Brexit, in or out.

[Byrom]

All good points but the Eastern European girls are hot you must admit.

[jim evans]

Another thing the other countries that are in the wings to come in are not going to pay much in,they all belong to the middle or not paying in,what do they have to offer,nothing we haven't already got.

[itsnoteasy]

I watched an mp getting interviewed today, saying we should be in Europe using our influence, to get reform, on and on , influence and reform, not once did the BBC journalist say, what influence? What have we ever influenced them over, don't they just sideline us and carry on regardless? Or reform? What exactly do you want to reform, give the viewers a list of reforms you want to see , red lines that we either get or walk away,then we can judge if you are waffling or being realistic,Or even the easier question of give me a list of things we have reformed in the eu in the past forty odd years? But he didn't, and that's why we never get answers and they are just allowed to drone on and on with their ciched sound bites without actually saying anything. Yet when leave say anything, it's pounced on ,and every last detail must be explained, it has felt so biased to me.
If anyone is interested on the democracy issue , what our parliament can do and what the eu parliament can do , just google how laws are made in the eu, parliament doent make a lot of them , the commission does ( unelected) parliament just consults, at best with some laws it has an equal footing with the commission and it's thoughts on any new legislation must be taken into consideration, so even then it doesn't have total authority, it comes from the directly unelected commissioners, so to compare it to our democracy isn't fair I don't think.

[itsnoteasy]

Another thing the other countries that are in the wings to come in are not going to pay much in,they all belong to the middle or not paying in,what do they have to offer,nothing we haven't already got.

As far as I know Jim there are only five net contributors to the eu budget( after rebates etc) the rest take more than they pay in, to me this is the real reason they all want us to stay.

[Byrom]

I watched an mp getting interviewed today, saying we should be in Europe using our influence, to get reform, on and on , influence and reform, not once did the BBC journalist say, what influence? What have we ever influenced them over, don't they just sideline us and carry on regardless? Or reform? What exactly do you want to reform, give the viewers a list of reforms you want to see , red lines that we either get or walk away,then we can judge if you are waffling or being realistic,Or even the easier question of give me a list of things we have reformed in the eu in the past forty odd years? But he didn't, and that's why we never get answers and they are just allowed to drone on and on with their ciched sound bites without actually saying anything. Yet when leave say anything, it's pounced on ,and every last detail must be explained, it has felt so biased to me.
If anyone is interested on the democracy issue , what our parliament can do and what the eu parliament can do , just google how laws are made in the eu, parliament doent make a lot of them , the commission does ( unelected) parliament just consults, at best with some laws it has an equal footing with the commission and it's thoughts on any new legislation must be taken into consideration, so even then it doesn't have total authority, it comes from the directly unelected commissioners, so to compare it to our democracy isn't fair I don't think.

Very good points and I agree they are not answering the important question - would this voting out effect me getting a hot polish blonde cleaner in ?

[itsnoteasy]

Getting her in what exactly? You may need a visa if I'm thinking what your thinking.
Sorry to be correct you didn't state what gender your cleaner would be

[Terry Davidson]

I saw a report on FB regarding the votes in the EU parliament and from the UK perspective they lost 89 votes and won over 1200 so it appears the British MEPs are generally voting with the majority.

Now the other thing is I can understand the objection to helping out poorer countries if you have no money to distribute at home for the HNS, pensioners and handicapped veterans but I suspect this is all a matter of having better distribution of funds. I think it would be better to help (and influence) countries like Greece and Portugal and get them on an even keel and their economies up to scratch so they can become net contributors. Economic disparity has led to a lot of conflicts over the centuries and preventing a war would be a good thing.

The other point I saw is in general immigrants to the UK are in the vast majority net contributors to the UK with a lot of doctors, nurses and other professionals but it seems only the refugees getting government assistance get all the press attention and in a lot of those cases the 'facts' presented just aren't true.

If we get into the religious differences and skin colour of a lot of the immigrants well there is a lot of bigotry surrounding that and even in a supposedly laid-back country like Canada we have those problems too and they get a lot of press. Just yesterday a Muslim woman in a supermarket in Calgary, Alberta was punched, spit on and had her hajib ripped off by another (white) woman wearing a T-shirt with 'CANADA' on it in bold letters. I am ashamed as a Canadian.

In the end remaining in the EU will most likely benefit the UK and for sure Scotland. On the news this morning they said there is a movement for Scotland to hold another referendum to leave the UK if the UK leaves the EU. There is also no reason why the UK cannot hold another referendum to leave if political support is strong enough. So far we have had 2 referendums in Quebec to leave Canada but one of Quebec's problems is 90% of their territory is owned by First Nations and they have stated they would vote to leave Quebec if they separated.

It's all one big mess and will cause a lot of heartache. UKIP will likely still be around even if the remain side wins.

[itsnoteasy]

Does Canada have immigration controls Terry?

[jim evans]

Yes it's on a points system similar to oz.

[itsnoteasy]

Wow Jean Claude Juncker has just come out and said Britain has had its renegotiation, Cameron got the best deal he could have, there will be no more for Britain, so there you go, as Jim Royal would say, reform my arse. There is no reform, officially, from the horses mouth, we either like it or lump it if we remain.

[itsnoteasy]

Yes it's on a points system similar to oz.

Which is the system the leave campaign wants, strange how it's a good thing for Canada but a bad thing for us.

[Terry Davidson]

Which is the system the leave campaign wants, strange how it's a good thing for Canada but a bad thing for us.

Problem with that is we took 25,000 Syrian refugees recently which doesn't count towards the point system. I believe the government sets a quota for each year but they never hit it because it takes too long to process all the immigrants. In addition Canadian citizens who have relatives can sponsor them as my wife did for her son a few years back. No points system but he wasn't allowed to get any welfare for at least a year.

Initially we tried the points system before we were married and my wife was a licensed physio but she didn't have enough points so the guy at the embassy advised us if she wanted to emigrate we could get married. In the US the green card works in the same way, reference the movie 'Green Card'. When we lived in the States it took us 3-1/2years to get our green card meanwhile illegal immigrants from Mexico and Central America got a faster green card since they needed farm workers.

On top of all that I wouldn't have been allowed to vote in the US until I got my citizenship which takes anywhere from 6 to 10 years. They lost our file for our green card once and we had to re-submit.

[itsnoteasy]

Terry when immigrants come here we have to give them bennifits for children they have left at home!
That's from the eu, not all around the world.

[jim evans]

That's what's costing loads and sending Money home out of benefits ,

[Hello, Mr Big Shot]

Have we funded any art installations in rural Poland or did you make that up?

Nobody, even Buck House, has accurately proven the Royals have any net benefit from a tourist point of view. France of course struggles with tourism, as do all the stately homes of the National Trust/English Heritage.

Yeah, the royals cost less than the EU, but I thought we wanted to get away from unelected officials?

So we have a wholly unelected upper chamber, an unelected head of state and an unelected civil service. Scrap the Lords and the monarchy, I reckon you'd equal the cost of the EU contribution, plus you gain some new tourist attractions. Force them all to get jobs and you voila! net benefit to the economy!

Ludicrous moral equivalences.

Show me evidence the royal family does not generate more tourist tax dollars than it takes out through the civil list. A quite preposterous notion.

And the polish art thing was a feature on Newsnight last week. Looked super, just a shame nobody ever went.