The Remain Campaign-Lies And Half Truths At Best

I had an amusing exchange on t’interweb with a not very bright Remainer yesterday who claimed that voting Leave would be ‘a leap into the unknown’. She clearly has no idea of the world that exists outside the European Union and the fact that the EU is one of the most economically stagnant regions of the world. She then came back to claim that it was FACT that it would be a leap into the unknown. Clearly she is incapable of telling opinion from fact, take a good look at Greece’s recent history and tell me whether they leapt into the unknown when they joined the Euro.

She then went on to say that she would rather be in the EU than stuck in the crappy little old UK. I wondered if by that she meant she would be emigrating and going to live in an other EU country that isn’t so crappy. Maybe she should position herself and a gang of Remainers at airports and seaports and tell the 300,000 people a year coming here to go back, this is a crappy little old country not worth the trouble of entering. I think the fact that so many people are desperate to come to live here says that we are one of the most desirable countries in the world in which to live and we should stop running our country down.

During the same discussion another contributor claimed that the EU would protect us from far-right nationalists. The danger is actually from the growth of far-right nationalists within the EU, a development which has pretty much not taken hold in the UK. Off the top of head I could list:

Golden Dawn (Greece)
Freedom Party (Austria)
Alternative for Deutschland (Germany)
National Front (France)
Vlaams Belang (Belgium)
Sweden Democrats
Northern League (Italy)

The problem is that the Remainers make things up, then move onto another porkie when it is pointed out to them.

Workers’ rights is another one. To say that workers’ rights would go is a lie. The EU legislates a minimum of 20 days paid annual leave. UK legislation is for 5 weeks and 3 days which was in legislation 35 years before we joined the EU. The EU legislated for 14 weeks statutory maternity leave. In UK law it is 52 weeks and so it goes on. In a nutshell upon #Brexit the UK government would have the choice on what legislation to adopt, most of our workers’ rights are already more generous than those the EU dictates so why should we be worse off? It doesn’t make sense.

Our trade would suffer if we left the EU. Why? We have a massive trade deficit with the EU which reached a record £8.1bn last October. Thanks to our remaining outside the Eurozone we have much lower unemployment levels, especially youth unemployment, than all the other countries apart from Czech Republic and Germany. Our level is 5%, Czech Republic is 4.5% with Germany on 4.3%. Greece and Spain are both on over 20% and the EU average is 8.9%. Would these countries suddenly refuse to trade with us? Refuse to sell us cars, wine, cheese, fruit and vegetables and all manner of other goods? As we buy far more from them than they do from us who would be hurt most? Where would the further increase in unemployment bite?

The Remainers are circulating lists of huge financial organisations that support their cause. I hardly think that banking organisations and international financial bodies strike the average voter as being a reliable source of advice on voting in the referendum on Thursday. Take the IMF that has admitted getting the negative impact of the Euro on the EU completely wrong and whose chief is currently on trial for fraud and embezzlement. HM Treasury has proclaimed disaster if we #Brexit. Is this the same HM Treaasury and cried disaster if we left the ERM and then likewise if we didn’t join the Euro? The same HM Treasury that failed to spot the looming banking crisis of 2007/08?

Don’t get me onto the purely selfish “I’ve got a house in Spain/France/Portugal etc”  brigade. I know people who have property in other countries, the USA and Belize to name but two, last time I checked neither was a member of the EU. That’s almost as puerile as wanting to adopt the Euro so you don’t have to change money when you go abroad. I’ve even heard somebody declare for Remain because he studied for 6 months in Holland when a student and that would end. No it wouldn’t. Students study all over the world not just within the European Union and that needn’t end when we leave. I ‘ve worked in Greece, before it was a member of the EU and Mexico, which is obviously not in the EU. Remainers increasingly sound like Little Europeaners wanting to build a wall around their little project to block out the big wide world. And they accuse Leavers of xenophobia/racism and being isolationist.

The truly idiotic in the Remain camp have claimed that the EU is more democratic. The European Parliament cannot initiate legislation. It can only debate and vote on proposals that come from the unelected European Commission. If they reject it then it goes back to the EC. If they then vote against a second time it goes through anyway. The European Parliament is a sham. You cannot vote out the European Commissioners, we voted out Labour in 2010, the Lib Dems in 2015 and could vote out the Tories in 2020 or earlier.

I have yet to hear a single convincing and truthful argument for Remain.