Bald fact No. 5

Bald fact No. 5

What does the EU do for our money?

We can argue forever about the cost of the EU to the UK, but it is fact that it is a lot less than the £350 million per week claimed by Brexit campaigners. But there is a cost, so what do we get for it? Here are just a few 'services' that the EU provides for the UK, that we otherwise would need to fund ourselves (these are ones that I think we can all agree are helpful!):

• Food safety
• Competition (such as pursuing Google and Microsoft for anti-competitive practices)
• Single market - regulating the tariff free zone and negotiating with non EU countries)
• Training and education - a huge range of pan-European programmes across Universities and other training providers
• Development and aid
• Climate
• Consumer protection
• Patents
• Research programmes
• CE marks
• Vehicle testing
• Space (ESA)
• Policing

Conclusion: I am unable to put a price on these services. My guess is that by sharing them, across EU nations the cost should be lower than if had to provide them ourselves.  However, there is an extra layer of bureaucracy..    Anyway, any responsible Brexiteer needs to budget for them.  I am waiting patiently!

Bald Facts No. 4

Bald Facts No. 4

I got O level maths - have I lost the ability to add up over the years?

You can't reduce immigration and let in more non-EU workers.  

Nigel Farage has said he wants to target 30,000 - 50,000 net immigration. He has also said he wants MORE non-EU immigration.  As non-EU net immigration is currently 150,000 then how can he get to his target?

Conclusion:  All politicians are lying (including David Cameron).  You cannot reduce immigration to 'tens of thousands' without damaging the economy.  If that is what you want then vote Leave - it is a reasonable position.  But be honest about it.  I believe a more sensible position is for politicians to be honest about the demographic Armageddon that's facing the UK over the next 20-30 years and try to address that.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/11537440/Just-what-is-Ukips-immigration-policy.html

Bald Facts No. 3

Bald Facts No. 3

FACT:   Nigel Farage said in the ITV debate that he wants to cut EU immigration so that we can bring in MORE people from the rest of world - in particular other Commonwealth countries.   

He is right that we would need to maintain immigration while the economy grows and births outnumber deaths.  Over the last 20 years or so net migration has been roughly equivalent to the births minus deaths.

CONCLUSION:  Leaving the EU would not reduce immigration much (unless it triggered a recession).  While births outnumber deaths we need a steady influx of 'new blood'.  Leaving the EU would simply switch the source of the immigration.

Unfortunately, the success of increased longevity has a exponential effect on population. You have the additional older people PLUS the additional younger people needed to pay for them.

See more with the excellent article: http://chokkablog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/immigration-and-eu-referendum.html

Bald Facts No.2

BALD FACTS No. 2

Immigration is financially neutral for the UK (according to Nigel Farage in the TV debate 7/6/2016). Yes, he said it. Actually I have some history on this one. I was asked by a campaign group - Migration Watch - to find evidence that there is a net cost of inward migration, to show that our services were being put under pressure. After 3 days of trying I couldn't find any research to show this. Most of the research (actually ALL of the research that I found) shows there is a benefit from immigration.

CONCLUSION: Our services are not under pressure because of immigration (see Bald Fact 1 - EU migration 0.29% - a growth rate that any organisation should be able to cope with). They are under pressure because they are under-funded. This is because this country has huge debt which has been run up by successive governments. The health service has much more serious issues, in particular with an ageing population (61% increase in over 65s by 2032).

https://21stcenturychallenges.org/britains-greying-population/

Bald Facts No. 1

BALD FACTS No.1

FACT 1) Net inward EU migration was 184,000 for 2015. This is equivalent to a little over a Quarter of 1% of the UK population (0.29%).

FACT 2) Unemployment has fallen from about 7.5% to about 5% over the last 10 years.

CONCLUSION: Immigration is not leading to unemployment.