EU debate - on our own we can stand tall and free

Letters (February 18) regarding the forthcoming vote on our membership of the EU, again focussed on scare tactics.

The Le Touquet Treaty of 2003 where British immigration officials operate in Calais and French officials operate in Dover, has nothing to do with our membership or otherwise of the EU, and there has been no suggestion from the French Government this would change, as it is beneficial to both countries in controlling their respective borders.

There is also a lack of understanding of how the EU Parliament works. Unlike our own Parliament, MEPs can neither propose or introduce legislation nor can they revise it. That is the role of the 28 member commission and its job is solely to uphold the interests of the EU.

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MEPs are merely voting fodder. If in the unlikely event that a vote is lost, it is the Commission which makes the final decision before sending it on to member states.

But unless Britain has a national veto on the subject, there is no option to reject it.

Mention is made of our access to “500 million affluent European consumers”, conveniently overlooking the economic crisis which bedevils Portugal, Spain, Italy, and France, not to mention Greece.

Even the mighty Germany is beginning to wobble with the VW debacle and their own economic migrant crisis.

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Most of the world is not in the EU – and most of the world is doing better than the EU. Those are the markets we should be accessing.

Our trade with the EU has been reducing for years, and continues to do so.

Much is made of the fact that we ONLY pay – that is the British taxpayer ONLY pays – one per cent of our taxes to the EU. To put that into context, that is £350million a week, every week, while our schools are over-crowded, the NHS is over stretched, and in debt to the tune of £3billion and growing, you may also have noticed the potholed state of our roads, all of which could benefit from that weekly £350million payment.

It is unsurprising that the EU brings no economic benefit, for the EU has never been an economic project, but a political project to create a united states of Europe.

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We should reject the politics of fear, for the politics of hope, so that the UK can once again become a self governing democracy with global rather than a little European perspective.

We would be free, and we would stand tall. That is what the referendum is all about.

Councillor Charles J E James

UKIP Group Leader

Worthing Borough Council

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