Debates about Britain remaining in Europe are often heated, and with the referendum on our membership coming up on June 23, most people are still being betrayed by the politicians who refuse to give us a factual, informed dialogue. Everyone in the UK has a difficult decision to make in under two months time, and it is made that much harder by not being properly informed.
One issue that is brought up is of course jobs and so called "economic migrants": People coming in to the UK, working and taking the money out of the economy to send back home. Anybody would feel hard done by if the jobs they had applied for was taken by someone from another country thanks to an undercut in wages. But how could you blame a person for wanting a job? Surely most of the blame rests with the employers who decide not to give that job to a local, but instead opt for a cheaper migrant worker. After all, it is not unreasonable for a person to seek out a job wherever they can in order to support themselves or their family, and if someone was willing to offer me a job in another country, is it my position to consider all the people closer to that job who I'm depriving of wages, or is that down to the employer to consider?
Or perhaps it isn't even our employers' faults, but the Government's, for creating intolerable working environments. Just look at how our education secretary Nicky Morgan, and health secretary Jeremy Hunt, have been trying to strong arm their workers into accepting their almost universally reviled planned. Thankfully, Nicky Morgan has since backed down from her plans, but with the way these people treat our workers, I'm sure few would blame the workers for a mass exodus of the workforce (as might occur if Hunt refuses to back down from the Junior Doctor dispute, where the other countries in the UK would be happy to take them and offer them a happier time).
Immigration figures are probably the most contentious matter when it comes to the EU debate, due in no small part to the contribution of UKIP over the past couple of years. We've heard figures suggesting millions of people (or some sort of sub-human swarm) over the next 10-15 years if we remain, or even more millions if Turkey subsequently joins the EU. But if you look at the figures, you'll notice that it's nothing like the black and white picture it is being made out to be. Let us consider the figures for the year ending June 2015:
The number of emigrants exiting the UK, 300,000 , was just under half the number of immigrants entering the UK, at 636,000. Now that seems a very troubling statistic, 2 people coming in for every 1 that leaves. But if we delve a little deeper, all is not as it appears, as the number of those that are entering from Europe is less than half of that figure, 42% or 267,000. 45% of immigrants are citizens that come from outside the EU. So now, we have 300,000 people leaving the UK, but only 267,000 entering from the EU, which gives a net figure of -33,000! So how does 'Brexit' help there? Sure, the 267,000 EU immigrants will decrease, but so too would the number of emigrants. It seems obvious that the EU migration is not the Trojan horse it's being portrayed to be.
So when you go to vote on June 23, remember that leaving the EU is something that won't easily be reversed, so make sure you don't cast your ballot based on false pretences.
