What has the EU ever done for my … town?

Good question!

Projects across the UK, from getting people into work to building new tram stops and museums, have gone ahead with EU cash.

Areas of deprivation have benefited from funds from the EU. Areas which have been flooded have been helped by payments from the EU flood fund. Arts funding and business development grants, funds to help workers made redundant or those who live in areas of high unemployment, money to help build or rebuild infrastructures at the heart of our communities, and much more besides... all has come from the EU.

If the UK votes to leave the EU on June 23rd then we will lose access to these funds. Some folks claim that the UK government will fill the need from the savings made from the EU contribution, but many of us are unconvinced. The government has no track record of supporting many of these issues, nor of allowing such spending.

In the end it will be us and our communities which lose out by leaving the EU.

Vote REMAIN on June 23rd to make sure we don't end up as the poor relation on the edge of Europe.

‪#‎EU‬ Myth Busters: “Our most important markets are China and the US, not the EU”

The EU is the world’s biggest single marketplace, and it is the UK's largest trading partner, with sales amounting to almost half (48%) of our world exports and more than half (53%) of our world imports. 

In 2014, the United Kingdom exported $472B making it the 9th largest exporter in the world, and imported $663B making it the 5th largest importer in the world. In fact we export more to Holland (7.2% of UK exports) alone than to the entirety of the Commonwealth's 53 nations!

The Observatory of Economic Complexity [OEC] figures state:

"The top export destinations of the United Kingdom are the United States ($51B), Germany ($46.5B), the Netherlands ($34.2B), Switzerland ($33.6B) and France ($27B)."

"The top import origins are Germany ($100B), China ($62.7B), the Netherlands ($50.7B), the United States ($44.4B) and France ($41.5B)."

So whilst the USA figures as our single nation top export market (11% of exports), it is still not a match for the value of exports from the UK to the whole EU marketplace; whilst exports to China form the same amount as exports to France (5.7%).

If Brexit occurs, the UK would need to re-negotiate more than 100 trade agreements, all of which take time and meanwhile what happens to our businesses trading outside of the UK?

Source of facts:
http://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/gbr/

Why not do a swap & resolve both problems?!

This week has seen two similar stories - similar in that both involve uprooting people from one nation and sending them back to their birth nation. One is a British born 30 year old widow with 5 kids born in Australia, where she has lived since she was 2 years old. The other is an Australian couple with a 7 year old son born in Scotland.

The widow is threatened with being sent back to the UK after serving a prison sentence and, as she has no family here, risks being homeless and penniless here and having to leave her kids behind - kids who have already lost their father to a road accident last year. The couple are threatened with being sent back to Australia as the scheme under which they came to the UK and settled in Scotland has been retrospectively cancelled, so they no longer have the right to remain.

Both cases are hugely unfair to the children involved. Five kids in Australia will lose their remaining parent, and one child who has lived in Scotland all his 7 years will lose all his friends and have the upheaval of changing schools, culture, location etc.

Some compassion, common sense and humanity is needed in both cases. Failing that, why not just agree that the widow may stay in Australia with her kids, and the family with their son may stay in Scotland. It'd be a lot simpler in the long run and would probably save both countries a fortune in legal and administrative costs!