UK's Future Within EU

If there were ever a time for the United Kingdom to consider leaving the EU, it is now. I have absolutely no love for the institution at all.

Let us remember the late, great Sir James Goldsmith, son-in-law of the 8th Lord Londonderry; husband of Lady Annabel;  founder of the Referendum Party.

Jimmy Goldsmith was a "Francophile". Despite this, he recognised our position within the European Union as being detrimental to our fundamental interests. Lord Belmont has always admired Sir James and concurs.

The Prime Minister seems to be reluctant to hold a referendum on our future within the EU; mainly because, I suggest, it is feared what the inevitable result from the electorate would be. Grasp the poisonous nettle!

I cannot see any reason why we could not continue to trade with Continental countries, having left; moreover, we could do more business with the Commonwealth and former countries of the British Empire.

Daniel Hannan MEP has provided us with ten reasons to get out:-

1. Since we joined the EEC in 1973, we have been in surplus with every continent in the world except Europe. Over those 27 years, we have run a trade deficit with the other member states that averages out at £30 million per day.

2. In 2010 our gross contribution to the EU budget was £14 billion. To put this figure in context, all the reductions announced by George Osborne at the Conservative Party Conference would, collectively, save £7 billion a year across the whole of government spending.

3. On the European Commission’s own figures, the annual costs of EU regulation outweigh the advantages of the single market by €600 to €180 billion.

4. The Common Agricultural Policy costs every family £1200 a year in higher food bills.

5. Outside the Common Fisheries Policy, Britain could reassert control over its waters out to 200 miles or the median line, which would take in around 65 per cent of North Sea stocks.

6. Successive British governments have refused to say what proportion of domestic laws come from Brussels, but a thorough analysis by the German Federal Justice Ministry showed that 84 per cent of the legislation in that country came from the EU.

7. Outside the EU, Britain would be free to negotiate much more liberal trade agreements with third countries than is possible under the Common External Tariff.

8. The countries with the highest GDP per capita in Europe are Norway and Switzerland. Both export more, proportionately, to the EU, than Britain does.

9. Outside the EU, Britain could be a deregulated, competitive, offshore haven.

10. Oh, and we’d be a democracy again.