Futures Forum: Brexit/Bremain >>> how to decide how to vote
Sustainable Crediton has just issued its own guide for today's vote:
... And if you're still not sure which way to go here's a summary of what a few of our local people said at our EU Referendum debate:
Mary Quicke spoke about a recent report from the NFU which had found that in only 2 out of 9 possible scenarios would farmers be better off if we came out of the EU.
If we want completely free trade we should vote to leave, but for dairy farmers, such as Quickes, the benefits of staying in outweigh the disadvantages. She pointed out that countrries such as Norway and Switzerland, which aren't in the EU, have to abide by EU regulations if they want to trade in the EU but they don't have any say when the regulations are made.
On the issue of immigration she pointed out that farms such as hers rely on foreign workers to provide their labour and take jobs that many British people don't want.
Listen to her talk on our YouTube video - fast forward to 12:50
Sam Robbins looked at economics. He said that the net contribution made by the UK was £230 million a week, after taking off the rebate negotiated by Margaret Thatcher. Overall the total amount was only 1% of public expenditure.
It was difficult to predict what would happen if we came out of the EU since it depended on which model we went for. One possible scenario was to go for the World Trade Organisation model in which case we would not be bound by EU regulations. But it would be difficult and time consuming to negotiate a good trade deal and there would be a lot of disruption in the short term and it was likely that our currency would suffer.
Listen to him talk on our YouTube video - fast forward to 23:35
David Jaques focused on the issue of democracy and the loss of sovereignty which resulted from the UK being part of the EU. EU Commissioners are unelected and yet have a lot of power. Although there is a Parliament they can only respond to laws put forward by the Commission and cannot initiate anything. And EU law has supremacy over UK law.
David said that businesses were concerned about the amount of regulations coming out of the EU which even firms which didn't trade with the EU had to abide by. He talked about the fishing industry which had been devastated by the EU Fisheries Policy. If we came out of the EU, we could develop our own fisheries policy which was more in line with local needs.
Overall his message was that if want democracy and not dictatorship, we should come out of the EU.
Listen to him talk on our YouTube video - fast forward to 35:05
Mike Birkin from Friends of the Earth talked about the environmental consequences of leaving the EU. Based on a number of different reports, his conclusion was that there are clear environmental benefits for staying in the EU and leaving would be a significant threat.
European legislation is the most robust body of law protecting the environment, for instance the laws protecting the most valuable areas for nature across Europe. Since the laws came in, the rate of loss has dropped from 15% a year to 1%. Whilst the Common Fisheries policy is widely seen as being a failure, the majority of stocks are being fished sustainably and populations are starting to recover.
Listen to him talk on our YouTube video - fast forward to 46:18
Other local people joined in the debate - hear what they had to say on our YouTube video - fast forward to 1:00:35 for the audience question time.
Whatever your views, the important thing is that we all contribute to this important decision.
VOTE NOW!
Best Wishes
Sarah
Chair of Sustainable Crediton
Sustainable Crediton - Welcome to Sustainable Crediton
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