Well first off I was merely replying to what others were saying with regards to how the results of the referendum could affect the chances of this government remaining in power after another general election.
ok, fair enough. I am just concerned when I hear people talking about what the referendum could do to this particular tory government, as if that's all that matters.
As for your question, yes I do think more longer term issues concerning our membership of the EU should be considered and those issues are part of my own reasoning for being opposed to the EU and my decision to vote leave come the 23rd of June. Usually one is faced with a dichotomy of the benefits of the short term versus the long term however on the issue of leaving the EU the short term benefits compliment the longer term ones, at least in the way I see it.
My concern is that this referendum was called because Cameron wanted to keep his party united at the last general election. I don't see there is something the EU has recently done as the straw that broke the camel's back. And I am concerned about Scotland and the possible break up of the United Kingdom.
I think the UK is in an enviable position, we aren't in the Euro, we aren't in Schengen, and we have full single market access. The Euro zone may well continue to integrate but that doesn't have to affect the UK, and if things change significantly we can have a future in out referendum at that time.
My main concern though is jobs, I do think a lot of jobs depend on free access to the single market, both native UK jobs and those from inward investment. I am not saying all of them will vanish on a leave vote, but I do expect it will become harder to do business with the EU from a position of being outside and a lot of foreign companies, from the USA, Japan, China etc who might have located their EU offices and factories in the UK, will then go elsewhere. And who is to say whether some foreign companies that are here at the moment, may not up sticks and move into the single market area.
I think creating an environment in which workers have jobs should be the primary concern of government, and putting a barrier (of some kind) between the UK and the largest single market, right on our doorstep, is folly.
I believe the EU has helped, with NATO, to secure peace on the European continent and I don't wish for the breakup of the EU, which I think a UK leave could hasten.
The EU is not perfect, far from it, but the UK's influence is far stronger inside than it would be outside, on regulations, on trade and on the form the future union will take. Those are some of the reasons I am voting remain.
