EU Referendum: tell us what you think - chance to win £100! NOW CLOSED

Call me cynical bags but I think it's a bit more complicated than GN simply wanting lurkers to post, and new members to join.
I've always assumed with this sort of thread that some third party has commissioned a survey of the views of 'older people' and the £100 bribe prize is part of the deal the third party has made with GNHQ.

I could be completely wrong of course and even if I'm right, nothing wrong with it.

The whole point of an offer of £100 to fill in a survey is to get new Gransnet members. It's just one of the kinds of advertising they use.

As for questioning people's motives, why is it anyone else's business why someone joins Gransnet and posts on a thread?

Newbies, you'll get to know who are the most twitchy, suspicious-minded and aggressive of posters, especially on political threads.

Welcome to Gransnet ☘?

Completed the survey....to come out! No question!

Granny2 Many thanks for your welcoming post and trust in my motives for joining Gransnet.I would like to assure all Gransnetters that my motives are entirely honorable and I am not a key board warrrior. I am probably naive but I had no idea that my first posts would cause such suspicion, I did not make any political comment just introduced myself and confirmed that I had done the survey.

When the Scottish referendum was in progress I did not know that Gransnet existed and as for the E U referendum I don't remember seeing previous threads on it probably because it is more the human and practical threads that interest me most. That is not to say that I am not interested in the outcome of the vote and the chance of winning £100 was to much to resist and gave me the much needed kick up the proverbial that made me sign up at last!

I have also posted on another thread less contentious perhaps - Would you be this frugal?

Thanks again for you post of welcome and explanation Granny2 if I had not got another more welcoming response (morethan was the first) I would have unsubscribed the whole of gransnet tonight) which would have been a pity.

www.hopenothate.org.uk/educational/vr/

Ben and Jerry's are running a voter registration scheme along with hopenothate.
They have until 18th April to register.

I would advise everyone to encourage young ones 18-34s to check they are registered to vote, because registration changes may mean they are not. I would also encourage them to use their vote as the young are much less likely to bother voting. Observer Opinion Poll 3/4/16. It is after all, this age group who are going to be most affected by the outcome in the future.

Well said chickenbrain.

"What I said was that I dont want to hear being concerned about other countries being given as a reason for staying in. Frankly thats just emotional blackmail.

As for the idea that my children and grandchildren may be able to study abroad, for Gods sake get real. We have been studying in Europe for as long as there have been Universities. As a teenager my best friend went to the Sorbonne. My son is currently working in Japan and spends time in just about every country. My husband comes from Hong Kong and has spent his working life in the Health Service, Dont accuse me of insularity and adopt a moral high tone. I married a foreigner before the Left had even adopted it as politically correct.

I can only see down sides and the does this I am not is closed minded, I think the reverse is the case. I have taught at University and have had students from all over the world. Sheesh. It is the little Europeans who cant see beyond their own backyard and are limited in their world view. The world is changing, get over it."

I am laughing at the idea that all European countries will become our enemies if we leave, and that travel in Europe, as well as residing in European countries will be problematic! It's as though we'll be a hated nation if we leave. It's laughable! UK citizens lived in Europe long before we had this dreadful European Union, a Union which will soon include a Eurasian country, Turkey.

I suspect many other countries will consider leaving this farcical and costly mess of a union if we do pull out. We'll be able to open up our trading markets to the rest of the world, unhampered by European limitations, tariffs and quotas, do business with the rest of the world and will always have that huge power, the USA as our ally. Why on earth would European countries shun us?

As mentioned, it's those wealthy individuals/businesses with vested interests, able to gain financially/personally who don't want to give up their fatted calf. The man and woman on British streets KNOWS how much it costs us to remain in the EU. (Billions.) Let's put our own house in order with the savings we'll make from leaving.

I shall vote to leave, and no amount of ridiculous scaremongering tactics will make me change my mind.

Poshkitty I have no suspicions about you nor Irishlady who have identified themselves (BTW Welcome on board). Being newish, you may not notice that there are a huge number of never seen before posters on this thread, most of whom have a short name and number ID and all of whom seem to be singing from the same hymn sheet 'Out, Out, Out'.

Yes, there is a tendency for newer members and lurkers to post for the first time on a thread with a good prize. Good luck to them, the prize is a ploy by GN HQ to encourage participation. However, as we saw on GN during the Scottish Referendum and last year's GE, there is a rash of overtly political posts, from posters who do not appear on other more general threads. It is obvious to me that these cannot be random but are being orchestrated by someone/a group with an agenda. This will seriously skew the result of the survey unless GN HQ can disregard the votes of those who have signed up in the last few days (which would be unfair to anyone who has genuinely joined to enjoy Gransnet.)

We still trade with the Commonwealth. That has not stopped. The problem is that there is not as much of it left as there was before the EU.
I am old enough to have voted for us to join the EU, but that was before communications were so instant. Most of what we found out about trading was from the newspapers. I really do not recall there being an elysian time before the EU.

