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Say Yes 2 Europe
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Brexit – a risky & painful procedure – Vote for the UK to Remain in the EU

From Andrew Groom, a member of one of the SY2E – Remain in the EU groups.
UK could have Australian-style immigration system according to Leave campaigners.
What’s the story?
Prominent anti-EU campaigners say they want to introduce a points-based immigration system in the UK to limit those coming to the UK to skilled workers in shortage occupations, claiming current levels of migration are lowering wages and straining public services. Read the story in the BBC.
How reliable is this story?
Questionable. Firstly, there’s no guarantee that we could introduce a points-based system– if, as many Leave campaigners say, we should seek to maintain full access to the EU single market, we’d have to keep free movement of workers. Secondly, EU immigrants aren’t the problem– they currently make up less than half of total migration to the UK and all the evidence shows they have no significant impact on either employment rates or wage levels. Finally, EU immigrants actually support our public services and pay more in taxes than they take as benefits and services.
What’s the background?
- Anti-EU campaigners claim we can introduce the points based immigration system that we currently apply to non-EU countries if we choose to leave the EU. Evidence
- However, if we want to retain free movement of goods and services within the EU single market, we will have to accept free movement of people too. Evidence
- Australia, the country which first introduced a points-based system, currently has twice as many immigrants per capita as the UK. Evidence
- Despite having a points based system for non-EU immigrants, numbers entering the UK have always been higher than those from the EU. Evidence
- There is no correlation between EU immigration levels and wages decreasing — the primary reason for wages falling is a weak recovery from the 2008 financial crisis. Evidence
- Furthermore, EU immigrants have a positive impact on our public services, both as workers and taxpayers– in the 2013/4 tax year, European migrants made a net contribution of £2.5 billion to the UK. Evidence
- Finally, leaving the EU would make it harder to control our border when it comes to non-EU migrants. Evidence
This Behind the Headlines briefing was first published on the Doorstep EU app: www.richardcorbett.org.uk/app
Posted in brexit, immigration
Tagged brexit, immigration
What kind of Nation do we want to be?
Written by Paula Kirby, a member of one of the SY2E – Remain in the EU groups and originally published on Jon Danzig’s Reason2Remain.
The referendum is all about the kind of nation we want to be, writes Paula Kirby.
Do we want to be a nation that is willing to build on the values we share with our European allies; that is open to partnership, and that has a contribution to make that is both British and European?
Or do we want to be insular, a country going it alone, aloof and self-serving?
This is the choice that faces us on 23 June. The referendum isn’t just a decision about whether or not we remain part of the European Union. It is a collective vote on how we see ourselves as a nation.
British values are at home in Europe, and no wonder, for we have been helping to shape EU values and policies throughout the 43 years of our membership.
But our relationship goes back much further than that. We are intertwined with Europe; we are British and European; we share so much of our history, achievements, ideas and values. Our bond with our European partners is based on so much more than an accident of geography.
Brexiters often talk as though we were a breed apart, with nothing in common with our European neighbours. They could not be more wrong.
‘Our way of life is founded on liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.’
It sounds very British, doesn’t it? But it’s also very European. In fact, it’s from Article 6 of the EU Treaty – which our Parliament in Westminster democratically agreed – and it encapsulates the values at the heart of the European Union.
But those who want us to leave the EU try to convince us that we are mutually incompatible. They would prefer to see Britain going it alone, separate and disassociated, regardless of the estrangement this would cause between us and our current friends and allies across Europe.
For those who promote Brexit, everything seems to be a zero-sum game. The EU’s gain must always be the UK’s loss. To the Leavers, negotiation, compromise and collaboration with our EU neighbours are just for wimps.
One problem with this approach is that it promotes a Britain that is self-serving and mean: nationalistic in the worst sense. It begrudges other EU members the benefits that Brexiters want us to keep for ourselves.
Take freedom of movement, for example.
Brexiters have no problem with Britons having the right to live and work elsewhere in the EU; but the idea of citizens from other EU countries having the right to live and work here prompts howls of outrage.
This is both unjust and foolish. For all the data shows that EU migrants in Britain are a boon to our public services and economy, contributing far more than they take. We should be welcoming them. Instead, Brexiters and the Eurosceptic press demonise them.
Is this really the country we want to be? Mean, xenophobic and narrow-minded?
The European Union is respected around the world as a force for good, a beacon of decency, humanity and democracy, and that is how the UK has historically been seen too.
