The significant sum last year was a massive 1.1@% of our annual expenditure.

What's that in £?

Read my earlier post (around 8.40) where I spoke about renationalising and how that's a really big issue for me.

I'm just trying to put info out there as quite a few people have no idea about a lot of things.
Isn't it important that people have as many facts before they decide. Tis a big decision.
The Lexit film raises some excellent points.

I'm back to fifty fifty now!

The crowd are currently throwing virtual rotten tomatoes.

Problem is that these will be British 'Pat Butcheresque' prostitutes, rather than those fancy attractive EU sex slaves.

One only has to travel the red light district of Amsterdam and Hamburg to see that when it comes to drugs and hookers, the Remain camp has it.

All these Leave with their free cocaine and hookers are lies. It'll be cheap speed and handjibbers from Kathy Burke-a-likes, and all at over inflated prices.

You just can't trust the British government to respect the rights of snorters and Brass aficionados.

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

The comments in this thread, although I admit not reading from the start, and especially those in response to my original post, only go to confirm what I said. We ought not be having a referendum on such a vital issue. Such matters cannot be trusted to be handled objectively by people without either all the facts, or the ability to handle them. This is a job for the people we pay to study issues and take decisions for us. We need to learn to trust our politicians, for they are not all "scumbags". Some, like Johnson and Gove, are self serving opportunists, but that is only to be expected.

Some of the comments make me ashamed of my fellow citizens. I have heard such ideas locally here too, from UKIP supporters. I hear echos of Trump ringing in my ears which make me wince.

I own another home abroad and will seriously consider spending the rest of my life there if we vote to leave. Although if the £ plummets I would probably not be able to afford to live there, given my retirement income is in sterling.

I used to run a business in Wisbech. Wisbech has had a lot of immigration from Eastern Europe in the last decade. They work on the farms, and in the food processing factories. Originally mainly from Poland they then came from Latvia, Estonia etc etc. Mostly quite young, highly motivated and intelligent they work hard. Of course they put a huge pressure on local resources, like schools and health care. They contained a number of thugs, single men who caused problems, but there were also lots of families. My business employed 25 people, no immigrants at that time because they all needed a locally obtained qualification, but many immigrants were my customers. Always polite and grateful they were a joy to have around. My wife made good friends with some. Compared to some of the indigenous people they were ideal citizens who enrich the UK and increase our overall prosperity.

We have nothing to fear from immigration. We need it. For sure we must manage it, and keep it balanced so supply does not exceed demand, but closing the door on the EU, won't change our needs.

Those who will vote to leave will no doubt do so. I just hope there are enough people who disagree. I especially hope the younger people, who often don't vote, are sufficiently motivated to do so this time. It is their future which is at stake.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

Tate & Lyle pay €3.5m tax to the EU on a single boatload of sugar, which then goes back to their competitors in Europe through subsidies.

If you offset that against farm subsidies then what the fcuk are we paying a membership fee (not £350m a week, just the 75% of that we don't get a rebate on) for?

There will never be a "United States of Europe" that includes the UK. That is just naked "leave" scaremongering. We would surely hold another referendum before there was any chance of that happening and I feel 100% sure it would be rejected out of hand. As is the idea of unchecked immigration. People won't come here if the economy cannot support them. Growth is what we need, and to leave will certainly do the job for you because it would send our economy into a tailspin.

I think you ought to consult a wide selection of young people before making claims which cannot be justified. There is a much larger approval for the EU among the younger generations than the older. They can see their future, and that it is better in Europe than out. They are modern forward thinking people and not old dinosaurs on their way to extinction. This isn't your past but tomorrow is their future. Listen to them and not to your prejudices.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

Total and utter REMAIN hogwash.Dear Oh dear.
Typifies the risible propoganda and scaremongering which has been at the very heart of the 'Remain' camp.

We are a very successful trading nation, we can be trusted to run our own economy, make our own deals, pass our own laws and control our borders free of EU interference and meddling.

IF 'Remain' wins we will have missed a once in a lifetime opportunity to escape from the disaster unfolding across Europe.Let 24th June 2016 be 'Independence Day'.

Edited by Willo (22 Jun 2016 1.50pm)

Mate, you are trying to convince a person clearly unable to understand the concepts at play and who is incapable of holding anything but fed dogma. He will simply respond with errant nonsense about great swarms of Turks arriving like locusts to take our jobs and defile our women. You are wasting your breath.