Tag Archives: eu referendum

Malcolm Wood

It’s time for the Remain campaign to talk about change

By Malcolm Wood | Thu 16th June 2016 - 8:44 am

There are a lot of similarities between the EU referendum and the recent one on Scottish Independence. One is the tedious focus on money, when the issues at stake are much more important that. Another is the difficulty of making an exciting case for keeping things the same. Another is the Leave/Yes campaign’s curious belief that, while the politicians in the further away place are incompetent and self-interested, those closer to home are much better (and don’t expect that line of argument to continue much beyond 24th June, regardless of which way the result goes!).

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Newspuppy

About Nigel Farage and the British fishing industry

By Newspuppy | Wed 15th June 2016 - 4:20 pm

You may have read, seen, giggled at reports of the Leave and Remain camps taking to the Thames today. Nigel Farage led a flotilla of “fishermen for leave” from Southend to the Houses of Parliament.

This is particularly interesting because, as Catherine Bearder points out, Nigel is spending more time showboating on the Thames than he has ever spent actually standing up for the British fishing industry at the European Parliament Fisheries Committee which it’s part of his job to be on.

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Caron Lindsay

Four reasons why your local party would benefit from doing even more EU campaigning

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 15th June 2016 - 1:32 pm

Pledge card01Liberal Democrats across the country are campaigning hard for a Remain vote, with hundreds of events from Cornwall to the Highlands.

With the polls leaping from squeaky bum territory to something much worse, we have all the motivation we need to work even harder over the next few days. My experience is that it’s not been very difficult to persuade people from undecided to Remain and secure a commitment to vote. We need to speak to many, many people over the next few days. It’s difficult to imagine a greater motivation than avoiding handing our country over to the likes of Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Boris Johnson, whose racist and mendacious campaign to Leave is deceiving the electorate.  I always thought the Better Together campaign was the worst in the history of democracy. Vote Leave takes that mantle by some margin.

Anyway, there are some very positive reasons why local parties should do more campaigning.

Potential new members

If you find people who are very pro EU, the chances are you will be able to persuade them to join us.

More money

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Coalition 2.0: The EU Referendum

By Lib Dem Member | Mon 13th June 2016 - 3:32 pm

celebrities

Coalition: painful for us Lib Dems at times, but this isn’t about the last parliament, it’s about the referendum. Over the last few weeks’ economists, historians, scientists and celebrities have emerged, arguing the benefits of our membership of the EU. However, recent polls indicate increased support for Brexit; prompting calls for all campaigns to up their game.

But something else is happening; Brexit campaigners are making more extreme claims as the debate goes on. Farage telling his supporters to ‘go out and bully them’, Boris Johnson accusing the EU of excessive banana regulation, Diane James’ claim of ‘we just don’t know’ when asked about border controls and, of course, the £350 million bus – to name a few. This isn’t surprising, the UKIP machine has driven this referendum from day one and they will throw everything, including the kitchen sink, at it. For Boris Johnson, this campaign is a career test; as a serial risk taker he too, will throw everything at it.

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Lynne Featherstone

Our green economy can only be protected from full Tory demolition by staying in the EU

By Lynne Featherstone | Mon 13th June 2016 - 12:34 pm

Lynne-Featherstone---Stroud

Lynne Featherstone has joined forces with Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity  to talk about how the EU helps the renewable sector.

Just one year of a Tory-only Government we have seen a dangerous unravelling of the green actions of the Coalition. Our investment in the renewable sector made Britain the fastest growing green economy in Europe, created jobs and set solar and wind power on a path to becoming subsidy-free. This progress has been flung into jeopardy by a Government that has not made much effort to hide what it thinks of this “green crap”.

The renewable sector should be seen as an exciting area of innovation and growth, at a time when countries around the world are increasing their investment in green technology in response to global pressure to tackle climate change and domestic pressure to improve air quality. The UK is already a world leader in offshore wind and has the potential to establish this status in other areas such as tidal.

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Bernard Aris

Official, authoritative Dutch government calculations: “Every Dutch citizen stand to lose 1000 euros through a Brexit”

By Bernard Aris | Mon 13th June 2016 - 10:52 am

 

The morning papers in the Netherlands and NOS (our BBC)  all reported last week on a report of the government’s Centraal Plan Bureau (CPB = Central Planning Office, authoritative since its start in the late 1940’s like your IFS; they seldom are far off the mark in their predictions). I base this piece on articles in De Volkskrant (our Guardian) and Financiele Dagblad (equivalent of the Financial Times) and the NOS news website. It makes for worrisome reading.

