We’d create it

HERE is the truth about the European Union: 40-50% of our exports go to the EU. The EU economy is larger than the USA, China, Japan or India and it has negotiated over 50 Free Trade Agreements with non member countries. Less than 2% of our taxes go to the EU. The EU has 42,500 civil servants; the UK has 400,000. Less than 15% of new UK laws originate in the EU. 
Being part of a larger group helps us tackle global problems such as terrorism, nuclear proliferation, climate change and unfair multinational trading practices, to name just a few. We haven’t so much given up sovereignty as pooled it with 27 other countries in the interests of all. Proposals are made by the Commission but decisions are made jointly by the Council of Ministers from the 28 countries and the elected MEPS. The Lisbon Treaty of 2007 set limits on the powers of the EU and introduced greater transparency, democracy and accountability.
At the packed Shirley Williams meeting at Abergavenny last week there was a young man, sadly too young to vote, who suggested that if the present generation took Britain out of the European Union, his generation would have to work to get us back in again. I would take it a step further. Thinking of Voltaire’s opinion that if God didn’t exist we would have to invent him, I would suggest that if the EU didn’t exist we would have to create it. In the interests of our prosperity, security and our place in the world I would urge people to vote Remain on Thursday.