How will you vote in the EU referendum? (Thread 2)

Pamela, I spoke to the parents of two of my pupils today. Both want to remain and shuddered at the thought of leaving. One is a software engineer; the other is the European manager of a large pharmaceutical company. Both said their jobs in the UK would be at risk and both said that in all likelihood their companies would relocate to Ireland or another country in the EU. I also spoke to someone last week, who owns and runs an interior design company with a turnover of £10m. She said she's relocate like a shot if the UK leaves.

she'd* (typo)

Ah, must have missed that bit daphnedil

If you have an interior design company with a ten million turnover, you would be silly to leave the UK, there is always a market for top end products and plenty of us prepared to pay the price for British made.

Maybe she doesn't want to use Osborne and Little stuff if we leave.
Maybe she doesn't want to be thought of as an interior designer for the British.

I read today that Gove's ideas are utopian rubbish. The idea of Gove and Utopia in the same sentence makes me feel quite ill.

She and her husband aren't silly at all. There's an even bigger market for the service/stuff they sell in mainland Europe. They employ 60 permanent staff and a number of freelancers, about half of them in France and Germany.

The two of them built up the company from scratch in ten years. I'll tell her next time I see her that you think she's silly.

Utopian ideas are always rubbish, wherever they come from. Life, human and otherwise, doesn't work like that.

Be my guest daphnedill, time will tell. If there is a bigger market, for their stuff, in Europe then they must not be selling British goods.

I don't think they'll be jumping at the opportunity to employ you as their business adviser ;-(

Are you insulting me ? I wouldn't be taking any clients who were wanting to relocate, I way too busy at present.

Jean Caude Junker, in the DM this morning, says:
The EU passed too many laws that should have been left for national governments to decide.
The EU block is losing economic clout.
You are right in saying the European project has lost parts of its attractiveness.
I think that one of the reasons that European citizens are stepping away from the European project is that we are interfering into too many domains of their private lives.
And too many domains where the member states are better places to take action and pass legislation.
So, many of us have been right all along. Or is he up to something.?

I have no doubt he has his own agenda. Perhaps he's dropping hints that a so-called 'reformed EU' might actually be on the cards so that the more gullible among us will feel justified in voting to stay in. I wouldn't trust him one inch! (or should that be centimetre?)

Millimetre!

Ana how right you are. He's like the errant husband who gets found out and admits he's done wrong, but will change. Some weeks back I would have said that many people would have fallen for it, but now, the more of the general public I see being interviewed on TV I see that the general public are seeing through the spin.

I always thought the public would vote to stay in the EU ( it's easier than change.) Not so sure now though, the polls have it as 50/50, .... Polls have been wrong before, we shall see, but I think it will be close, maybe like the Scottish referendum.

It is like the Scottish referendum in many respects. A lot of people will vote for quite irrational and emotional reasons.

I don't believe that either of these major constitutional issues should ever be decided by a scant majority of those that vote on a single day.

In order to tear us away from a union which has given us many benefits, it should require a minimum two thirds of the vote and mare that fifty percent of the electorate. Even then a vote to leave should have to be ratified by a second vote in say three years time.

More than 50% of the electorate

I have just been to a lecture by a professor of neuropharmacology and he said that the EU is a net contributor to British medical research; that we receive more from the science budget than we put in. He was concerned that this would stop.

It still does not help me really, because if leaving eventually saved us money, we would still have the choice to spend that money on research - he seemed pretty sure this wold not be the case as the EU seems to value our excellent researchers maybe better than we do ourselves.

I believe you're right, luckygirl. Another problem would be that the UK (especially around Cambridge) attracts many researchers from the EU. They all learn from each other and contribute to British research, in addition to contributing to the economy. However, many of them don't earn the £35k, which would stop them being deported. The area where I live is full of medical research and technology companies. Many of them are American-owned and have chosen this area, because it's near Cambridge, the area is becoming well-known globally for medical research AND because it's in the EU and there is freedom of movement for people. There is a real danger that they would relocate.

It's seems to me that there's already a long wish list of things people would like to do with any money saved.

daphne I thought that 35K or more only applied to non EU workers and that EU citizens would continue to have free access - if we stay in EU of course..

That's what I mean, ww. If we leave, EU workers will be the same as everybody else.

The rules may be changed, of course, if we vote to leave. The government will have to rethink many regulations which were put in place before the referendum. Nothing's set in stone.

But at least we could make our own rules and regulations, that would be something.

Which rules and regulations would you like to make?