The immediate effect of a Brexit is, according to the report, that it will cost 1.2% of GDP by 2030, that is, 575 euro per Dutch citizen. Indirect consequences like loss of innovation because of lower trade can increase that by 65%, to 1000 euro each. The damage will be sector specific; the most seriously affected (around 5% loss) will be

  • the chemical sector (that is for example DSM, and our petrochemical sector near Rotterdam);
  • electronics (Philips, just now specializing in expensive medical technologies);
  • food processing (our emblematic dairy industry: Friesland Foods and our extensive chicken and pork breeding industry; in Brabant province there are more pigs than humans).
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Mark Argent

Understanding the fears of those leaning towards Brexit

By Mark Argent | Mon 13th June 2016 - 8:55 am

 

The snag is that the fears are real. An article on research by Demos which highlights a perception that ethnic minorities are more able to influence things. That fits with a sense of alienation and fear I have been encountering on the doorsteps among the less wealthy and predominantly white people who have been talking of voting for “Out”.

In many of my doorstep conversations with people who say they want to vote out of the EU, I have been left with a sense that it is those who stand to lose most from leaving the EU who are actually being tempted to do this. It’s as if their fears are being played on for the benefit of politicians whose careers would gain from Brexit.

If people are afraid of losing their job, or struggling to afford somewhere to live, and the blame can be pinned on “immigrants” coming “because of the EU”, then the government is neatly absolved of responsibility. The EU becomes the scapegoat, so voting for Brexit makes sense. Except that scapegoats are always symbols for the problem, not the actual problem of government failures.

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Posted in Op-eds | 31 Comments
The Voice

Shirley on peace and economic prosperity that EU offers

By The Voice | Sun 12th June 2016 - 12:20 pm

Shirley Williams has been out and about campaigning for us to stay in the EU in the same way as she campaigned for Scotland to see in the UK. She took part in a question and answer session in Wales based around the question “What has the EU done for us?”

Shirley’s answer was clear. She talked about how the EU had secured the peace in Europe:

The main motivation behind the EU was to end wars in Europe after the horror of two world wars and for 71 years we have not had any wars in the territory covered by the EU governments,

She said that the campaign had become too personal and vicious, deviating from what actually matters:

One aspect of it I deeply regret is that it has been much too personal,” she said. “Much too bitchy and in many ways much too involved in one issue – that is, who is going to be the next Prime Minister of this country.

I think that’s a great pity as this is a very crucial issue – they have been few more crucial since the WW2. Whatever side of the argument we are on it is a travesty and a shame to allow it to become a slanging match between two sides of one party, which is essentially what it has become. The debate has been less impressive than it should have been and we have heard too few voices saying pretty much the same things.

Then she talked of the importance of being in on the discussions, working out with our neighbours how to deal with the huge challenges of the day – and cited the Paris climate change talks as an example of what can be achieved.

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Caron Lindsay

It’s time to drop everything and concentrate on the EU Referendum

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 12th June 2016 - 10:25 am

That poll in the Independent which showed Leave with a 10 point lead should concentrate our minds.  We have a lot of work to do over the next 11 days and, frankly, it’s time to drop everything that isn’t absolutely vital and get ourselves out there making the case for Remain, even more than we have done already. I know Liberal Democrats probably more than any other group of people have thrown their backs into it, particularly south of the border, but whatever we are doing, we need to do more and ask very unreasonable things of ourselves over the next few days. It’s not exaggerating to say that the future not just of this country, but the whole European continent, is in jeopardy.

The poll in question comes with a caveat because it didn’t have a “don’t know” option so it’s indicative really of people’s gut reactions at this time not, perhaps, of what they will actually do a week on Thursday. However, the overall state of the polling leads us right into the middle of squeaky bum territory.

It’s too close for comfort and Leave only need a one vote margin.

I’ve been here before, though. At the same stage before the Scottish Referendum, a poll put Yes slightly ahead, leading to a frenzy of activity. While No won out in the end, it was a very scary time. I was shocked by quite how emotional I felt about it. The atmosphere on the “front line” was pretty awful, with those of us who were campaigning for a no vote being told, variously, that we were stupid or treacherous. That came as a shock at the time, as it is now to some Remain campaigners who are experiencing the same thing from Brexiteers. Young Remain campaigners in the West Country were told yesterday, for example, that they were traitors and should be executed. That’s a glimpse into the minds of some of the people we are dealing with and it’s not an attractive one. If anything, this campaign is even worse.

