Quick Poll: EU stay or leave?

[BlueSmarties76]

Would you vote to stay or leave the EU?

Quick poll.

Many of the comments on immigration here illustrate how little most Brits understand about the EU. The UK has opted out of the free movement aspects of Schengen which means we maintain control of our own borders. So all the comments about non EU immigration are ill informed.
The UK - unlike other European countries - chose not to exercise its right to exclude nationals of the new Eastern European Member states from working here for a ten year transition period. Hence the reason that so many came here from 2004 onwards. Entirely the responsibility of the UK. Nothing to do with the EU.
A referendum on such a complex issue - where the majority of those voting will not understand the issues- s the wrong way to go. The decision to go down that route has much more to do with internal Conservative party politics than the national interest.

Stay. Stay. Stay.

Our business would not survive leaving the EU. Many UK businesses that rely on selling to be EU would go under.

The U.K. is nothing on its own.

The NYE attacks were by non EU immigrants. Leaving the EU would change nothing about how many non EU immigrants we accept.

Stay

But the country will vote to leave. It is plain and obvious. I have no idea why our politicians cant see it.

We don't maintain control of our own borders.

Someone pointed out yesterday that, after three years, the people who are in Germany will have the right to come here to live.

Leave. 100% sure.

But the country will vote to leave. It is plain and obvious

I don't think it is plain and obvious. Although this straw poll is coming up in favour of leave opinion polls suggest that stay is in the lead. The bookies certainly think stay is going to win.

I'm likely to vote to stay but I may change my mind.

This poll is meaningless - those who feel most strongly for change will be most likely to post on here. Fence sitters and stayers will see little point.

Europe is fracturing. Its a sinking ship.

After the nye attacks. ...leave....and quickly

Leave. I think we should have a trade agreement and nothing more. We have our own institutions that have worked perfectly well for centuries. I also prefer that we have the Royal Family 'ruling' over us compared to unelected EU officials.

Truth be told the financial services industry requires that the UK leave. The focus of the EU has been to shift business to Frankfurt. We as a country can't afford that.

I'll do another count later this morning.

It might be interesting if future posters stated both how they would vote & what they think the outcome will be?

Bumping for the morning crowd too.

The U.K. is nothing on its own

The U.K. Is the world's fifth largest economy

Leave.

The concern about non-EU migrants is that once they are granted EU citizenship, e.g. by Germany, they are currently free to move here.

Stay.

That could change though as I'm not fully informed of the pros and cons yet - more research needed.

I'm actually really surprised to see a majority for Leave on MN. All previous threads in the subject I've seen were for Remain.

Have people's views changed, I wonder, or is this a different set of people posting?

Personally I think fears about doing business with the EU post Brexit are overblown. We're a massive export market for loads of EU nations and it's just not in their interests not to have reasonable trading arrangements with us. In any case the single market is not the same as the EU. Several countries are in the single market and not the EU. The most likely scenario in any case is that in the immediate aftermath of Brexit we remain in the single market for some time while more detailed plans are made to unwind and renegotiate our various treaties and agreements.

Hidden: it is not true to say that immigrants to Germany will be able to come to UK in three years. Only EU citizens and their family members benefit from the freedom of movement rules. It will take 6 or 7 years before they can acquire German citiZenship - at which poin most will be settled in Germany. If they do come to UK, as German citizens, they can be returned to Germany if they commit a criminal offence. So another red herring.

How do Norway and Iceland survive, not being members of the EU?
I think many will vote to leave as there are a lot of easy to see negatives that are often in the popular press; bloated Eurocats on a gravy train, pointless regulations, not fit for purpose, not the same focus as when we first joined, and the pro lobby hasn't really made their case well to the majority of ordinary voters.
The only thing that might keep us in is voter apathy and a rainy polling day.

Those saying lets have a trade agreement: it will never happen. We rely on the away for half our trade, they rely on us for 10%. They wouldn't allow us to just have trade agreements as others would then want the same.

And multinationals headquartered here are based here as their seat in the EU. They would move.

And the financial services industry would suffer as the EU could increase barriers to entry and we would have no influence on those decisions.

Armchair: Norway is part of Schengen so has less control over its borders than us. Unde their model we would pay 94% of what we currently pay to the EU but have no influence over its decisions. Not a good model. They have to implement over 59% of EU laws, including the working time directive, yet can't shape those laws.

I would vote stay - but in a more whole hearted fashion, rather than the traditional UK mode (sulking kid sitting on the sideline saying I won't play unless you all play be my rules, and I can choose which rules apply to me).

Thank you Summer.

I always vote on these threads if I see them. I used to be a 'not sure, but think leave' now I'm a definitely leave.

And I used to think the country would vote to stay, now I'm not so sure, I think it could be going the other way and we'll leave.

Drink then they could all come over from Germany in 6 years, if they wanted to, and we wouldn't have any say in the flow.

Leave.

As others have said, Schengen is irrelevant once citizenship is granted. We need to control our borders again, urgently.