EU Referendum: Webchat with Andrea Leadsom MP, Tuesday 14 June at 1pm

We've already left questions for both sides. Why is this one sided webchat being included and when will we have our answers?

Will all small businesses do better if freed from the restrictions of the EU?

Interesting that a Murdock publication is now promoting EXIT!?

There are policies on both sides that make sense and there are policies that don't. My issue with the Leave campaign is twofold. 1) It's playing right into the hands of the 'little Englanders' at a time when we should be doing everything we can to harmonise international relationships, not distance ourselves from the 'bloody foreigners' 2) it's supported by a number of people I consider to be bigots, xenophobes and fools (not all of the people are all of these things and I won't specify which 'qualities' I attribute to the following) among them Donald Trump, Nigel Farage, Katie Hopkins, Michael Gove, Nick Griffin. I would like to know your views on both points and how Leave can distance itself from the underlying racism that seems to be behind the votes of all the people I know who are voting that way

I can only agree with what Hotandbothered has written, especially as the Leave campaigners seem to be concentrating more and more on immigration. All members of my family who are still working have been advised by their employers that their jobs are more secure if we stay in the EU [these are multinational companies by the way]. If we leave can you guarantee that they will have jobs in the future? And, what will small employers who rely on EU markets do if they do not have the finances to open up new markets in other countries, which I believe JCB [who are supporting 'Leave'] have been able to do, as they have the money to do so. Will small companies be financed in some way?

Tegan

I can only agree with what Hotandbothered has written, especially as the Leave campaigners seem to be concentrating more and more on immigration. All members of my family who are still working have been advised by their employers that their jobs are more secure if we stay in the EU [these are multinational companies by the way]. If we leave can you guarantee that they will have jobs in the future? And, what will small employers who rely on EU markets do if they do not have the finances to open up new markets in other countries, which I believe JCB [who are supporting 'Leave'] have been able to do, as they have the money to do so. Will small companies be financed in some way?

Andrea Leadsom: Great question Tegan. It’s my experience as a Mum, and my hopes for my children and all our children, that guides me on this issue… as well as my 25 years in the City before coming into Parliament. There isn’t a crystal ball we can look into to guarantee what the future holds - Remain or Leave - but what is for certain is that the youth unemployment rates on the Continent are disastrous - up to 50 per cent across Southern European countries like Greece and Italy.

I think we should be listening to people like James Dyson, perhaps our greatest living inventor / entrepreneur and Anthony Bamford of JCB diggers, our biggest UK manufacturing company, as well as the thousands of small business owners who are backing Brexit. They are confident that a Vote to Leave won’t affect their businesses, and that jobs will continue - many business owners say that the EU hinders rather than helps them trade.

A good example of where the EU’s appalling performance in negotiating free trade deals with the rest of the world is the report by the EU Commission that shows we have missed out on up to 300,000 new jobs that could have been created if the EU had managed to sign free trade with just five global economies.

On your second question, about small employers who rely on EU markets, let’s be very clear here. 99.9% of all businesses in the UK are small or medium enterprises, 99.3% are small businesses. Only 8% of the UK’s small businesses export to the EU yet 100% adhere to EU regulations. In a recent survey 75% of SMEs said they want the UK to take back control for negotiating free trade deals. There is a global market of 6.9 billion people outside of the EU (with 80% of the world’s economic value!) and a whole world of opportunity to be explored.

You didn't read what I actually said about JCB then?

I'm furious about this. Incandescent! How dare Gransnet have such a one sided web-chat?

When I realised that the EU referendum was a reality I tried to set aside at least a half hour each day - often much more- to really research the pros and cons to help me make a really informed decision, so I've been readin up on it in some detail for nearly a year. I'm used to doing research as it was part of my work. I was not sure of my position at the beginning.

