YP Letters: Why Brexit will add to our woes, not end them at a stroke

I KEEP hearing and reading in the media, and in this newspaper’s letters column, the same old statements being made with no reasoned argument to support the hypothesis being stated. Three favorites are “we are being ruled by faceless bureaucrats”, another one is “we will gain control ofour own borders”, and “Germany will continue to sell us their cars”.

I suspect the so-called faceless bureaucrats are the 28 commissioners (one for every member state). Our man is Jonathan Hill (Baron Hill of Oareford) whose responsibilities are financial stability, financial services and capital markets, and he was appointed by David Cameron.

The EU’s standard decision­making procedure is known as “codecision”. This means the European Parliament has to approve EU legislation together with the Council based on a proposal from the Commission. The European Parliament is made up from MEPs, who we have elected into office and come from each member state.

The UK has the third largest number with 73 MEPs, so we are well-represented in the EU Parliament and should be able to influence decisions being made.

With regards to control of our own borders, do we mean EU citizens being able to come and work in the UK and/or keeping terrorists and economic migrants out of the country?

Nothing would change if we voted for Brexit regarding the free movement of EU citizens, if, as is being suggested, we negotiate a deal, the same as Norway and Switzerland. Even if we decided to go it alone, with no involvement with the EU, I’m sure British businesses would find ways and means of bringing cheap labour in from the continent to fill low-paid jobs.

With regards to terrorists and economic migrants, I seem to think every time I leave the UK and return, I have to show a passport at the UK Border Agency, the same as everyone does, therefore surely we are able to stop any unwanted people at our borders at the moment?

Of course Germany would want to continue exporting cars into the UK, but unless we export our goods to pay for them, we go bankrupt.

Unfortunately our economy is mainly based on banking and service industries, we don’t have the manufacturing industry we used to have in this country and what is left is far less efficient against a lot of other countries including Germany, making us in many cases uncompetitive on a global market.

I know where my future lies, with the EU.