I ask that as it appears that Mr Miliband has calculated that for the 2015 General Election it isn’t, firmly nailing Labour’s colours alongside the Lib Dems, on the ‘no people vote’ or EU Referendum mast. Mr Miliband cited Labour is standing bedsides big business in this policy, as if those businesses ARE going to hang around the UK on the likelihood of a 2015 Labour administration and get taxed to the ying-yangs by his government, they deserve to know now at least, if the UK is staying in EU.
Admittedly there is a bit of double speak here, where along current legislation, if the EU try to wrestle more powers from parliament it would trigger a referendum, but there is as much chance of this happening, as there is the mother country of quangocracies, asking for the Collective of all bureaucracies, for EU reforms whilst staying on the ‘inside’ – that they didn’t care about during 13-years in power.
Personally I was always in favour on a ‘common market’, I was pleased we didn’t fall for the ‘one interest rate and one currency fits all countries’ economic foolishness, but I did not believe in the EU super-state creep in the decade to 2007, that EU big shots told their people during the crisis has to accelerate, as some protection against massive ‘events’ like the financial crash. And so the ‘assimilation’ of the Eurozone will continue, and those outside, like the UK, will have less influence than the influence we didn’t have, prior.
Again personally, I listen to all the reasons why we have to stay in the EU, the trade with 500 million near bankrupt citizens of the EU, the millions of jobs we’d lose if we left the EU (why aren’t we trading any more, spite?) and other ‘stuff’ where we need 28 (whatever) other leaders to agree before anything doesn’t get done - but what are the ‘in’ versus the ‘out’ facts, as (arguably) I know a bit about politics, economies and finance, but I can’t find those elusive FACTS to KNOW whether we are being sold a honking German Sheppard sized ‘pup’ or not.
What I DO know is that while in 2010 we were doing more trade individually with Ireland and possibly Scotland, than with the near 2.4 billion citizens of Brazil, Russia, India and China, never mind other emerging/emerged nations.
I also know that the EU bureaucracies are costly, inefficient, anti competitive and that they look to standardise everything, which can only help the larger less competitive nations of an economic block keep up with others e.g. as a condition of aid to Dublin, they were told to increase their highly competitive Corporate Tax from 12%, they didn’t, and have emerged from emergency help.
In other words, FORGETTING the free movement of citizen/workers complaint we have, within the EU ‘collective’, economically within the EU do we become too complacent, will we be dragged down internationally in trade when competing with non EU countries as the cost of EU regulation and bureaucracy competitively prices us out of winning orders around the rest of the globe – and on our own, free to attract companies here and pitch business elsewhere on our own terms, would we do better economically if we remain a lone competitive nation?
I don’t know, but we should have HAD THE INFORMED DEBATE before Mr Brown signed the Lisbon Treaty, as if it IS such a clear cut case, why don’t rubbish mainstream politicians that HAVE to power to organise the debate, do so, and THEN allow us to vote?