My posts were aimed at all new members, poshkitty, not just those who identified themselves as such.
Did you lurk on other EU threads and not contribute? Did you introduce yourself on the new members thread?
In fact, I do not need to remember who is new. All you have to do is type a name into the search box and it gives you a list of the posts from that person.
Not that I did that. I think I can tell whether someone has posted over the last six months or not.
By the way, I am not the only person who said that, so why just mention my name?

I try avoid listening to everything that politicians, business leaders, the media, etc. are telling me (they all have some kind of personal agenda). What interests me more at the moment are the balance of payment figures (which indicate why others in the EU appear so very keen to keep us in) and at the moment these, to me anyway, appear to show that we are buying very much more from other members than we are selling to them. As someone old enough to remember the pre-EU days when we traded more with the Commonwealth and other countries I am currently leaning towards an 'out' vote but am still open to any believable monetary figures that can convince me to the contrary. Ok, so 'out' would be painful for a few years but it could be the best long-term investment we will ever make.

Yes I was encouraged to post on gransnet at the prospect of winning a £100.00 voucher, but what is so wrong with that? After lurking for several months (As janeainsworth nicely pointed out) I finally took the plunge.

I never gave an opinion, all I did was introduce myself and say I had completed the survey and also responded to morethan who kindly welcomed me, I never thought that such an innocuous post could come in for such criticism. At the very least I thought I would see a few posts with a welcome in them ( morethan did this, bless her) I would have thought that gransnet would welcome new members, surely this is what keeps the forums fresh and alive.

I do wonder though, it appears unless I have missed others, that irishlady and I seem to be the only new posters to identify ourselves as such and we certainly did not pass opinions. So I suspect these negative posts are aimed quite unjustly at us.
You have my total admiration durhamjen that you are able to remember whether a poster is new or not, without the poster actually identifying themselves as irishlady and I did. I am sure I would not be able to recall whether I had heard an infrequent posters name, I would probably think they were new.

I tend to agree with the comments made by Nicky Morgan in a speech saying it would be young people who would suffer most if the UK left the EU.
Her message was aimed not only at mobilising young people to vote but also at focusing parents and grandparents on the danger of Brexit to the next generation. “It’s clear that if Britain leaves Europe, it will be young people who suffer the most, left in limbo while we struggle to find and then negotiate an alternative model,” she said. “If parents and grandparents vote to leave, they’ll be voting to gamble with their children and grandchildren’s future

I for one are not prepared to gamble at my age with my children and grandchildren's future. I have now decided to vote to stay in.

fullfact.org/europe/new-eu-border-agency-or-eu-army/

Full fact on security.

Want to vote OUT but not sure about security.

The value of EU regulations has seen health and safety rules enshrined in British law which along with employment rules has been a huge boost to employees and has made employers face up to their responsibilites.

Done. Sad to read some of the previous comments, it seems some are listening to rhetoric rather than facts.

Positive reason for staying in - Europol.

A record 10,000 tonnes of counterfeit food and drink has been seized by Europol in the last three months, mainly conterfeit alcohol but including contaminated olives from Italy.
This is work that Trading Standards do in this country. However, because the government has reduced the amount of money it gives to local councils, there are fewer and fewer trading standards officers available to do the work.

Europol co-ordinates the work. Otherwise there would be a lot more counterfeit food and drink in our shops.

Not worried. Just remarking, as janea said, that we get a lot of new names when there is a survey with a prize.

As I also said, we have had quite a few discussions on the EU, but there were not so many new names on those.

durhamjen, is mine a "new name" to worry about ? I only joined this forum recently, but maybe I should re consider ? I am a great grannie so thought I should qualify but ........

I voted to stay in 1975, and most likely "out" this time It was a common market, not United States of Europe then.
I don't think that Europe has done us any favours recently. It is undemocratic, unelected and frankly a shambles these days.
DH who was in finance says that the Euro will collapse soon - viz. Greece etc., it is unsustainable and was a vanity project for France and Germany! We are affected even though we are not in the Euro. The sooner we pull out, the better.
I suspect it will all fizzle out because people are too frightened of the unknown. But Tusk, Junker and their cronies will make us pay for the referendum. No wooing or congratulations for staying in.
Watch this space....

Amenhotep, if you read the cost/benefit analysis on www.fullfact.org.uk you will find lots of positive reasons to stay in.
Maybe people do not notice them because they do not want to. They prefer their prejudices to the facts.

Done. OUT and proud.

It scares me how much power we are losing to the EU. Voting out

Why are we being told how bad it would be to leave and not told how good it would be to stay in? There are no positives for staying in and most other EU countries flout all the rules anyway but we follow to the letter. We are paying so much each year to the EU some of that money could be used here. I may have a simplistic view of things but no-one is telling me anything that makes me want to stay. So it's OUT for me!
(We witnessed a French street market selling live rabbits and chickens along with other meat, uncovered and handled with no gloves and uncovered who polices that!)

They'll always get it anyway, whether expected or not!