't meet the basic conditions to join. It no longer reflects what it was meant to be.

For anyone thinking Europe won't trade with us, look at the German car industry. (My figures are a few years out of date, but representative of the current situation). Approx 17% of cars sold annually in Britain are the 3 luxury German brands, so approx 350,000 cars, generally sold at premium prices. This is despite the recession. This is not counting the other German manufactured cars at the cheaper end of the spectrum. The German government has very close ties to the car industry. Do people honestly think they are willing to risk that many sales by not coming up with some sort of trade agreement with us to protect it? Do some of the sums with what you think an average car price might be. There are an eyewatering amount of 000s involved. Other countries will need to trade with us as much as we need to trade with them.

I think it would be a fairly aimiable divorce. It's not like we are planning on punting ourselves off to the the middle of the Atlantic and don't plan on speaking to them again if it's an out decision. Just a separation of finances. Intelligence agencies will still continue to work together, NATO will still exist, the UN will still exist etc. We're not flouncing off the world stage and taking our football with us. They are just as scared of us leaving as we are.

If anything I think it could potentially be the downfall of the whole EU so something new could be devised that might actually work instead. The current system is very broken and unfair and will never be reformed.

So in short, I am OUT and not afraid to say it. Sadly many of the IN people I know are going for the easy option because they are afraid and don't know enough about it. I am sad the referendum is due this quickly as I feel there is not enough time to get the impartial education out there for people to be able to make an informed decision for themselves.

I am also sad that the more prominent people lining themselves up for OUT are a some of the most off-putting you could find.

I also think it will be a very tight race that will result in an IN vote.

I'm out.

Palomb my darling .. now go and tell everyone you know, talk to them, guide them to watch everything they can and make an informed decision.

I am so convinced of what I believe that there is no single bit of pro-EU propaganda that bothers me, and I urge everyone to read everything they can from left to right and all variations in between.

It soon becomes apparent how weak the 'stay' argument is.

Those of us who want to leave aren't 'anti-European'. We aren't 'racist', We aren't 'little Englanders', we aren't 'Ukippers' We aren't 'bigots'. We aren't 'xenophophobes'.

We just don't like undemocratic, bureaucratic institutions who dictate how we live our lives

I wonder what a vote to leave would do to the uk as a whole. Wales is likely to vote to stay. Scotland is harder to predict. But a vote to leave in which a majority of the populations of the devolved nations wanted to stay could cause a major constitutional crisis and eventually lead to the break up the uk. And once the uk leaves, there is no reason to just assume wales and Scotland will be able to accede to the EU as separate member states, as Alec Salmond always did.

The transition process to leave the EU will take several years - an absolute minimum of two years according to the mechanism built into the treaty, so the uncertainty would drag on for a long time.

I'm quite torn about the whole issue. Seen just from a labour rights perspective, the EU has been an absolute disaster for collective bargaining and decent wages since 2008, and horrors like the wage destroying Transatlantic Trade Agreement between the EU and the USA are just around the corner, which will allow US companies to bring a claim for damages against the UK government if we change laws in ways that cause them loss eg raising the minimum wage without their say so. But on the other hand, there is the huge political uncertainty - nobody can paint a credible picture of what a brexit would actually look like (although houses would doubtless become a lot cheaper!!), so I'm most likely an 'in'.

Figment - that's interesting what you say about the EU being disastrous from a labour rights perspective. Labour rights are normally held up by 'philes as a reason the EU is a good thing. Can you say more about why you judge that this is not true?

I'm voting out for a whole heap of reasons, but rightly or wrongly I'm basing it on my own experience of attending eu regulation setting mtgs and the regs that we have to comply with at work that are unnecessary given our geography.

I work for a Govt agency on just one of its remits and see unnecessary expense to change what we do (which is seen as best practice by the rest of world) to comply with a consistent EU approach for no discernible benefit other than compliance. That's just a soupçon of what we're probably doing each year to comply with EU regs that really shouldn't apply to us.

I'll be voting leave.

I'm a little saddened to read that people vote on the basis of it being the polar opposite to "political enemies". Whatever happened to critical thought?

And on that topic, I've got an iq of 45 and simply adore Velcro.

I'm voting stay - and if possible I'd vote to join Shengen.

Personally I think we are very much better in than out and wonder what would happen if we left. Would Toyota/Nissan/Honda/Airbus pull their European plants out of the U.K. If they couldn't freely sell their cars/plans throughout the EU.

For me the free trade and travel with europe is a fantastic thing and helped to grow and develop our country and economy.

I don't see any advantages in leaving. So it's stay all the way.

Toyota has already said it will stay if we Brexit.

There isn't much thinking being used, someone asking about the effects on housing decided anyone voting out is a Tory racist .

ginger - are you mad? You are for an open border without any checks to the UK? You do realise that even on the Continent Schengen is under serious threat as people are not realising that it is not such a great idea to have completely open borders?

Free trade would still occur - the Eurozone would be shooting itself in the foot to not have this with the UK even if it was out of the EU, and you still would be able to travel easily there.

What kind of world are you envisioning when you think about the UK outside the EU?

Bizarrely on sky news about 2 hours ago the headlines were that Cameron had said that free movement would remain in the event of a Brexit to enable us to continue the free trade with the EU ( or something to that effect. ) Now that story has completely vanished from the sky app. Did I just imagine it? Because if that's true, are we going to get vote on that as well ?

I have had BBC news on. There have been a few news stories that disappeared like that over the years. I remember it happening at the birth of Prince George. Once a video was shown on ITV of someone asking Camilla if they were going to name the baby Spencer and Camilla running away. It was so funny I told people to watch and it disappeared never to be seen again.

Twooter - I think you can safely bet that Cameron will now say anything to try and scare people into voting Remain. His career is on the line, and nothing focuses a politician more than self-interest

Manatee you can find some of the arguments here - the main anti EU trade union campaigning group.
tuaeu.co.uk/?page_id=723