Why Do The Stay In Campaign Have Nothing Good To Say About The Eu?

[ToraToraTora]

On Andrew Marr this morning Nigel Lawson said "There is no campaign to love the EU only to try and scare the pants of those who may vote to leave" - I think he was bang on, so is there any reason to stay in reality?

[ummmm]

I think it's a case of 'better the devil you know' or fear of the unknown.

[TWR]

No.

[bazwillrun]

i imagine it was the same with the romans , hitler etc...hard to make losing control of your country sound good when the basice core of whats happening is loss of ones country to an invading force, whatever the method of takeover....

[Jomlett]

And Lawson lives in France!

[Chris38]

Because there is nothing good to say about the EU. Bureaucratic, socialist, hopelessly undemocratic and thoroughly corrupt. Having seen the spectacle of our prime minister grovelling to various Europeans and being treated with utter contempt, surely the British people will not hesitate to tell the EU to go and get stuffed!

[mrs_overall]

It is funny how we beat the Germans in two world wars and yet we are now controlled by one

[jomifl]

/And Lawson lives in France! /
And in the UK.

[jim360]

They do have good things to say about it, but the people who have already made their minds up -- on both sides -- have little reason to listen to it. Instead, they focus on the negativity of either campaign and seize on that as a rallying cry.

More generally, the "Stay in" campaign is about pragmatism, and it's only really the "Leave" campaign that can get really passionate -- because, apparently, this is our golden chance to rid ourselves of a tyrannical despotic regime, and emerge triumphant in the free new world, etc etc.

[ToraToraTora]

"... this is our golden chance to rid ourselves of a tyrannical despotic regime..." - couldn't have put it better myself jim.

[jim360]

Except obviously I was being facetious. The EU is a despotic tyrannical regime in the same way that Syria is a beacon of democracy.

[retrocop]

I wonder if the majority of 'Stay Ins' actually were born in Great Britain before we made the disastrous step and knew how it used to be.
I was and we got nothing that we were bribed with to join. I should imagine most of the populous were enchanted by the promise of wine lakes and pennies for plonk and butter mountains. They were the deluded fools.

[Bobsy]

United we stand-Divided we fall : OK ?

[ToraToraTora]

is that all your own work bobsy? PMSL!

[retrocop]

Ha Ha. France, Belgium, Italy fell. We liberated them remember?? It was America and our dominions we relied on. Not Europe!!

[Old_Geezer]

Most saw the sense of joining a trade agreement with our close neighbours and standardisation of products, Retro. Anyone saying it was a takeover and we'd be dictated to were seen as scaremongers. It was logical to remain in after being taken in without the public's agreement.

Strange how it turned out that those thought to be conspiracy theorists turned out right and laws from the EU don't get to be debated and accepted or rejected in Westminster as should be the case.

[bazwillrun]

"More generally, the "Stay in" campaign is about pragmatism,"

absolute rubbish...its all coulds mights maybes if we leave, etc....

the only cert nailed on cert is we lose control of and total identity of our country and get ruled by in effect germany ..

[Chris38]

Good to see how many of the respondents regard the EU with the utter contempt it so much deserves.

[retrocop]

History repeats itself. It appears , once again, that Europe needs us (our money) more than we need them. No one invaded us back in 1940 when we had the channel to isolate us from the rest of fallen Europe. here was their unity and bonhommie then? Now we have joined that shambles and are no longer an Island we are getting invaded by stealth and the vanquished are trying to rule the victors. It has done us little good. We were able to look after our own interests before joining the Common Market.
All this talk of 'stepping into the unknown'. It isn't the unknown. We weren't always part of Europe so some of us remember how it used to be. Like when we were allowed to have a fishing fleet and many more examples that were stopped by Brussels to their gain and our detriment.

[naomi24]

'pragmatism' - a reasonable and logical way of doing things or of thinking about problems that is based on dealing with specific situations instead of on ideas and theories.

Doesn't sound much like the EU to me.

[New Judge]

“Why Do The Stay In Campaign Have Nothing Good To Say About The Eu?”

Simples! Because there is nothing good to say about the EU. It is an anti-democratic, corrupt, benign association, well past its sell by date which has done untold harm to millions of people in the member states. It shows no signs of evolving to cope with the changing world. Its response to any crisis it faces is pitiful and the reactions are designed to preserve its institutions rather than tackle the problems.

“I think it's a case of 'better the devil you know' or fear of the unknown.”

The “unknown” in this case is how the EU will develop over the next 10 to 20 years. One thing is for sure – it will not remain as it is now. Geographical expansion is a certainty; more powers will be removed from national governments and bestowed on Brussels/Strasbourg; any crisis the continent faces will be mishandled. The “status quo” is not an option open to UK voters in this referendum.

“They do have good things to say about it,…”

What, exactly? All I seem to have heard about is cheap air fares and the abolition of mobile phone “roaming” charges. Wow! I'd be more than prepared to stump up a little extra for my fortnight in Benidorm (though of course I may not be allowed to go there if we leave the EU. Nobody travelled to continental Europe before the EU came along, did they?).

Anybody voting to remain in the EU neeeds to think about the difference between the EEC in 1975 (when we last had a referendum) and now. Imagine that level of change (and some more) repeated, "salami style" over the next 40 years and that's the superstate your children and grandchildren will be living in come the 2050s. If you fancy that for them, vote to stay by all means.