First published: Prospectmagazine.co.uk, 22/02/2016
“Outside the EU we would still be subject to 700 international treaties”
It played out exactly as expected. Late night negotiations in Brussels. A deal. A referendum announcement. A media fest over which cabinet ministers would opt for the Brexit camp. Boris. And a continuing storm of commentary and opinion. There’ll be four more months of this, but will most people be any the wiser about the key issues regarding the European Union by the time we vote on our membership of it on 23rd June?
One thing that many agree on is that the terms negotiated between David Cameron and his EU partners will not swing the result. They were enough for the Prime Minister to claim progress as the basis for campaigning for “In,” but the issues people are going to argue about are far more substantive than those he debated with EU leaders. Arguments will revolve around economic issues such as the single market, net EU budgetary contributions, and trading arrangements. And ultimately will revolve around whether the UK’s interests are better protected if we are in the EU or if we stand alone. (The odd thing is that, despite the fact that these economic issues will be central to the debate, few people understand them)….Read more:
