The EU - we are on the home straight folks!

Frances O'Grady, head of the TUC was on Today yesterday putting a very calm and cogent case for the Remain option. Gisela Stuart, one of the very few senior-ish Labour party members in the Leave camp, is getting quoted, but maybe because there are so few options (vv few Labour leavers and vv few women saying anything).

"The EU has ensured that part-time workers get equal access to pensions, recognised that pregnancy discrimination is automatically sex discrimination, and moved to protect annual leave rights when on maternity leave.

The UK, on the other hand, has proved a poor guarantor of gender equality rights. The European Court has repeatedly corrected the “unprogressive tendencies of the domestic courts”.

Pro-Brexit employment minister Priti Patel says complying with EU regulations costs British businesses more than £33bn a year. But a closer look at the research she uses to make this claim reveals that these regulations include the part-time workers directive (which ensures equal rights for this group), the gender equality directive, and the parental leave directive, all of which have been instrumental in improving working conditions for women."

From this article.

theconversation.com/leaving-eu-would-be-bad-for-women-but-staying-in-doesnt-look-too-great-either-60280

Those who have voted leave, I hope you do not have daughters or granddaughters.

www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2016/06/01/what-daniel-hannan-s-why-vote-leave-leaves-out

This is an interesting article on how the EU has improved the way it works since 2009, which Hannan forgets about in his Brexit book.
It shows some differences between how the UK and EU parliaments work.

www.labournorth.com/pat_glass_mp_s_speech_to_labour_north_conference_2016

A very intelligent speech by Pat Glass. I do not think she will have persuaded many to leave the EU with this speech.

Well the whole world with the odd exception of some obscure economists has advised against the UK leaving the EU.

So how can anyone voting to leave justify their vote unless they are absolutely clear what will happen to the UK economy, social policy and environmental policy?

How will they justify their vote if as has been warned, thousands loose their jobs as a result of international business's taking their operation to the EU.
How will they justify their vote when the social policies of equality and greater fairness are reversed.
How will they justify their vote when investors will turn first to the huge market that is the EU?
How will they justify their vote if as a result of the U.K. leaving the EU the EU begins to break up with the resultant hardship to the poor.
How will they justify their vote when environmental gains are reversed because of the laissez faire polices which are surely to come with this reactionary government?
How will they justify their vote when immigration continues at the present level, after negotiations with the EU? Make no mistake, this government has no intention of loosing such a lucrative low paid workforce for business.
How will they justify their vote as prices rise particularly in food, hitting the poor the hardest.
How will they justify their vote when we see the breakup of the U.K. as at least Scotland turns its back on us.

What a terrible burden voting out is

My decision is mad, vote posted, right or wromg I have decided we would be better in Europe.

There are too many unknowns with leaving, someone said about all the cock ups since we have been in, we could never know what cock ups would have been made if we never went in. I am surer of the future in Europe than out of it.

No, that's the right decision, GandTea, not a mad one.

Voting out is a desire to cling to the past, not for Boris who sees campaigning for it as a way to being PM .

Being able to buy wonky bananas is far more important than cleaner beaches

Picking and choosing which immigrants we will accept and who we will turn away depending on if they can be of use to us is more important than acknowledging the fact that the British have always emigrated to seek a better life

Being able to stop Europeans from working here is more important than fruit and veg rotting in fields whilst we have to buy from Europe

And voting out will mean no safety laws for workers, as the majority of outers are the older generation why should thisbother them.

Boris claims the money we pay the EU can be spent on our NHS , someone should remind him that we will have to pay farmers subs.

Voting out means supporting the brutality of animal welfare

LOL, not DJ that was a typo --- Made

Although trying to make a firm decision was driving us mad.

Priti Patel is our MP, and as a local MP she is brilliant, works hard for local issues. But having met her a couple of times, she is a woman with a personal mission. That mission is coming out in everything I see her involved in, Boris's right hand woman, but watch out Boris, she is a dangerous woman to have behind you.

Patel thinks the British workers are shirkers. Charming woman.

Just seen a pyramid of who is voting in or out, by age group.

The 'outers' are definitely the over 60s - and the 'ins' definitely the young. As over 60s I am proud to be thinking of the future for our children and grandchildren- and to feel young at heart for it.

She is an enigma. As our local MP, she works harder than any MP we have ever had, she is always approachable, answers emails and keeps her constituents update with any thing that affects the. She is charming when you meet her, appears to be very honest. I would certainly vote for her again, simply because she represents me in local issues.
BUT, she is definitely a career woman, anyone who gets in her way could be sorry. Just look how fast she has progressed though government. I'm sure she sees herself as our first Female Asian PM.

Samuel M. Caveen
26 May at 16:21 · London, United Kingdom ·

Perhaps your vote should be weighted proportionally to the amount of years (on average) you have left to live in the country you're voting to fundamentally change.

There is a very real possibility that Britain will be dragged out of the EU by a demographic of people who, having enjoyed the economic benefits of our membership the longest, will experience the effects of our exit — from which they will be most shielded in the meantime — the least.

As with any vote — although this more than most — young people have the most to gain or lose. Collectively they must pull their heads from their rectums and protect THEIR future.

YOU HAVE UNTIL 7TH JUNE TO REGISTER TO VOTE IN THE EU REFERENDUM.

I agree Granjura, this is a vote where we should be thinking of our children and grandchildren, not ourselves (unless of course if you are a very young GP). I am unlikely to live long enough to be affected by my decision.

Is Patel not Grumppa's MP, too?

An article about whether we should trust the polls or not. It was writtem a week ago.

theconversation.com/can-you-trust-the-eu-referendum-polls-59841

I am hopeful that if the polls are in favour of leave, the remainers will vote in force.

I know this should be on another thread, but that thread is not for me as I want to stay in the EU.

www.globaljustice.org.uk/news/2016/jun/2/jeremy-corbyn-and-labour-comes-out-against-ttip

We are much more likely to get a TTIP or its equivalent if we stay in. All the main exiters want TTIP. Those who think otherwise have been conned.

"It’s true that TTIP has provoked many people to veer towards voting for Brexit, but progressive MEPs and civil society from across Europe have been instrumental in getting to the point now where the defeat of the deal is a real possibility. Left to their own devices, the free-market fundamentalists of the UK would waste no time in cooking up something even more odious than the EU-USA deal."

From the article.

A leaked document showing that the Tories want TTIP.

www.globaljustice.org.uk/news/2016/may/26/leaked-document-shows-cameron-sidelining-uk-parliament-controversial-eu-trade-deal

Grand-parents out of touch?

Polls:

18-29 year olds 73 % for in
30-39 year olds 64 % for in
60+ 35 % for in

I am voting for my children and grand-children.

GandTea- we will personally probably be hugely affected by an out vote- but I would never vote selfishly for us in retirement- the future is much more important (as it happens it's definitely a 'IN' for us on both counts).

So far on here there are twice as many wanting to leave as wanting to remain. The strange thing is how many of those wanting to leave say they are doing so for their children and grandchildren.
No they are not, not if granjura's statistics are anything to go by.

Corbyn's challenge to Cameron on TTIP.

"Many thousands of people have written to me, with their concerns about the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (or T-TIP) the deal being negotiated, largely in secret, between the US and the EU.

Many people are concerned rightly, that it could open up public services to further privatisation – and make privatisation effectively irreversible. Others are concerned about any potential watering down of consumer rights, food safety standards, rights at work or environmental protections and the facility for corporations to sue national governments if regulations impinged on their profits.

I share those concerns.

A few weeks ago the French President, Francois Hollande, said he would veto the deal as it stands and to become law any deal would have to be ratified by each member state. So today we give this pledge, as it stands, we too would reject TTIP – and veto it in government.

And there is a challenge to the prime minister, if it’s not good enough for France; it’s not good enough for Britain either.

David Cameron make clear now that if Britain votes to remain this month you will block any TTIP trade treaty that threatens our public services, our consumer and employment rights and that hands over power to giant corporations to override democratically elected governments."

" You will never get a really good result in negotiations, particularly on very important issues, when you're not in the room and giving input.

I personally hope and wish that Britain will stay part and parcel of the European Union.

We work well together with the United Kingdom, particularly perhaps when we talk about new rules for the European Union.

We have to develop those together with the United Kingdom and whenever we negotiate that, you can much better have an influence on the debate when you sit at the bargaining table and you can give input into those negotiations.

The result will invariably be better when you have that, rather than being outside of the room.

– Angela Merkel"

Exactly what those who want to remain have been saying all along. We need to be part of it in order to have any say in the single market.