Thanks to Chris Radford a member of the Say Yes 2 Europe – Remain in the EU alliance.

The more I see, read and hear about the vote on Britain’s continued membership of the EU the more convinced I am that the bulk of the UK citizens and even the media don’t understand it. The BBC constantly talks of the UK relationship with Europe, our ‘relationship’ is that we are full members of the EU with all the rights and benefits that come with that together with some problems.

But the idea that Europe tells us what we can and cannot do in our own country is incorrect, we can and do make our own laws that affect the country, only the laws coming from Brussels which have been passed in the EU parliament pertain to us and all other members, it is often ignored that we do have MEPs in Europe who look after our interests and the EU parliament is probably more democratic than that of the UK as it isn’t driven by just three main parties.

That aside, no one seems to want to tell the population what the real effects of a Brexit would be, for my part I think it would be catastrophic from a political and financial standpoint.

Politically we would no longer have a say about what goes on in Europe, we would be isolated from its main stream politics and be unable to bring any pressure to bear on political decisions made which might be detrimental to the UK.

Financially it would be catastrophic, how many jobs depend on our close ties with Europe, the Airbus project could move away from us, the automobile industry could be wooed away to EU countries and the City of London’s financial grip on a large part of World financial transactions could quickly be lost to Paris and Berlin. HSBC have for the moment decided to stay in the UK, who knows how quickly this might change, Goldman Sachs have certainly cast doubt on the ability of the UK to maintain its current financial situation if it leaves the EU.

Other opinions expect a huge decline in the housing market in the UK and financial damage so severe as to produce a slump in the UK which could take ten years to recover from if ever. Credit Suisse predict a 1 to 2% drop in GDP and a 26% drop in stock market values in London and the Swiss know their money markets.

Now is not the time to be leaving the EU just because we are being caught up in a false flag waving wave of misplaced patriotism promoted by nationalist organisations.

Britain does have a place in Europe and the World, if we leave Europe that place in the World will be severely damaged, it’s time to forget our past glories, we can no longer send in gunships to sort things out, but must ensure that our place in the World is secured for the future generations, now is not the time to go it alone in a world in which we have fewer friends and well wishers than we think we have.

The USA won’t bail us out, by urging us to stay in Europe they have intimated as much.

The Commonwealth moved away from us years ago, some of them even have an economy greater than ours so they won’t care.

We must stay in Europe, to ensure our future prosperity and standard of living.