Part of the reason I was so against Scottish independence was the uncertainty around our future membership of the EU. Being a citizen of the EU is an important part of my identity. I really don’t want to lose it. I definitely don’t want to lose it because people believe the lies that the Leave campaign are telling. So, this campaign is quite emotional too. There is a huge amount at stake and I really, really don’t like the thought of the country we would become if we succumbed to the narrow-minded isolationism of the Leave campaign. Brittie No Mates trying to forge her way in an increasingly complex world is not an appealing thought.

When we got to this stage in the Scottish Referendum, I wrote a piece saying what we needed to do in the last few days. Many of these principles apply now.

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Caron Lindsay

Ming Campbell talks EU democracy, security, sovereignty in BBC Big Debate

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 12th June 2016 - 8:56 am

Yesterday, I went to Glasgow to take part in Radio Scotland’s Big Debate as part of the Remain contingent. As they did during the election, the BBC invited a delicately balanced audience.

I almost combusted on the spot when I saw that there was to be an all-male panel. Then I looked at the Leave contingent, all but one of whom were men and only men spoke. The Remain contingent, however, were almost perfectly balanced and it was the women who actually spoke the most during the hour.

It still feels strange to hear Ming Campbell introduced as Lord Campbell of Pittenweem. His partner on the remain side was the very able SNP MEP Alyn Smith. Both of them were very good at making the positive case for the EU and busting a lot of Leave myths. The Leave panellists were Tory Brian Monteith, who lives in France and is a former Conservative MEP. George Laird is from Labour Leave.

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The Voice

Paddy: Pooling sovereignty with our friends does not diminish our sovereignty, it increases it

By The Voice | Sat 11th June 2016 - 4:38 pm

Yesterday, Paddy Ashdown made a speech about Britain’s place in the world. You can watch it here. He tells a story at the very end, that’s quite chilling, about the hideously barbaric human rights abuses in the Balkans and his first meeting with war criminal Radovan Karadzic.

Here’s the text:

A senior German Minister said to me the other day “Whenever I sit down in a room to negotiate with my British colleagues in a European meeting, their first question is always the same – which way to the Exit? You Brits spend so much time trying to find the way out, that you never have the time to build the alliances which are there to be built, to succeed. But now I realise, you would rather go, then win.”

Exactly so!

Canning and Castlereagh would be spinning in their graves.

A couple of weeks ago, I heard Liam Fox on Newsnight go one further. I think I quote him precisely, for I wrote it down at the time: “If we leave, we will bring the EU to its senses”.

Leaving aside the unreality of that statement – as though, the morning after a Brexit vote, millions of European citizens would sit up startled in their beds and say to themselves “Oh heavens! the Brits have left. Now we must come to our senses”.

Leaving aside, the age-old British arrogance about our place in Europe, which lies behind that statement.

Leaving aside also what it tells us of the attitude of senior Brexiteer Tories in this Government, to negotiations with their European partners.

Leaving all these things aside, as an expression of the isolationist mind set of the Brexiteers Dr Fox’s belief that “if we leave the Europeans will come to their senses” must rank alongside the famous Times headline – “fog in Channel, Continent isolated” -.

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Daniel Henry

We need a positive EU campaign and we need it now

By Daniel Henry | Sat 11th June 2016 - 12:25 pm

We’re in danger of losing the EU campaign. We’re making the same mistakes we made in the AV and Scottish Independence referenda and if we don’t turn things around we could find ourselves losing Europe.

The Remain campaign seems to have worked with the assumption that if we present the facts then people will believe and make their decision based on their facts, but unfortunately it just isn’t so simple.

For one, people have no idea of what the facts actually are. The Leave campaign have been extremely effective at casting doubt on any facts they disagree with. The conspiracy theories they come up with may sometimes sound daft, but they resonate with anyone who has come to distrust the political ‘establishment’.

Furthermore, emotion plays a big part in how we decide things. The Leave side have run a very emotive campaign, making effective use of fear (immigrants!!) and hope (unshackled we can do anything!!)

The Remain campaign, in comparison, have only really played to fears (economic ruin!!) and has assumed that because their scare stories are more factual that that will win it. (I saw more factual but even our side has exaggerated and twisting things)

The Remain campaign has lacked a positive message to go alongside the negative message and it desperately needs one!

