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Thursday 16 June 2016

Brexit or Brit-IN - Leave or Remain Debate

It looks like immigration is the biggest problem British people are complaining about. The problem exaggerated by the recent immigration due to Syrian war. British people are afraid that most of the immigrants eventually will end up in UK.  Given the situation and behaviour of French officials I can't blame them. They are normally turn the blind eye to refugees in Calais.

On the other hand people who emigrated to Britain half a century ago are blaming recent EU immigrants for job loses, house shortages and school places. That's also true.  Bangladeshi and Indian curry houses complain that recent changes to the law means it cost them more to bring chefs and other specific personnel from the relevant Asian countries. Minimum wage should be around 30,000 pounds to invite anyone with work permit and they say  they cannot afford to pay that much. They claim that they are forced to close their businesses. They want the laws to change specifically again for immigration purpose, so they can get cheap labour from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Most care home workers in UK are from African origin and from Asian countries. Prior to recent European migration most of the unskilled jobs in hospitals, hotels and catering industries were done by Asian and african migrants.

European migration from Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, kosovo  and other countries changed that. There were job losses among minority communities. These minority communities more or less concentrated in big cities.  Therefore earlier migrants from Asian and African countries want to support Brexit. They want their jobs back.

Then we have UKIP supporters, Nazi Pegida supporters and English Defence League supporters  who want to stop immigration altogether. They want to claim country back for white Majority.   I.e they don't like any migrants and that will include Asian and African migrants.  What they don't know is, as a result of the 2011 census the White British population was estimated 51,736,290 (81.9% of the UK total population). UK is a white majority country any way.

That's the hilarious situation here. These groups want to support  the Brexit for completely opposite reasons.


Then we have Boris Johnson and conservative right who want Britain to leave EU to claim back country's lost sovereignty allegedly.   I am sympathetic somewhat to their claim as Euro bureaucrats are not a very popular bunch these days. There are quite a few blunders committed by them and they are ignorant to the criticism.  For example roughly €114 million is spent every year to move the European Parliament between its Brussels and Strasbourg seats every month, according to a new assessment by the European Court of Auditors. It says here For decades, the European Parliament has been on the road once a month. "Between 3,000 and 4,000 people, among them roughly 800 MEPs, their assistants, employees and interpreters move 400 kilometres from Brussels to Strasbourg. Their workspaces are empty for 317 days per year."

Then there is accusation that Britain pays 350 million per week. Now that figure is wrong. Britain's actual payment is around £250 million.  Here are the figures.  UK's net contribution is £8.5 billion.  That is because of the rebate as well. Uk get 4.5 billion back from EU from Total Contribution of 12.9 Billion.

Another side who want Britain to leave Europe is Russia. Russians know very well that European ambition to admit  Ukraine and Moldova to Eu would be in disarray if Britain leaves.

 Germany's Angela Merkel's soft touch for Syrian and other refugees and her dealing with Turkish President Erdogan does not go down well with British public. There are worries that Merkel may do a backhanded deal to give millions of Turks free visas to enter Europe and Britain would be flooded.

I actually think there are problems but European migration is not bad for Britain. I can see that places like Walthamstow, Edmonton in London got a really good makeover after migrant numbers swelled. Businesses were booming. Most of the EU migrants are actually working rather than claiming benefits. Here are EU migrant numbers.

If UK political leaders can reduce EU bureaucracy and unnecessary spending, if they can avoid creating a European Bureaucratic state I don't see any good reason to leave.  To guide EU to better democratic institution UK should be in not OUT.

A reply I received from my wife Ines who is German national living in UK.

Just some thoughts From Ines:

1. This shows how the UK is protecting human rights of people who flee the war!

2. EU expansion since the 90s has filled job places or created more jobs - but also increased the average salary of Uk citizen :
If all European workforce will leave  - commonwealth workers will have to fill the places of qualified nurses, doctors, care staff!

3. Every EU country can interpreted the immigration laws to their own needs:
Germany introduced a new law - to allow immigrants from Syria to settle in places where population is at very low level - no overcrowding and housing issues in bid towns anymore, also integration and language courses are a must and any criminal offences leads to extradition - its up to the UK government to deal with their own issues!!!


4. English people are the least informed about EU (LSE Study) and media uses fear and anger instead of knowledge to convince people  - racially prejudices has risen steadily since 2001 and it will destroy this society!!!

Which other lies do you need to convince you of your right choice??
There is an ongoing argument about whether the UK government should launch an information campaign about the European Union before the in/out referendum on EU membership.

The findings come as political leaders struggle to deal with the rise of the UK Independence party, which campaigned on an anti-immigrant, anti-EU platform and has ...