99% say Get out of Europe. What do you think?

[mj.scuba]

I wouldn't agree that you need a common foreign policy to have an influence. The mere fact that you're a member of a power block is going to get more people to pay attention to you than if you are some has-been world power with delusions of grandeur.

 

A 'power block' that is divided will have no power at all.

[Mecky]

We are better off in Europe than out, end of.

[Mecky]

But the EU doesn't yet have a common foreign policy. It's only just got a dedicated 'Foreign Minister' afaik (the British lady?).

 

How can we influence the rest of the world when as individual countries we have different foreign policy objectives and often disagree on foreign policy matters?

 

This is another reason why we should not move to closer integration.

 

What is a foreign policy?

[Halibut]

According to the Daily Express, 99% of people say we should get out of Europe.

 

What is your opinion?

 

http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/213821

 

They would say that wouldn't they?

[HeadingNorth]

I'm a little torn on this question. I really think that the UK needs to be in Europe as - despite popular oppinion - we are a small country in a big world. If we want to have any influence in the world then we need to be part of a power block.

 

Nobody's ever explained to me yet exactly why we do want to have any influence on the world. Many of the countries with the happiest populations have less than no influence on the international stage.

 

Would you rather be important, or be happy?

[mj.scuba]

What is a foreign policy?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_policy

 

Hope that helps

[Funky_Gibbon]

93% of statistics are made up.

 

Unless they're in the Express where the average rises to 99% with a 1% margin of error.

 

Honestly, how can anyone take a headline claiming 99% support for anything seriously?

[sccsux]

What was worse than 9/11 even before Iraq was invaded.

 

Go on, tell us how Iraq was involved in what happened to the World Trade Centre attack...

 

They're a world menace that needs to be blasted from the earth

 

Why's that (remember, your government were allies of Saddam before the invasion of Kuwait)?

[KellieB]

We should get out now and face the consequences. It can't be any worse than the last 13yrs of Marxist rule we got rid of.. we'll get on with it, repair and move on in our own way and according to our own rules and border control.

 

We might even get our own lives back. Scandanavia and Norway have free trade in Europe and not members of the EU and we are too big for them to ignore as we import so much from them so there is no reason that we can't operate outside the Euro-zone or the EU diktat machine also.

 

The liberals want to keep us in it.... give the majority a vote and see where it leads. This is supposed to be a democracy.

[andygardener]

What would be ideal would be for the EU's powers to be drastically reduced back to the original free trade zone, with cooperation on border security etc. The EU has always had to choose between expansion and integration and sadly it keeps choosing both, which as Greece and Ireland have shown doesn't work economically and it clearly doesn't work culturally with 27 extremely diverse nations all trying to come to agreement on laws that will suit all of them.

 

Hopefully the coalition are serious about challenging the EU budget for the 2013-2020 budget round and will pare back the bureaucracy to what is actually needed by the people of europe rather than what eurocrat empire builders might desire.