THE GREAT DECEPTION

In the book called 'The great Deception' by Christopher Booker and Richard North they explain the history and detail of the drive to bring about a political entity called the European Union. They explain in great detail how we have moved from a Common Market to what we have now. I have to say it is probably one of the most interesting and fascinating books I have ever read. It is incredibly well researched and the authors are able to explain in a very articulate way the deception that is the EU.

So why am I mentioning this? Well, what I have noticed is that there has been a great deception performed by our political leaders and many so called business people. This deception has been this, and has been repeated time and time again: 'if we leave the EU it would be an economic disaster for Britain, and if we left it would destroy us'.

This is complete and utter rubbish and does not stand up to simple scrutiny. I know I have written about this before, but I wanted to be a little more concise. Tory MEP David Campbell Bannerman has produced a pamphlet rubbishing the claims of all the doomsayers.

So here are the basics:

1. The EU sells more to us than we do to them, it would be very much in its interests to enact a free trade agreement with us. In 2009 our trade deficit with the EU in just manufactured goods was £35 billion. If you think we couldn't leave and just set up a trade agreement. Under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty requires the EU to make a trade arrangement with any nation that leaves the EU.

2. With the ascent of China, India and Brazil Britain would do well to leave a trading bloc whose share of world GDP is forecast to fall to under 15 per cent in 2020. In 1980 it was 36 per cent.

3. Britain enjoys trading relationships elsewhere in the world that are not shared by other EU countries. We send 18 per cent of our exports to the US; Germany sends only 7 per cent. The biggest external investor in Britain is America.

4. One of the reasons for the EU's poor competitiveness is over regulation. More than 100,000 regulations and directives have been imposed upon us since we joined the EU in 1973. The working time directive is estimated to cost £11.9 billion a year in lost productivity. The EU renewables target about £22 billion every year, the new part time agency workers regulation is already costing British workers their jobs, as Tesco is going to lay off 21,000 part time workers.

The Open Europe think tank reported last year that EU regulations had cost Britain £124 billion since 1998. The figure is not a partisan invention, but based upon the Governments assessments..

5. We are told that if we left the EU it would mean our influence would disappear. Our membership of the G8, our seat on the UN security council and the World Trade organisation are not dependent upon our being part of the EU.

6. We are the sixth largest economy in the world, we remain one of the top ten manufacturing nations in the world. London is the largest financial centre in the world, that is as long as the EU do not destroy this by bringing in the Financial Transactions tax.

7. Britain would not have to pay almost £8.3 billion net to the EU plus the ongoing increase which is expected to hit £10.3 billion by 2013.

8. Switzerland is the richest country per capita in Europe and possibly the world, it does 70 per cent of its trade with the EU, and is not part of the EU.

There you have eight simple points that the government and politicians like to ignore. I have not mentioned immigration and being able to control who comes here to work. So, as you can see there is no benefit to us being part of this great deception. I truly believe if we stay in this economic prison much longer it will eventually destroy this nation that I love.