will the EU leave Britain?

@jen_jen wrote:

I am saying that I don’t feel informed enough to have an opinion and why I don’t…am I not allowed to join in then? Or should I just go back to my little corner of ignorance

So why don’t you just post on the “never-ending story” thread..?

Oh poor Terry, am I rattling your cage by professing to be uninformed and in ignorance when it comes to the EU? At least I know that I am.

@jen_jen wrote:

Oh poor Terry, am I rattling your cage by professing to be uninformed and in ignorance when it comes to the EU? At least I know that I am.

I’m glad you know that you are (uninformed and ignorant..) but you could’ve started a thread about it rather than ruin this one.

Oh dear Terry.

There are perfectly good arguments for and against the EU which we can all express to the best of our ability. A good one against it is that it is a huge lumbering bureaucratic organisation and just running it is costly. I don’t agree with you but I can appreciate where some of your evidence comes from.

Whether you like the EU or not, you do know that most of our trade is with them and has been for many years. That is one of the main reasons we joined the club in the first place. Accepting that we should leave means accepting a complex and unmeasurable counter-factual about how our economic relations with the rest of the world would improve if we left. I also understand your point about costs but the direct costs have to be set against the regional aid we receive and the reversing of the positive trade effect we enjoyed when we joined.

All these things are of course debatable. As you are aware I believe that on balance we are better in a club with our European neighbours, who have political systems very much like ours, as opposed to trying in vain to expand our ties with English speaking countries, such as the USA, who have radically different political systems and economic interests.

Looking round here though we seem to have people on both sides of the argument as well as don’t knows. I think that is great and considerably better than much of the debate elsewhere on the web which frankly gets pretty racist and unpleasant at times.

I’m only too pleased to be debating on here (even with a little bit of below the belt banter) rather than just trading insults elsewhere.

:wink: :D 8)

Btw – you might want to explain the “cheese-eating, surrender monkey” statement. I’m not sure I get it or its historical roots.

@anc wrote:

Btw – you might want to explain the “cheese-eating, surrender monkey” statement. I’m not sure I get it or its historical roots.

If you look on another thread I posted about monkey plants, can’t be arsed to see which one it is on – the roots are under the plant which grows above the soil! :wink: :lol:

I genuinely laughed out loud at that one.

Thank you!