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NewsHound

LibLink: Nick Clegg: Brexit Lords have a cheek to complain about EU democracy

By NewsHound | Sat 11th June 2016 - 10:50 am

Nick Clegg turned to the subject of EU democracy in his Standard column this week.

He was quick to point out the irony of members of the House of Lords castigating the democracy of the EU:

With more than 800 members, the House of Lords is only second to China’s National People’s Congress in size and is about as undemocratic: unique in Europe, its members can revise and amend the laws of the land without anyone actually being elected. It is, in short, an affront to the basic democratic principle that those who make the laws of the land should be elected by those who obey the laws of the land.

Yet this obvious inconsistency appears to have escaped Lord Lawson et al when they berate the EU as “profoundly undemocratic”. I find what they do every day in the House of Lords profoundly undemocratic too.

The rest of our democracy is riddled with faults too:

Similarly, Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Chris Grayling and the other Brexit ministers appear to be entirely untroubled that they serve in a Government that garnered no more than 24 per cent of the eligible vote. Such an undemocratic outcome — wielding unchallenged power when three quarters of voters either voted for another party or didn’t vote at all — is, it seems, acceptable to these high priests of democratic virtue.

The truth is that our own democracy is in need of a complete overhaul. Westminster is hopelessly stuck in the past: MPs are not allowed to shake each other’s hands on the parliamentary estate; we can’t call each other by our names and must instead use arcane titles such as “my right honourable friend” or “the gallant and learned gentleman”. We are not allowed to clap in the Commons so we register our approval by manically guffawing and waving papers instead.

The EU has its flaws, but it’s not lack of democracy that causes the problem:

What I would never advocate, however, is that Westminster and Whitehall should be razed to the ground or that we should quit our democratic institutions altogether. Yet that is precisely what Brexiteers are inviting us to do: respond to the flaws in the EU, which are numerous, by turning our backs on it altogether.

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Neil Fawcett

How the Referendum Pledge Challenge might help win it for Remain

By Neil Fawcett | Sat 11th June 2016 - 9:27 am

You may have seen an email this week about our new Referendum Pledge Challenge, where you can help win the referendum and earn up to £3,000 for your local party.

A generous donor has provided us with £30,000 in cash rewards if you are able to get people to pledge to vote Remain and provide us with an email address.

This is a fantastic way to help turn out Remain voters in the referendum, AND to build your own capacity to campaign locally in the future.

Every extra email address you collect in the next two weeks will increase your ability to communicate quickly and cheaply with your local residents in the future.

This is how it works…

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Belinda Brooks Gordon

For peace, healthcare, medical research, animal welfare, workers’ rights and equality: why I’m voting Remain

By Belinda Brooks Gordon | Fri 10th June 2016 - 2:55 pm

This is a speech I gave recently at a debate on the European Union at Selwyn College, Cambridge.

I want to tell you why Europe matters. Why it matters to me, to all of us, and our families.

I was born in the Caribbean after Hurricane Hattie, with the windows still broken in the hospital. We know extreme weather events are now more common elsewhere too.

But for our planet, and a greener future, Europe is taking the lead in the global effort to halt climate change. To prevent rising sea levels, and cut greenhouse gases. Our fragile, flood-ridden region, here in Cambridgeshire, needs that protection and forward thinking.

I grew up in Nigeria under a dictatorship. I saw division and bloodshed following the Biafran war. Burnt-out cars lay by the roadside. Roadblocks where soldiers had guns as likely to go off in their own face as mine.

THAT’S WHY I VALUE THE EUROPEAN PROJECT OF PEACE AND I WANT IT TO BE THERE FOR OTHERS TOO.

My work is on civil liberties and protection of the vulnerable. Especially migrant populations, trafficked women, and abused children. It’s why I feel that the EU, which funds programmes and refuges that protect women and young people from violence, is necessary.

It’s why I am grateful for the European Arrest Warrant. It means that thousands of criminals are no longer on our streets because our police can share information.

Now, I live with a vet and I’ve seen the impact of disease through intensive farming. Not only is animal welfare very important to us as a family. But as a mother, the safety of the food I feed my family matters.

So I am glad that EU food safety watches over all stages of food production. From animal feed, plants and crops, to the movement of animals. To ensure food across Europe is safe for us to eat.

And safer goods too. Because Europe gives us better consumer protection. Take standardization – people often laugh at Brussels for it. But it means that manufacture costs are lower and it ensures safer, better quality goods.

More than two thousand faulty items are banned each year – from Chinese rubber ducks to suspect tattoo chemicals from the USA. It means we can make informed choices.

