Stay or leave?

 At the last Cotswold Green Party meetng on 20th February it was unanimously decided that we would campaign to stay in the EU although, as with the rest of the Green Party, for vastly different reasons to David Cameron.

Over a few blogs I am going to give my views on the Europe situation for what its worth and would love others to chip in with their ideas so as to engender a good debate.

Firstly - why on earth are we having this referendum anyway? It was something David Cameron promised in the run-up to the last general election when he felt the conservatives were losing ground to UKIP and he needed to placate some tory right wingers. So a political decision and nothing to do with being in the interests of the country.
 
Secondly - David Cameron has said that he has negotiated a better deal so that Britain retains its sovereignty. Yet  -

• He willingly lets our big companies be sold to foreign enterprises eg Cadburys to Kraft
• Lets what remains of our steel industry (although admittedly already in foreign ownership) fall foul to cheap Chinese imports
• He sells off our utilities and doesn't mind if water companies are owned by foreigners even though infrastructure is at the heart of our country
• He can surrender energy independence to China and France (nuclear power) while cutting subsidies to home grown sustainable energy companies
• He encourages NHS contracts go to overseas companies
• He sits by while London is treated as an investment centre for foreign millionaires, raising the price of property so that British people cannot afford to live there.

Would anyone like to comment on these 2 points? Just click in the Comment Button.