Remain - Something Positive for a change!

I am going to move away from the project fear of the remain campaign and start talking about the positives of remaining in the EU.

Over recent years all the member states have started to push back against the laws brought in by the EU Government. At one point it was obligatory for EU laws to be implemented by member states. That was of course ridiculous because laws are not a 'one size fits all'. Laws are created by countries who come across issue and then try to creating legislation and laws to try and prevent or fix the problem at hand. That means that every single member state is going to have completely different laws in certain aspects.

Thankfully that is no longer the case and Member States are able to not implement the EU legislation. All that is required is for the government to categorically state that the particular EU law does not apply to the UK. (what?! seriously?! Its that easy?!) Yes seriously its that easy. The UK government can say that laws do not apply to the UK.

There however are some exceptions to this but nothing that is particularly relevant to the debate. As an example the laws governing trading standards are not something the UK Government could refuse to implement unless the UK were to stop trading with the EU. The reason I said that it is not relevant to the debate is because no matter what happens on the 23rd of June the UK will still trade with Europe and therefore we will still have to apply the EU trade laws.

So this really raises a big question. Why has the government allowed so many EU laws to be implemented?

There are several answers to this question! Firstly A lot of the EU laws passed down either fill a gap that was missing in the UKs law or add to current laws in place. Many of the EU laws actually benefit the UK (for an example look at TUPE). And it has to be said that some laws have just not been challenged by the UK government probably because it was easier for them to just let it happen.
So the real argument we should be making is not in or out but why has the UK Government not been fighting hard enough for the UK people?

With the push back against all this legislation from member states in recent years the EU is becoming a much easier place to achieve common goals with out sacrificing sovereignty.

Remain For Science Sake!

Being as involved as I am am with a wide variety of scientists the message I keep hearing is remain! 

Currently science gains huge sums of funding from the EU for thousands of different projects across Europe. But money is not the only thing that matters. In fact that is only a small part of the reason many scientists want us to remain in the EU.

One key benefit of remaining in Europe is the collaboration and  coordination of research projects, biodiversity projects, renewable energy research..... the list goes on. If on the 23 June we make the unwise decision to leave we will no longer have access to this pool of knowledge and support. Working in partnership with other science organisations is vital for the UK to keep up with rapidly changing  technologies. 

Putting aside technology for a moment, when it comes to our natural habitats and all the research that has been done in partnership with EU Member states we will loose our ability to  proactively manage and protect our countryside. Working in partnership with EU countries also gives us the opportunity to make a difference to all of Europe's countryside by passing on our knowledge and skills. With out the ability to draw down knowledge from other countries and share our own experience we will damage the future proofing of our natural heritage. 

Practical Issues of Leaving the EU

In one of my earlier blogs I touched on the issues of leaving the EU in practical terms.

Here in slightly more detail is the bigger issues practically.

Partnerships

There are so many partnerships that have been created between the UK and countries all over Europe. Pulling out of these partnerships is likely to be very costly not to mention complicated. You would think that considering Europe’s history of fighting we would have learned to value partnerships enough to not break them unnecessarily.

It’s not just about the work these partnerships do, the main issue is losing the partnerships themselves. We will miss out on so much valuable input from these partnerships that we will find ourselves rapidly falling behind the rest of the European Union.

What’s the government going to do with the £18 billion that gets paid to Europe once we leave?

Well I’m fairly certain that even if farmers get a similar type of subsidy it certainly won’t be as much. My best guess for farmers is that any money for them would be placed in a fund which farmers could submit applications to. Making it very competitive and probably only benefiting larger farmers with the resources to be able to apply. 

Most of the money saved will either go to pay off the huge debt we have or it will prop up the departments that are struggling the most (NHS need I say anymore!) What ever happens it certainly wont go towards anything that is a direct benefit to the people of Britain.(ie supporting local councils so they don't have to keep raising there council tax rates)

Don't Vote Because of Sensational Headlines

The last thing that I want any one to do is to vote one way or the other because of some scary headline. Which ever way you are voting in June please ignore the headlines and  look at the facts.

The most recent misleading headline I have seen states that Over 50  EU Criminals were let in to the country and they then committed more crimes over here. Now that does sound really bad in fact, maybe its time to leave the UK before we are over run by criminals from Europe! 

Well no its not. For starters in a three year period 09/10-12/13 over 500 criminals left the UK And Entered Europe. That means that we are loosing more criminals to Europe than we are gaining. At this point please note that in the very flashy shocking  news story about these 50 criminals nowhere did it mention over what period of time they entered the UK. I suspect it was similar to the period I mentioned above. (even if those 50 came within one year we would still be loosing more criminals than we were gaining.)

That is just one example of a headline that misleads you completely. And unfortunately both sides play that game. The important thing to remember is  don't vote on a headline. If you see a story in the paper I always find it interesting to find out what the opposite opinion is to the story. It soon becomes clear what is factual and what is just a sensational headline to draw in readers!

How big is the EU Budget?

Not very big is the simple answer!

The EU budget compared to most of the EU countries budgets is relatively small. For the 2014 financial year the total budget was €143 billion. In pounds at today’s exchange rate that is roughly £112 billion pounds. That at a glance looks like an enormous amount of money to ordinary people like you and I. But let’s compare it to the UK Government budget.

The UK Governments budget is over £750 billion! That means that the UKs budget could pay for the entire European Union entity nearly 7 times! Or if you like percentages the European Unions total budget is only around 15% of the UK Governments total budget.

Before we go any further here are a few vital bits of information about the EU and how it affects the UK.

1.      The UK rebate reimburses the UK by 66% of the difference between the revenue provided by the UK and the expenditure received by the UK.

2.      Approximately 94% of the EU budget funds programmes and projects both within member states and outside the EU.^[23] Approximately 6% of the budget is used for administrative costs, and less than 3% is spent on EU civil servants' salaries.

Although pro exit campaigners will try to blind you by how much it costs us and how big the budget is. These things always need to be put in to comparison. The UK spends roughly £18 billion on its EU membership and reclaims around half of that through farmers and projects.

So the UKs net expenditure to the EU is £9 billion which equates to 1.2% of the total UK government budget!

The real question we should be asking is not shall we leave the EU but where the hell is the rest of the money going!