Quote:
Originally Posted by garinda
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In the 1975 referendum I voted for the UK to withdraw from the EEC .
We had been a member for just over a year and the effects of withdrawal would have been negligible .
Now many years later we are in a very different EU , but over those years our governments have accepted the developments that have taken place drawing us closer , politically and economically , to the countries of the EU.
I am not interested with "possible alternatives" to EU membership .
I want to see some concrete , feasible alternatives which we could be sure of being implemented if we withdrew . Until I am convinced of such alternatives my vote in any future referendum , which I don't think we will get anyway , would this time be to stay in the EU .
It's a case of better the devil you know . I am not prepared to see the future of my country put in jeopardy because of some knee-jerk reaction I may have to some of the stupidity that at times emanates from the bureaucrats of the EU .
And let's be clear . Since the Council of Europe with 47 member states was formed in 1949 we have been members . The best known bodies of the Council of Europe are the European Court of Human Rights which enforces the European Convention on Human Rights . These are entirely separate from the EU , and if we have any gripes about the former bodies , we have to know that they are not attributable to the EU .
So if viable alternatives , and that means they would have to be practicable and workable , are put forward I would be prepared to judge them . Until they are I see no other option other than staying with the present imperfect set up that we have now .