Opinions on Brexit?

I was just curious as to what people thought about Britain potentially leaving the European Union in the upcoming referendum?

Personally I'm so on the fence about the whole thing I've got splinters up my backside :laugh:

I'm with you on the fence - and the splinters are hurting :laugh:

I'm in favour of a friendly, cooperative European Union but I don't like the way the EU is set-up: its non-democratic, overly bureaucratic, inefficient and doomed to fail in light of the monetary, but non-fiscal, union.

I expect I'll vote to stay in - in the hope that Britain can help steer the project in a better direction. By the same token I won't be having sleepless nights if we vote out. Britain is the 5th or 6th largest economy in the world and there is no good reason why we wouldn't do just fine outside the EU in the medium to long-term.

The only wrinkle is that if Britain votes 'out' it will almost certainly lead to another Scottish referendum which the independence vote would win. Britain would no longer 'exist' and it would be England, Wales and Northern Ireland deciding whether to stay completely independent or re-join the EU. It could be very messy across a 5 year time horizon.

I think I may have just convinced myself that staying 'in' is the way to go :blink:

I explained to someone in Nijmegen that we are not a peacefull venture as Europe but more a nice market for the multinationals, we are consumers we are not seen as human beings , we merely provide a nice way to earn big bucks for a few people , Europe does not care about education , health and wellbeing , it only cares for controlled trade and consumption and protecting its own bussiness intrests. I cannot wait to leave the Union , i am not here to make sure someone else makes a profit , i am a rebel against the trade agreements that are being forced down our throats. We are having a referendum here in the Netherlands aswell , i say Nexit !

I have a dislike for the EU, being happy together with an free option to us an united coin is handy... it serves some kind of purpose.. but enforcing rules on countries.. it just creates a layer between the people ones more..

Even the board of peeps high in the EU government, are not chosen directly. The ministers of the EU countries choose the people of the EU, and the people of the EU choose their 'leader'.. How can three layers between the people be a democracy? It is almost like putting a blindfold around your known neighbour, and let him give a stick to someone else..

If I would live in the UK, I would be more than happy with a Brexit.. just wondering what it will do to the trade..

edit: Long live the Nexit, was a great referendum.. but I hope they will listen this time.. during the last referendum most people were against and they did not do anything with it.. :S

Aqua wrote: If I would live in the UK, I would be more than happy with a Brexit.. just wondering what it will do to the trade..

edit: Long live the Nexit, was a great referendum.. but I hope they will listen this time.. during the last referendum most people were against and they did not do anything with it.. :S

That referendum was just about the European Constitution , but i do agree Aqua they did not listen and now we ask referenda for every little thing loll , serves them right for not listening eheheh

And it will do sod all to trade , we still want the whiskey and all the other goodies that Britain has to offer , it will level out as it always does. as a member of one of the most bold trade countries i can alsmost see nothing changing much if we choose to leave the EU , having said that tho, the whole animal industry will be turned upside down because we dont need those millions of pigs etc anymore that are being mishandled every day because people dont want to pay a fair price for meat , not a bad thing if yu ask me :side:

Also in the fence-sitting crew (hope this is a sturdy fence...)

Probably leaning towards voting to stay in, because in general I believe pretty fervently in the principle of unity. Good-natured enjoyment of our British quirks (and sport...and maybe Eurovision ) aside, I'm really not comfortable with nationalism and borders and such things, and I do hate the idea that we would want to isolate ourselves on this little island and pretend that we're nothing to do with the rest of Europe and have no responsibility towards people who didn't happen to be born here.

I have nevertheless seen a few persuasive arguments for leaving but what really ticks me off about this whole thing is how the vast majority of information about it is so heavily biased - for those of us who aren't very knowledgeable such things it's hard to know what is actually true - which is of course what both sides want to achieve, but to me that's just...wrong.

I guess that half the problem is that even the supposed experts don't really know what will happen, so there aren't really many facts to go by, but...I really kind of resent being in a situation where I have to vote on something that I can't possibly predict the consequences of.


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I'm with V about the biased arguments... as soon as I hear some obviously overstated and overblown claim I go and look it up to see if what they're saying is actually reasonable.

The truth is that we don't really know what will happen, so all of these scare stories are just that... But when I look at how the EU works, I find my choice pretty easy.

I plan to vote to stay; the economic arguments are what have decided the matter for me. There are compelling arguments regarding sovereignty and so forth, but for me they are not an immediate concern.

The EU does require democratisation, and if I had faith in the United Kingdom's economic capacity outside the EU I would perhaps lean towards the UK leaving. However, if we leave the EU we shall have to renegotiate a significant body of trade agreements, monetary savings made from being part of the common market will disappear requiring a subsidisation of several industries or essentially watching the market take it's course, and it will impact upon free movement and in the UK several industries are incredibly reliant on international workers due to the fact our own education system is not producing sufficient skilled workers in the areas we need.

The EU is not really a problem for the people to decide upon due to the complexity of the issue, and the fact it has come to a referendum is just one further black mark demonstrating the incompetency of the government the UK currently has.

As a completely uninformed American who has no vote in this issue, I'd like to share my utterly useless and completely biased opinion :laugh:

The Irish side of my family has been bitching for 100 years that their (our) little island should be 32 counties united and separate from the UK. The Scottish side of my family wants to see Scotland leave the UK. It's really the only thing the two halves agree on, but nobody can give a good explanation why either would be good other than a bunch of national pride. And then there's the fact that none of us live in either country anymore or have any idea how it would impact daily lives, but we're American so we know everything :evil:

It seems to me that this is kind of a crap shoot for everyone involved. There just isn't enough information to make any sort of informed decision, but look at the bright side my UK friends, at least you're not voting in the U.S. presidential election :sick:

Ok I do not mean to derail this but I was tired and read this as opinions on brie as in the cheese this morning. I was very confused on why we were discussing cheese.