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Martin Thomas

Lord Martin Thomas writes…“We beat them, why should we join them?”

By Martin Thomas | Fri 10th June 2016 - 1:25 pm

In the late forties and fifties, when men and women had returned from war, babies boomed. The boomers were born in free NHS hospitals. Secondary education had been improved for them. Fees in the grammar schools had been abolished. There were jobs and apprenticeships for school-leavers. A few went to college free of tuition fees and with a healthy maintenance grant. The austerity of the post-war years slowly passed and rationing was abolished. Peace was maintained by a nuclear standoff between Soviet Russia and the Western powers. The boomers were lucky. Now they are retired, many on index linked pensions.

I was born in the thirties. I lived through the War. As a child, I vividly remember sheltering under the staircase at my home in Llangollen, listening to the rhythmic growl of German bombers passing overhead towards Liverpool. I heard bombs falling on a decoy airstrip in the mountains nearby. Britain standing alone meant dangerous isolation.

Later, there were Americans camped in the town. Free French forces were stationed near my school. Polish airmen were training on Spitfires at Borras nearby. There were detachments of Indian troops. Planes of many countries marked with the three white stripes for D Day, flew overhead. A huge combined effort of free peoples won the war.

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Stuart Bonar

Muscly Putin stickman – my part in the #EUref

By Stuart Bonar | Fri 10th June 2016 - 11:55 am

Whenever I’ve tired during this long referendum campaign I’ve thought about how I will feel as I watch the results come in during the small hours of 24th June. Fear of losing, especially if not by much, has driven me to throw myself into the campaign.

And one of the benefits of a truly national election is that there are no safe seats or swing seats. Every vote genuinely counts as much as any other. It’s given me the freedom to get out and about as I campaign. It means that last weekend I was in Bournemouth, the week before in Liskeard, and this Saturday I’ll be at home in Plymouth (feel free to come along).

I wanted to do even more though, so my partner and I set up a Facebook group as somewhere to try out ideas and see if anyone thought they were any good. We called it Campaign to Remain – keep Britain in Europe.

We didn’t expect much. At first we thought it would be a niche little thing where we’d be breaking open the champagne if a post ever got over 10 likes. But we’ve been really lucky.

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Tatyan Cheung

Message to the Chinese community on how to vote in the EU Referendum

By Tatyan Cheung | Thu 9th June 2016 - 4:17 pm

 

The Conservative government (which includes the REMAIN and LEAVE camps) together with the British media have created a lot of fog, untruths and statistics (read ‘lies’) about the EU and Britain’s membership. It does not seem meaningful to discuss IF we don’t do this we can do that, when there are countless probabilities of an IF outcome, especially outcomes that occur in the future.

My message to the Chinese community in Britain to support the REMAIN campaign is, firstly, to consider the historical context and the pursuit of peace, and secondly, the origins of the Chinese community in Britain and the values we bring to British society.

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Keith Legg

Are you prepared to take the risk of leaving the EU?

By Keith Legg | Thu 9th June 2016 - 10:25 am

To be honest, I hadn’t really given a lot of thought to the EU referendum until after the Scottish elections had passed. Being an expat – or migrant, if you want to put it another way – in a country outside of the EU, it seemed, from a distance at least, that while the rest of the UK would support remaining, England might have a temporary moment of madness during the campaign but would come to its senses in time for the actual vote.

But it was a Facebook post from Scottish Lib Dem stalwart Sheila Richie which really jolted me. She described herself as being “scared” about the potential outcome in a way which she didn’t feel scared about the Scottish independence referendum. I know what she means.

I have a daughter. I’m scared what a vote to pull out of the EU means for her and for her ability to find jobs or higher education in a country which suits her. If she returned to the UK, she wouldn’t automatically have the right to go and work in France, Spain, Germany or wherever (and yes, I know that the UK could stay in the EEA and have the same right of movement as we currently do, but the main aim of most of the Brexiters seems to be to stop immigration so realistically that’s not going to happen.) It would also mean her opportunities for spending time on programmes such as ERASMUS, or even having the opportunity to study for her degree in an EU country, would be at best made difficult by visa regulations, and at worst virtually impossible.

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Maelo Manning

What our Liberal Democrat leaders are saying about the EU referendum

By Maelo Manning | Thu 9th June 2016 - 8:50 am

4 leaders and a president 1I was delighted to receive the email about the Lib Dem leaders’ European event and signed up immediately because, frankly, the EU referendum debate has been inundated with arguments that don’t always make sense and are often factually ambiguous. I am quite often irritated these days because of this.

