Better off in or out of the EU?

Quick quote from a BBC article that analysises the issues:

"Better off out: It would be a major shot in the arm for British democracy as the Westminster parliament regained its sovereignty and reconnected with voters...."

LOL.

Actually it is some politicians ideological obsessions with the EU that has disenfranchised many voters. On top of that, wealth and the pursuit of personal gratification (something the Conservatives push as a good trait) has resulted in a complete lack of interest in voting and politics. I know for a fact that my colleagues think the latest computer games are more important to talk about than anything else on the planet.

The referendum is primarily a battle within the Conservative party and it's fringes (UKIP, the national press) and a single political party does not represent Britain.

The EU issue in the UK is all about attention seeking. Another reason why people don't vote, is because life is relatively stable and settled. Many Conservatives want to manufacture problems in order to make themselves and parliament more relevant. They want the state to be smaller and do less, but at the same time they want more personal influence and power.

This is all about them, far more than it is about us, other political parties or the nation. Yet we are being sucked into their personal battles. The fact is parliament can only gain relevancy by changing itself and using technology to include more direct democracy. That has nothing to do with the EU, which is a red herring as far as reconnecting with voters is concerned.

We should stay in the EU

Thought I would post my opinion regarding the EU.

My perspective is one of seeking facts, rather than one based on political ideology.

My personal experience has been that EU law was beneficial to the companies I have worked for. My first job was as a design engineer for a global electronic equipment design, development and manufacturing company. I use those three terms, because I think the single term 'manufacturing' doesn't express reality. Before you can make anything you need educated people to design and develop it.

The company in question indeed had market share outside the EU, but that wasn't where it's main competition was. Also the global market was for lower grade equipment whilst the EU was a market for higher grade and hence higher value equipment along with higher volumes of such equipment.

So what was it like within Europe before the EU, dealing with individual national laws and regulations?

The company spent a lot of money and time developing special versions of their product to satisfy an individual European nations rules and regulations. Germany in particular regularly changed the goal posts and made sure their own industry were well informed of any change a long time before the British company I worked for. The end result was that although our technology was superior (yes it really was better than the German equivalent), the German company always got a bigger market share within their native country. There were armies of civil servants across Europe checking that imported equipment satisfied the nations regulations, this of course was very expensive for the individual nations.

What was it like after EU law and regulation?

The change had a MASSIVE positive impact, it really can not be underestimated.
The British company designed and developed products in which a single version could be sold all over Europe. There was less bureaucracy to deal with in each nation. The company was so successful that it bought that German competitor. It also took over a number of other EU companies. Company costs were reduced.

The fact is we shouldn't be having a referendum. If we come out we will have just as many 'problems' as we allegedly have staying in. Plus of course if we have a referendum now, we will have to have another one in 5 or 10 years time because we will want to be back in.

I was listening to an individual calling into a radio talk show about the referendum, the caller said they were fed up with EU laws. The presenter then asked for a specific example of a EU law.
After a lot of thinking, the caller could only come up with one alleged law.
Apparently the EU insists all our cucumbers are straight!

What are the facts?

The mythical bent banana rule never banned bent bananas. The EU rules graded bananas into classes, any banning was done by supermarkets who refused to sell lower class fruit and veg. The fact is that if we were outside the EU, the big corporate supermarkets would still be banning mis-shaped fruit, plus there have been many TV campaigns and programmes that clearly show that it is these corporate companies (Supermarkets being in the news recently about rejecting food and failing to pay their suppliers) that ban food not the EU.
Finally the EU regulation that graded bananas was replaced in 2012.