Tired Of Brexit? Exit

Whichever side of the fence you are on, it is unlikely that Brexit is panning out as you expected. The government's own much lied about risk assessments has painted a bleak picture of the future, whichever Brexit we finally get.

Remainers are and always have been accused of scaremongering, it even has a name project fear.

For myself the most important function ot the EU has been peace, after all peace was the point, by trading with each other we could spread our wealth, create more wealth and make war the least desirable option.

Members of the EU or the EU’s predecessors have never been to war against each other, prior to its inception. 110,000,000, people died in conflicts between the same countries in the first 50 years of the 20th century, the centuries before did not see  that level of deaths purley because it was barely possible to achieve it. It was not through lack of effort.

The default setting in Europe was war.

Some people argue that Nato has prevented us from fighting each other but that is stuff and nonsense, The NATO charter focuses on aggression against members, not aggression created by members. Turkey and Greece proved that. Trade and cooperation is the most potent way of preventing war.

The EU is far from perfect and reforms are badly needed, it is also slow to enact the needed reforms, too much money is wasted on bureaucracy, we all know this and if the 100’s of millions sent over to the EU did not benefit us financially it would still be worth it, every single penny. War is far more expensive.

But in any case it simply is not true, the UK benefits massively from its membership it has thrived inside the EU, not since the industrial revolution and the heady days of Empire has the UK thrived so much, in fact is has exceeded it and this time it has been shared about a little more fairly than hitherto was the case.

Boris Johnson's claim that the "EU is a graveyard of low growth” does not stand up to scrutiny, since 1973 the UK has grown in economic terms by:

UK 103%

US 97%

Germany 99%

France 74%

In the heady days of Empire from 1872 to 1914 the UK per capita growth was 0.9% per year, since joining the EU it has been 2.1% and as I said above this wealth has at least managed to reach more people. Now of course I am not suggesting that wealth is fairly distributed, but improvement is improvement.

The EU is also the largest trading block in the world and it is going to become much, much wealthier, as the new members benefit in the same way as all the others the EU’s bargaining power will increase, now the EU finds it difficult to strike trade deals it is true, too many conflicting needs amongst its members, this needs some reform. However as it becomes wealthier the necessity of having a free trade deal with the EU will increase.

Now to the thorny issue of immigration and the greatest of all the lies.

The control over much needed EU migrants can of course be established if we leave the single market and the customs union, this will of course cost the UK financially, this was established in the Government own reports and it is foolish to deny it.

But over 200,000 non EU migrants came to the UK last year and only 90,000 EU migrants. The increase in non EU more than made up for the European shortfall. The UK had complete control over how many non EU migrants came in and it always has had. So how does anyone think that the promises made by this government are going to be kept, they will now and cannot be kept, the only way to stop it is to become so poor that no one wants to come. In my opinion that is a very real possibility.

So if your tired of Brexit then exit, come to Portugal and join us in a proper European country.

Paul Stubbs