Rather than return power to the UK, leaving the EU would take power away from our politicians, businesses and our citizens.
The selectivity of UKIP’s facts on Britain’s membership of the European Union and on immigration are well-known.
It is not enough to wrap ideology in unqualified numbers (such as the supposed £55m cost per day of our EU membership, which appears to be at odds with HMRC figures).
Here I compare the information Eurosceptics present with the reality of what would be at stake were UKIP to implement their ideas.
UKIP: ‘A vote for UKIP is a vote to leave the EU and recover power over our national life.’
Peace and stability is power enough.
Nigel Farage wants to take the UK out of the European Union, severing a bond with 27 of our European neighbours who have lived together in peace since the devastating world wars that dominated first half of the 20th century. On awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union in 2012, the Nobel committee chairman said: “the political framework in which the union is rooted is more important than ever”.
It is arguably the diplomacy, cooperation, friendship and respect enjoyed by members of the EU that have kept Europe peaceful for nearly 70 years. We need our leaders at the table, talking, negotiating and understanding each other. UKIP wants Britain to be on the sidelines, away from the mutual agreements and ambitions that bind 28 nations – out of the room and unable to represent Britain or help maintain peace and stability.
Under UKIP, while the representatives of 500 million of our European neighbours would be forging close alliances, Britain would be a remote island. What power would Britain gain in this regard?
Even so, we must consider what Britain would look like if UKIP were representing our interests with our European neighbours, whether or not we remained in the EU. Farage is not known for building relationships: one only has to remember his disgraceful treatment of Herman Van Rompuy on his election as European Council President.
If the EU has been responsible for peace in the last 70 years, it currently costs each person around £75 per year – the balance between what is paid and what is directly reinvested in Britain by the EU. This puts the ‘cost’ of our membership of the EU in a completely different light.
UKIP: ‘Regain control of our borders and of immigration – only possible by leaving the EU.’
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) recently published information that suggests UKIP’s one-way escalator at the White Cliffs of Dover on its election posters is unworthy of informed debate.
According to the ONS, 1.8m Britons live outside the UK in Europe, with 1m of these living in Spain, whilst 2.3m Europeans live in the UK. If Britain pulled up the drawbridge, it would be a certainty that other EU countries would respond and the British dream of living and working in France, Spain, Greece and Italy would be over.
The escalator is moving in both directions and UKIP would have it stopped altogether.
Leaving Europe not only puts at risk our ability to move freely across borders in Europe, it also risks the access to cheap flights that millions of us enjoy for work and pleasure. Small businesses rely on low cost flights to secure essential new opportunities for growth and millions of families and friends rely on this EU advantage to enjoy holidays in the sun.
Far from protecting our borders, leaving the EU would come at a great price and restrict us all in our work and leisure. Our borders would also keep more of us in.
UKIP: ‘Save £55m a day in membership fees by leaving the EU’
Farage’s claim that the EU costs the UK £20bn in membership fees per year is some £11bn higher than figures quoted by the EU Budget Office in 2011. In addition, the 2011 inward spend by the EU in Britain was around £5bn according to the EU Budget Office, which gave a net cost to the UK of £3.6bn for our membership. Whilst this is still an apparent cost, it is significantly different to UKIP’s figure.
Why should we accept a net cost? The EU says that there is a net benefit to the UK through access to European markets and contracts. HMRC and Customs Overseas Trade Statistics show British exports to the EU are valued at around £12bn per month – ie £144bn per year. The Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR) put this figure as high as £211bn and supporting 4.2m British jobs.
UKIP claims this level of trade and employment would be sustained if the UK pulled out of the EU, which is an important consideration that I would like the party to explain.
According to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), our membership of the EU costs the equivalent of 0.4 per cent of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and returns a net benefit of 4-5 per cent of GDP. This tenfold return on investment is equivalent to £62bn to £78bn per year – roughly the combined economies of the North East and Northern Ireland. This could also equate to 1.3m jobs if the CEBR data is extrapolated.
Whilst the CBI has been challenged to back up its assertion with more evidence (its figures are based on literature studies), it is for Farage to demonstrate that UKIP’s policy would not put the UK’s economy in jeopardy.
The effect of UKIP’s flagship policy on British business
Britain was once considered a nation of shopkeepers. It is now a nation of small business owners, with 99 per cent of our private sector businesses classed as Small and Medium Enterprises according to the Federation of Small Businesses. This is an important fact because, in 2013, these businesses accounted for 59 per cent of private sector employment and 48 per cent of private sector turnover. Therefore the stakes are high.
UKIP wants a free trade area without political union. How would this work?
Remember that the EU is a place of collective agreement; a space in which politicians from 28 countries agree on countless issues that help businesses to trade with each other. Richard Corbett, a respected and experienced European political figure and a Labour MEP candidate for Yorkshire and the Humber, says: “EU legislation actually cuts red tape by replacing 28 divergent sets of national rules with a single set of pan-European common rules for the common market. This saves businesses from duplication and compliance costs.”
There are two points to make from this. First, if there were no EU Corbett’s observation would be felt painfully by British businesses, particularly by small and medium sized businesses that make up the majority of the UK’s private sector. This would almost certainly introduce barriers to exporting, particularly for SMEs who do not need new barriers in their way.
Considering 60 per cent of the UK’s exports are to Europe, it is conceivable that these new barriers could be a threat to the current level of business enjoyed by our SMEs. This would be a threat to revenue and therefore to jobs.
Second, if UKIP wants to remain a trading partner with the European Union, it would subject British businesses to a set of rules that Britain has no role in creating or changing. Individual countries within the EU would continue to agree standards and laws to which UK businesses would be forced to adhere if they wished to continue trading in Europe.
Rather than return power to the UK, leaving the EU would take power away from our politicians, businesses and our citizens.