The more I read the more I think we've been conned by the Leave team. It is a shocker. I have lost both confidence and respect in politicians I previously respected. Do I love everything about the EU? I do not. Does that mean I should just turn my back on it. No

In addition I've been reading details from countries that trade with the EU and working out exactly how much they pay to trade with the EU and what their deal involves. After all that is the best indicator of what we would have to pay if we were 'out'. So it is not the mythical £340 million a week porkie that is on the side of the Leave bus as the figure we will save. We have NEVER paid paid it.

The real 'saving' is the difference between what we will have to pay and what we currently actually do pay AFTER rebates, grants, subsidies access to research funding. Working out the cost paid by per head of non-Europe countries to trade in the UK is the only evidence based way of estimating this. Norway pay 84% per head of population that we pay. And they have NO say over policy or regulation. Now that IS what I call a loss of sovereignty.

And then we have to add the cost of what we lose.

Please do not put forward that ill thought through argument that we can make up the trade loss by trading with the rest of the world. We already can and do trade with the rest of the world. Being in the EU does not prevent it in any way.

If we trade freely with the EU (and currently exports represent c over 40pc of our export trade...we import slightly more..) then we will have to, just like other countries in similar positions, have to permit entry of EU citizens. Also we will have to pay for that freedom to trade just like other countries such as Norway, Switzerland and Canada.

The argument that the EU will not want to lose our trade inwards may be true..but it should be remembered that whilst we import nearly half our imports from the EU ..that only represent 10% of the EU exports in total.

Safer borders are created by excellent and shared intelligence and excellent cross boundary intelligence...something that the EU fosters. I remember the ghastly days before EU arrest warrants where we had do go through long and expensive extradition processes. Not again please.

James Dyson has been in repeated dispute with the EU over his vacuum cleaners (amount of power needed for them to work on full power). Now some will say that is a good thing. But what if we could make really effective lower power vacuum cleaners..that do the job well but use less energy? Would not the EU efforts to regulate for that be a good thing? I have a Miele that does the job really well within the planned EU restriction (up to 1600w) and would welcome innovation to further reduce it. Bosch also manage. Why can't innovative Dyson? Of course imported vacuum cleaners price would increase in price (say - World Trade Tariff of 10%) and that would make his (exceptionally expensive) vacuum cleaners appear comparatively not so painfully priced. He did not hesitate to outsource manufacture outwith the UK, moving production to Malaysia. At one stage he suggested he could not get planning permission for an expanded site ...but the local authority said he never applied for planning permission. A local told me that the owner of the land Dyson wished to buy just did not want to sell.

So - no - I shan't prefer James Dyson's view over other more thoughtful views.

Why has not Gransnet set up a decent webchat that includes a decent representative of Remain?

Thanks for that information about Dyson Nonio.

Oh dear.

OK...I seem to have put a bit of a stop on this. There should be a joint remain, leave webinar so that both sides can be heard at the same time.

BUT why should I listen to Bamford who is so blinking rich he does not have to worry about paying an extra 10% on his food. They already own their own farms. Own their own bakeries, butcheries, dairies, shops.

Do I support UK provision if possible? Yes. Do I buy seasonally? Yes. Do I also buy imported food from the rest of the world. Yes, if I have to.

Much as I like his wife's business, Daylesford - and the food IS good, if pretty prices, a visit to the clothes shop (cashmere babygrows at upwards of £150, I kid you not) makes you realise that those who shop there regularly will not be too troubled at the odd 10% increase in food prices.

I was at the local Science Festival last week and one of the talks was understanding big numbers...in science, in politics, in economics. One of the speakers (with concurrence from the others) commented on how surprisingly poor politicians were at translating big numbers into ones that can be really understood by you and me and he concluded that they were not noticeably more numerate than the ordinary population and that might explain the Leave campaign fond belief that we will truly be better off if we leave.

Any idea why, when I press 'follow this thread' I get no message telling me there is a new message?

There was a web chat with both IN and OUT politicians!

There was indeed!

So why devote a great chunk of this thread to the 'outer' MP?