The Lib Dems leaders,Paddy Ashdown, Ming Campbell, Nick Clegg and Tim Farron, didn’t let me down and it was excellent to see a united front on display. It felt like quite a historic moment for a young person like me.

The event took place at the BAFTA offices in Piccadilly. Each leader began with an impassioned speech explaining what staying in Europe meant to him and why we should adopt the same approach.

My favourite remark came from Tim Farron who said that those who support the leave campaign are “selfish” and should set aside their own prejudices or beliefs for the good of their children’s future and how we should avoid being, “insular, isolated, alone or irrelevant”. He said that he was not making the decision to vote in as a politician but as a “parent and a patriot”. Tim also attacked the out campaign and referred to it as “sheer dishonest elitism”. Tim’s analysis was spot on because of his emphasis on a concern for the future generations if we were to leave the EU.

I spoke to Tim afterwards and got a good account about his beliefs. He explained than any young person voting should, “consider educational opportunities, work abroad and most importantly climate change.” He sees climate change as an extremely pressing issue for future generations and that we would be “better equipped to deal with it in the EU”. He also said that staying in the EU would be a “smart outward looking statement”.

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Referendum polling day is fast approaching and the polls are narrowing

By Dave McCobb and Tim Pickstone | Wed 8th June 2016 - 4:45 pm

Pledge card00The result is going to be decided by whichever side can get their supporters out to vote.

As the Chief Executive of ALDC and the Deputy Director of Campaigns (as well as us both being local councillors in Bury and Hull respectively), we know Lib Dem campaigners are the best in the country at driving up turnout.

That expertise and experience is what the referendum needs – and has been recognised by a £30,000 donation given specifically to incentivise Lib Dem activity in the next few weeks to win the referendum for Remain.

We’re using that money to fund the Referendum Pledge Challenge.

In short, here’s how it will work:

– Every local party will receive 1,500 pledge cards in the post this week. A Riso-friendly version is available on the Google Drive now, so you don’t have to wait for the printed cards to arrive. In the meantime, you can print on the riso or even a laser printer. If you don’t have access to the Google Drive, you can get access to it by emailing [email protected].

– Use the target pools in Connect that identify the most likely Remain voters to pick which doors to knock on. When you speak to a Remain voter, ask them to sign on the dotted line and pledge to vote on June 23rd. Make sure they give you an email address so we can keep in touch with them about our campaign. When someone signs their name to say they will do something, extensive research has shown they’re more likely to go on to do it.

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EU Referendum: Brexit-proof facts

By Stevan Rose | Wed 8th June 2016 - 10:35 am

I have been a committed European Unionist for over 35 years and could once quote the Treaty of Rome as a party piece until the invitations dried up. This referendum is critical to all of us and I have been robust in criticising those aspects of the Remain campaign that I feel undermine the credibility of the real arguments. It was Brexit that kicked off with misleading numbers and daft claims. They were ridiculed quite rightly and we should not follow their lead. The referendum will be won on the credibility of our arguments, which must be Brexit-proof. I accept it is tedious to see someone like me criticising those who have tried to put forward constructive points. So I’m setting out my own view of the major Brexit-proof points I believe we should be promoting on the doorstep, with friends, family and colleagues.

According to the CBI, the economic benefits of EU membership amount to £4,000 net per family.

According to the CBI our net contribution is £116 per person: we get £8 back for every £1 we put in.

Migration from outside the EU is higher than from inside. We can control non-EU migration but are not doing so. That’s our fault, not the EU’s. Under the deal struck by Cameron EU migrants do not get benefits until they have contributed. 

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Caron Lindsay

Cameron should make way for people capable of making a positive case for Remain

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 8th June 2016 - 9:12 am

Last night I spent an hour of my life I won’t get back listening to two men who, respectively, don’t much like and loathe the EU, take questions separately from an ITV audience.

It was every bit as dire as you would expect and then some. Watching Cameron head up the case for Remain is a bit like watching that kid (who would have been me at my school) with no hand-eye co-ordination being forced to captain the netball team. Except, of course, that nobody forced Cameron into that position. He chose to pander to the right wing of his party and UKIP.

What was worrying is that the worm thing on the Times Red Box website was mainly pro Farage, but I did wonder if that was because the sort of demographic who would be using it would be more predisposed to Leave. Matt Chorley’s email this morning confirms that, saying that 80% of those using it were pro Brexit to start with.