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55 Responses to “What would really happen if Nigel Farage had his way?”
wowlookatallthisinfo
Uhhh, perhaps get your facts right about war in South America… because it was only a few decades ago that Mexico had its civil war, Venezuela currently, Colombian armed conflicts in peru, Cerepa war etc etc etc. I’m surprised no one has called you out on that daft comment.
And besides that, I find it hilarious how Brits justify shutting down immigration as a form of control that allows jobs to be brought back to the UK. The wool has been pulled down so far over your eyes it isn’t funny.
1) Unemployment is NOT caused from immigration. “Illegal” immigrants are not coming into your job at the shopping centre and taking work on from Tescos… they’re in a field in the middle of nowhere doing long hour, low skilled, low pay, precarious agricultural work that many British people do NOT want to do. They are hardly vying for your job at the marketing firm you’ve always wanted to work at.
2) Secondly, if we are talking about European migrants who are flooding the job market, one should examine the whole notion of UKIP’s policy… they are saying that it is maybe, possibly, likely that all the problems of British people being unemployed is a result of Romanians, and by possibly removing all of them there MAY be more jobs available for the Brits… I’d love to see some stats as to prove this? Or to even suggest that immigration rather than POOR GOVERNMENT MANAGEMENT is responsible for this lack of unemployment. If the government opened up more industries for jobs you would have more jobs… it isn’t because of these immigrants that you are having such a difficult problem with finding work, it’s because the labour industry is shot to shit within the UK, courtesy of Thatcher. But choosing to blame all of the bad things about the British economy and labour market on immigrants is foolish and dumb. There is no magic cure for unemployment, and nor is scapegoating the right thing to do. If you want change get a government who opens up more schools, hospitals, daycare centres to provide jobs for workers by setting regulated employment standards (if this is your fear) instead of corporations and the government keeping all the billions for their new cars and houses.
Another thing to think about it why companies are not choosing to hire British nationals. Capitalist companies want to make as much money as possible for the lowest cost of labour. If you were a big corporation who wanted to make billions a year why would you ever want to hire Brits who get 6.30 an hour over outsourcing to other countries who offer both deregulated working conditions AND cheaper wages? Therein lies a lack of jobs because of CAPITALISM rather than immigration.
3) It’s so amusing to me to see Britons ignoring the visa system currently in place. For example, did you know that it is incredibly hard already for one to get any visa from England? For example, in order for someone to move over here from North America they must have 62000 pounds within their bank account prior to their departure. Or they must already have a job paying over 18,600 pounds a year within Britain. This average is more than what some Brits even make a year… yet immigrants who have to secure this work, have financial savings, go through rigorous application forms and also have to pay 800 pounds for the damn application are the cause of all this unemployment and the downturn of the economy… wait huh?
I cannot be frustrated more with the stance of UKIP supporters.
aPeZrOsE
My grandma comes from India, me and my mother were born in the UK, what would happen to us? If UKIP got into power
Banti Singh
Drivel. Eat this: http://bantiblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/the-eu-hokey-cokey.html
Linzi
We can all paint a pretty picture of a United Europe but it is not at all the same as the United States of America there are too many languages, different cultures and countries with a lack of regard for us to truly unite in a positive way and of course you have the minority who have pure self interest and pure greed for money and power.
Germany instinctively wants to rule and control but we do not want to be ruled and controlled by them that’s why we fought 2 world wars. Germany should be no more in control of the EU than any other of the main countries and I believe the UK contributes more per head than the Germans anyway!
On the point of trade the article ignores the fact that the majority of EU product standards are based on either the UK British Standard or the German TUV standards. Given this does he really think that the EU would just tear them all up and develop European standards which historically are less stringent than UK ones?
The UK will also always be taken advantage of unless it changes a lot of its rules on healthcare education welfare etc, the UK will struggle to keep any sort of control of its country , Cameron has already been outnumbered on important issues.
So 1.8 million UK citizens live in Europe, and 2.3 million eu citizens in the UK. The question is just how many of the former have moved to Spain etc to retire on their own money ( buying property and investing in that country) and without recourse to benefits from that country compared to eu citizens in the UK. I think the larger proportion would be from our side. Would Spain, Portugal etc really wish to lose the “grey” income? I think not. But if they did then those people could return back to the UK and invest/spend their money here. On the basis of this article the UK would still be 500,000 people better off which would probably mean that we would need at least 250,000 less houses to be built. This article has made very poor use of statistics after.having a go at UKIP for their use of statistics.
Britain seems to look after everyone who comes its way, are we .respected for it as a country by any of these EU countries even the poor ones – I think not. This is despite the UK being the 2nd largest contributor to the EU budget!! Without the rebate we would be the largest!! Yet just how much influence do we really have for our money?
Perhaps if this country reversed its bad decisions may be less would leave and more would want to come back! There are areas in britain I would not choose to live in even if i was subsidised to do so and that is because of bad uncontrolled management of immigration. I particularly do not like the influx of Eastern Europeans for several valid reasons. Do we really think these people will want to stay in the jobs that we don’t want, do you really think they are hear to integrate and benefit the British society as well as themselves? Do they have any respect for us as a nation? Many years ago the answer would have been yes but not now, and uncontrolled immigration is part of the cause of decline in my opinion. The immigrants are not the same as the ones that came in the 1950’s
A United Europe only exists where it suits, where people want to get something out of it for themselves. I remember when the Eurovision Song Contest was about talent now it is about clans of countries sticking together and has been for some years now – united Europe we say!
I am a small business owner and am so glad that UKIP exists and I will keep supporting them – well done Nigel Farage!
stefan I
I have heard many times that EU membership costs £55m per day but i have never heard how much profit uk makes a day from the eu market. Nobody talks about that.