Do we really want to damage that reputation by being the only member ever to leave, snubbing our allies, and potentially damaging and destabilising the EU that took so many decades to build?
These are the fundamental questions in this referendum: what sort of country do we want Britain to be, what place do we want for our country in the world, and at this critical time in world affairs, do we want to help or hinder the European Union that has proven such a force for good?
For the sake of Britain, British values, and our place in Europe and the world, I shall be voting Remain on 23 June.
• Paula Kirby is a writer and translator. She lives in the Scottish Highlands, but has spent significant chunks of her life living and working in mainland Europe, including two years teaching English in East Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
• See the illustrated portfolio of Reasons2Remain articles and graphics so far at: www.articles.reasons2remain.eu
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Posted in Jon Danzig, personal account, reflections
Tagged personal account, reflections
EU referendum: A few things I believe…
By Rob Matthews, a member of one of the SY2E Groups.
A few things I believe….
There is safety in numbers
It’s better to be a big fish in a small pond
Don’t turn your back on your friends and then expect their help
The rich should support the poor
You cant be a great leader if you’re not part of a team
Don’t blame anyone for trying to get a better life
In WWII we fought for the freedom of Europe, not just ourselves
I’ll be voting to stay in Europe
Posted in brexit, personal account, reflections
Tagged brexit, personal account, reflections
I urge the British voter not to fall into this Brexit trap – Democracy
By John Tilt, a member of one of the SY2E – Remain in the EU groups.
We need to eschew all this false information about the EU being undemocratic! Under the influence of bigots like Boris Johnson, Farage, and IDS – the UK will become the least democratic nation in Europe. The Germans didn’t see the forthcoming dangers of right-wing dominance – when Adolf Hitler rose to power in 1933.
British Brexiteers are similarly missing the point over the new dangers of Team Brexit today. Hitler wanted to take back Germany and regain the pride of the German people. However, Hitler destroyed Germany and half of the known world along with it.
Ukip and Team Brexit are also heralding nationalist values. In common with Hitler’s NSDAP, Ukip and Team Brexit share racist ideals and the new adage of ‘Taking our country back’, is quite the same.
The days of the British Empire are over. Without the EU Britain will be alone and vulnerable. The economy will sink, Scotland will campaign immediately to leave the UK (and this time they will persuade the Scots voters – who are dissatisfied with Westminster to do just that) and Britain will end up as a poor little ex EU nation – who will undoubtedly become part of the TTIP. In the words of the respected American intellectual Noam Chomski, once-again Britain will be subordinate to the USA. We will no longer be the world’s 5th strongest economy either. We entered the EEC as the 2nd poorest of European countries and will go back to being just that.
I admire David Cameron’s stance in relation to EU renegotiation – in which he achieved excellent results – for which he must feel undervalued. But I believe he made a huge mistake in offering a referendum to a public whose minds have been poisoned by the right-wing – especially at a time when they are dissatisfied over austerity policies and the government’s unashamed bias towards the rich.
However, I believe the real agenda behind Team Brexit is to shift the power base from the present democracy to both the Tory right and to Ukip. We look set to return Britain to the 1930’s – where Oswald Mosely ran the British Union of Fascists, since with the likes of Ukip the BNP and Britain First – there is little difference
I urge the British voter not to fall into this Brexit trap. Be afraid, be very afraid.
Posted in brexit, consequences
Tagged brexit, consequences
I fear Brexit will be like the French revolution.
I am afraid, and in fact almost sure that the referendum campaign is more about the common man venting his frustration about the world than it is about choosing what is best for us or those who will come after us.
Enflammed passions are over-ruling common sense and calm deliberation. I fear that come June 23rd metaphorical heads will roll and keep rolling until the country has hit rock-bottom.
The French revolution was in the beginning fueled by discontent from food shortages and high taxes, which is fine, you should be upset if both your stomach and your purse are empty.
But once the revolution got started it quickly spun out of control, the French king made the concessions demanded of him by the French people but it was too late… the whole idea behind the revolution was to put in place a democratic and competent government, but once the revolution began it didn’t stop for 10 years. By then, the Revolution was fuelled by hate, fear and envy.
They achieved what they wanted within months of the revolution’s start, but they had not finished venting and along with a little coaxing from a few public figures the French populace went absolutely mad.
I am certainly not saying that the UK will descend into civil war, I am most definitely saying that the country and the British public will suffer if they do not abide by the saying: “Cooler heads will prevail”.
Posted in post-Brexit, referendum
Tagged post-Brexit, referendum

