JamieMartin you are so SPOT ON the money and SO clued up it's unreal! That is the best post on this entire thread. You are clearly a leader of some degree and a forward thinker. Need more like you on here.

Edited by DivingIsNotGood (26 May 2016 12.03pm)

VOTING OUT - Brexit will allow Britain to embrace the Commonwealth and be GREAT again

Actually quite funny LOL

VOTING OUT - Brexit will allow Britain to embrace the Commonwealth and be GREAT again

That's about right.

"One Nation Under God, has turned into One Nation Under the Influence of One Drug"
[Link]

Welcome back Hoof, your observations are always appreciated. I notice that yet again Nigel Farage disputes the figures, complaining that they should be much higher. But then again he disputes all of the data being published from independent bodies.
But what we now know about immigration, does the circa 5% increase in the net migration figure mean that the £2.5 billion NET contribution from the last set of figures also go up 5%. Honest answer:probably not because the Net migration figure only went up because fewer people left the uk. But if that net contribution of £2.5b was pro-rated into public expenditure, does that mean an extra £500m windfall for uk pensions? And a £400m additional windfall for the NHS?
The figures also show that there were 28.2m BRITISH NATIONALS employed in the uk. Thats a record isnt it? Would this figure drop in the short term by circa 800,000 in the event of brexit? The UK economy is at or near full employment (about 5.3% which is good right?) but we have a skills shortage and the numbers of graduates/doctors/nurses etc are not sufficient to plug the gap. So do we let the quality of our public services suffer (according to the chief exec 9f the NHS) not only by reduced funding but also by not having enough qualified professionals to run them properly?
I know...its not about them (i.e. the professional), its about the rest of the unskilled migrants who simultaneously manage to claim ALL of our benefits and take ALL of 'our' jobs at the same time .... Hmmm... doesnt really sound plausible TBH.....Even though the actual figures suggest that only 7% of european migrants claimed benefits (compared to 15% of British nationals) and that British nationals occupy 19 out 20 jobs in the uk....but as one wise commentator said "if somebody probably from a poorer country, educated in a different language, a different culture and with little or no bargaining power manages to get a job ahead of you, then you must be pretty s#it at your job."

All very impressive figures no doubt.

However the way it is at the minute, our minimum wage is 10 times what it is in Romania, Poland etc etc, so what we have is an influx of eatern Europes poorer nations flooding the cheap labour Market, whats more they can just waltz over whenever they please.

And yet......a heavily qualified doctor from say India or even the USA has to jump through so many hoops just to get here.

There are more countires out of the EU than in it and they seem to be trading just fine, with no sign of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, any where in sight.

I would summarise the EU thus:

You can drive a car with your feet if you want to.
Just because you can, doesn't make it a good f***in idea.

"It's not the bullet that's got my name on it that concerns me; it's all them other ones flyin' around marked 'To Whom It May Concern.'"

Danny, i dont think there will be an apocolypse in the event of brexit, nor a war nor any other major catastrophe but i do think its fair to assume that we would be worse off, cant say exactly by how much, but definitely worse off. I also think our trading tariffs i.e. free at the moment, wont be as good. Again nobody can say for certain by how much, but it wont be as good as what they are....and similar for the Nhs, employment, security, etc etc...we would be worse off but nobody knows by exactly how much.
Wrt poland and romania. Its also 10 times cheaper to rent a house (probably 20x), have a meal, get a taxi etc....but if they want to take a risk and learn a different language, culture and enter a job market that is stacked in favour of BRITISH nationals, so will likely be limited to menial jobs, then they are welcome and the figures show they are NET CONTRIBUTORS.
As for professionals from India, US etc...we are already plugging the skills gap from these countries. I know many professionals (even in areas like finance) that have come over from India S.africa etc who have settled in the uk and similarly contribute....one young indian doctor even saved my dads life...but the reality is that many on the out campaign are against immigration per se i.e. not just the eu and would similarly balk at the idea that we took in immigrants from India, pakistan etc. Instead of those from the eu.
And the world is demographically been divided into trading blocks whether we like it or not. The US, Japan, China, India, the EU, are the power brokers followed by Brazil&Russia and Africa. Isolationism in the global economy is just foolish, and is backed up by all independent forecasts.