The problem is that he sounds half-hearted in his arguments for the EU. There is no positivity, nothing in his demeanour or his words to inspire people to vote his way.

During the Scottish referendum, for all he increased the Yes vote every time he opened his mouth, he did at least appear sincere about wanting the UK to stay together. Don’t, he said, vote Yes to hammer the f-ing Tories. He seemed genuinely worried, at least until the result was declared and then he was quick to put party before country and pointscore on English Votes for English Laws.

Last night, Cameron did a lot of Leave’s job for them, legitimising their anti-immigration lines rather than spelling out the many positives of immigration. The whole programme centred round the economy and immigration. That was it. Nothing on human rights, nothing on workers’ rights. The latter is the one argument that I’ve found can switch people. Very few people actually think that the Tories would preserve their hard-won employment rights, particularly if they move substantially to the right post Brexit.

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The Voice

Farron calls for voter registration deadline to be extended after “shambles”

By The Voice | Wed 8th June 2016 - 8:15 am

Tens of thousands of people wee still trying to register to vote before last night midnight’s deadline but the site crashed and none of them were processed.

This last minute surge and the problems associated with it were highlighted in a blog on Democratic Audit last week as we repotted on Saturday.

Tim Farron is one of many voices calling for the deadline to be extended to enable those people to have their say in the referendum. He said:

This is a shambles the government has presided over and people must be given an extra day to exercise their democratic right, It is also a major blow to the ‘In’ campaign and our prospects of staying in Europe.

With individual voter registration, and a big campaign to encourage young people to register, many of whom have been trying to do so last minute, this could have major consequences for the result. Evidence shows younger people are overwhelmingly pro-European, and if they are disenfranchised it could cost us our place in Europe.

It could also turn them off democracy for life.

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Paul Walter

Confused by competing claims over the EU? – try these impartial fact-checking websites

By Paul Walter | Tue 7th June 2016 - 9:25 am

I’ve heard quite a few people saying words along these lines:

I’ve heard claims and counter-claims about the EU and I just don’t know who to believe.

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Posted in Europe Referendum | Also tagged | 6 Comments
The Voice

Tim Farron: We can’t allow Boris, Gove and Farage to get away with peddling lies

By The Voice | Mon 6th June 2016 - 4:58 pm

Here is Tim Farron on the BBC News Channel talking about the need to call out the Leave campaign for its lies – including the one emblazoned on its bus which has been debunked by just about everybody.

We potentially face the prospect of leaving the EU because of a prospectus of dishonesty peddled by the Leave Campaign.

I am determined to fight a positive campaign about how much more prosperous and prestigious we are if we stay in the EU, we can’t allow Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Nigel Farage to peddle a series of what are basically lies.

He called leaving the EU “an appalling act of self damage.”

He cited “every serious economist I could think of” and respected bodies like the Institute of Fiscal Studies as evidence that we should stay in.

He also urged everyone to register to vote – particularly young people – to protect their own futures.

Watch his interview here.

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Bernard Aris

Some consequences of Brexit that we haven’t considered enough

By Bernard Aris | Mon 6th June 2016 - 2:55 pm

Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), has said many times that the ECB has scenarios prepared for any eventuality which might occur after a Brexit.

This week, at a financial summit in Italy, ECB executive member (he’s the Governor of the Bank of France, trained at ENA, France’s elite government luminaries school) Francois Villeroy de Galhau spelled out some more what Draghi meant: if a Brexit causes serious disruption in financial markets (and an overwhelming majority of experts predict just that), the ECB and EMU governments will do all they can to fend off and stop such disruption in its tracks. Mind you: that means EMU will dig in hard, without consideration towards non-members, not to mention people walking out of the EU in a huff. The UK will within days feel what “splendid isolation” from EMU does to the London City, even before the JP Morgan mass transfer of jobs has started. It is not for nothing that Draghi is insisting it would be wiser for Britain to remain in the EU.

Top executives like the CEO of Emirates Airlines, Tim Clark, who has to deal with exchange rates on a daily basis, predicts economic insecurity and a “free-falling Euro” all over Europe in case of a Brexit, which will affect air travel (at the start of the summer holiday season: scarcity of seats; price hikes for tourists). That’s what he told an IATA summit in Ireland on Friday. Such a steep lowering of the Euro will result in ECB hitting the brakes blindly: “Save the EMU/Euro first, and worry about ‘collateral damage’ later”.  No easing out of Europe gradually, like the Brexiteers are dreaming about.

