Reply to post: hmmm...

hmmm...

well an interesting article, and it's so nice for El Reg to become the UKIP's mouthpiece. Of course this is not the BBC so I won't hold my breath waiting for the opposite piece for balance.

But still he nailed his colours to the mast early unlike some daily express article pretending to be balanced, so lets see what we've got

"The economic effect of leaving the EU would also be nothing"

Interesting, so basically he is saying that the EU has no effect on our economy? So why is everyone getting upset? I on the other hand contend that there will be an effect, I just don't know whether it would be positive or negative. Unlike pollsters and economists, I don't pretend to have crystal ball. What I do think, working for a major multi-national is that it will will be worse for me because the UK may look like a less attractive place to invest. But's that's just me. All I can say is that the reason why the UK joined in the 1st place is that the EU region economies were growing faster than hours. Since we joined the rate as evened out. Causation or Correlation. Sorry not qualified to comment.

"the EU is a political system "

Fine, but that assumes that trade is not a political issue. Trade barriers, import duties, even harmonization of things like capital gains tax are political artifacts.The difficulties is defining where trade ends and local politics begins. the truth is with globalization it is very fuzzy line when trade embargoes can be the goto weapon of choice against countries you don't like.

" Britain pays into the general funds very much more than it gets out"

True on a simple balance sheet type of analysis. But there is of course the other things like access to European programs like those involved in science. Also how do define the cost of influence? It really is not that simple.

"a free market and free trade economy becomes more and more efficient. And more efficient is a synonym for the people getting richer, for GDP rising"

Efficient. Nice word. Free trade marketeers are always putting this forward. But efficiency has a price.

China is very efficient, of course you don't have any job protection or health and safety, but everyone's getting richer so that's ok isn't it. Of course not everyone get's richer, but's that's OK as long as your one of the lucky few.

Also we need to look outside the pure economic argument. Being part of th Eu means we are part of a larger club, not just those who can afford it(it is amazing how many anti-EU have villa's in France and Spain). it means my kids will have opportunities to work and live anywhere, and we have access to the best talent in Europe. Personally I'm happy with that. The fact it probably still makes economic sense is just a bonus.