Britain’s membership of the European Union (EU) has always been a hotly contested subject of debate on both the left and right wings of Britain’s political establishment. Due to particularly heavy contention on this matter in his own party, back in 2013 our Prime Minister, David Cameron, made a pledge to the British public that if the Conservatives won a majority in parliament at the 2015 General Election he would hold a straightforward “In-Out” referendum on British membership of the EU before the end of 2017. As a result, on TV, radio, social media and in papers, pubs and town halls British political commentators, as well as the British public are discussing their views on the European Union perhaps more than ever before.
In this article then, I would like to briefly and impartially discuss the reasons why some are for remaining in the European Union and the reasons why others are for leaving it.
Remain
One of the reasons first on the list of those who are in favour of Britain’s membership of the EU (known as Europhiles, who are often on the centre-left or centre-right of politics) is that the economic partnership between European nations the EU maintains is good for trade, good for business, creates jobs and drives down prices on products we buy. They also claim that by being part of a twenty-eight country strong economic union of 500 million people, our national economy is made more secure and can achieve and prosper more than it could on its own.
Leave
However, many on the other side of the debate (known as Eurosceptics) also state that there are economic reasons to leave the EU. They assert that if we left, each family in Britain would be £1,000 better off on average due to “cheaper food bills, no membership fees, with the costs of regulations lifted, too”, as the Leave EU campaign states. They also argue that having left the EU, with its free-trade agreement between its member states, we could then set up our own free-trade agreements with the other twenty-seven countries still in the EU and be in a more flexible position to negotiate trade deals with large countries such as China, unconstrained by EU regulations.
Another reason which people on the right of the political spectrum often put forward for leaving is that the European Union’s rules on the free movement of people within its member states has led to huge numbers of European migrants coming to the UK. This they say is bad because it puts a strain on services and infrastructure, increases competition for jobs and threatens Britain’s national identity. Therefore, they argue we should leave the EU because then we would be able to regain control of our borders and then use these controls to reduce these damaging immigration levels.
Remain
Yet many of those who wish to remain in the EU see its guarantee of the free-movement of people as a reason to stay. Because of this policy, they say Britain is able to reap the substantial economic produce of thousands of EU immigrants who have decided to come and work here. Europhiles also argue that rather than place strain on public services, immigrants help keep them going, since many of them come over here to work as nurses, doctors, teachers, builders and plumbers.
So, there are some of the arguments for and against leaving the European Union. Which side are you persuaded by?
Image: By THOR (Summer Sky in Southsea England) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
0 Comment:
Be the first one to comment on this article.