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Shaun Ennis

Challenging the narrative around immigration

By Shaun Ennis | Mon 6th June 2016 - 10:55 am

It’s a referendum about Britain’s future, at the risk of being decided by the prejudices of past generations. Both Labour and the Conservatives are divided, facts are manipulated to suit the needs of the day and the voices of the young are generally being drowned out by those of the old.

The outlook is bleak for young and first time voters, but more than anything else related to the EU referendum I am disappointed by the amount of fearmongering and negativity that has dominated the ‘Brexit’ campaign.

Financially speaking, Boris & Gove don’t have much left to stand on. Reasonable discourse and sensible debate have been thrown to the wind as the Brexit economic argument collapses under the weight of its own incoherence. Now, in tried and tested fashion, those politicians who would have us withdraw from the EU are turning to the politics of fear and division. The anti-immigration rhetoric has been stamped in bold all over this referendum for the world to see, almost at the cost of any other pro-Brexit sentiment. Should we, as a nation, decide to leave the European Union on June 23rd, the message that decision will send to the continent and to the world will not be one of national pride of reclamation of sovereignty it will be one of collective xenophobia and isolationism.

We are surely better than this. That’s why, when Brexit point the finger at foreigners we have to speak out and challenge the narrative that we are somehow not masters of our own fate.

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The Voice

Nick Clegg: Being in Europe has not held us back, it has thrust us forward

By The Voice | Sun 5th June 2016 - 12:33 pm

Yesterday, Nick Clegg made a keynote speech at the National Liberal Club outlining the reasons Britain should stay in the EU. He tore the Leave campaign apart for its false figures and assertions. One widely quoted line is that Boris Johnson is “Trump with a thesaurus.” But that’s not all he said. He was very clear that the EU, including the single market, had had British influence at its heart. It’s not something that was imposed on us. We helped create it – and it’s been good for us.

And in the modern era, being in the European Union has also helped us to flourish. Britain today is a major world power.

We are one of the world’s most powerful economies;

we are a cultural powerhouse;

our capital is one of the world’s most popular destinations;

our universities are among the very best on the planet;

our businesses lead the world in everything from computer games to wind power.

If being part of the EU was such a drag on our prospects, as the Brexiteers claim, how come we have achieved all this whilst being part of the European Community and the EU for the last 41 years?

He argues that we need the safety in numbers that the EU provides to cope with the challenges of the 21st century:

The 21st century world is one of profound global challenges: climate change, extremism, mass migration, the globalised economy.

The European Union gives us the strength in numbers that we need to meet those challenges.

All over the world countries are responding to the challenges of a globalised economy by coming together to form trading blocs – from Nafta to Asean, from Mercosur to the Pacific Alliance.

In the EU we are part of a single market with the enormous clout that 500 million consumers gives us.

That clout allows us to go toe to toe with the Americans, the Chinese, the Indians, the Russians and everybody else on the global stage.

Going it alone would mean we are trying to compete in that landscape with the much smaller clout of 60-odd million people.

Here’s the speech in full:

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The Voice

Sal Brinton slams Farage sex-attacks comments

By The Voice | Sun 5th June 2016 - 11:35 am

So, Nigel Farage has brought out his dog whistle again. Quelle surprise. He told the Sunday Telegraph:

The nuclear bomb this time would be about Cologne,” he told the Telegraph. Women may be at a particular risk from the “cultural” differences between British society and migrants, after gangs of migrant men allegedly launched a mass sexual attack against hundreds of women in Germany last New Year’s Eve.

It’s not as if he and his party have any sort of record of being in favour even of gender equality. Remember Godfrey Bloom and his comments about women not cleaning behind the fridge? Farage himself thinks that women who take maternity leave are of less value to employers, and of course his party took money from someone who thought that women were being hostile for the simple act of wearing trousers . The same guy thinks women can’t be raped by their husbands. The vast majority of sexual assaults and attacks happen in the home by someone known to the victim, so the UKIPpers have some way to go to understanding the reality of the situation.

You can take any claim of concern for women with a pinch of salt. All Farage is trying to do is to stoke up fear and division.

Sal Brinton was deeply unimpressed, saying:

Nigel Farage’s comments are disgraceful. He has sunk to new depths in his scaremongering with these remarks which are completely unacceptable. The debate about whether Britain is better off in Europe is hugely important and should be based on the facts, not shameful attempts to stir up hatred and fear with smears like this.

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