1. We vote our MPs', we don't vote for all of the MEPs'. That allows us to hold them accountable in a general election for their decisions, we can't do that if MEPs from other countries make decisions we disagree with.
We vote in our MEPs too. This whole fudge to attempt to portray PR as less democratic won't work.
Will you claim that Scottish MSPs aren't as representative as MPs too? Please.
You know who's on the party list, and you know who ends up representing the region afterwards.
In fact you have more than one ear and political affiliation to take advantage of, if anything, better representing the vote and hence political opinion in the region.
Under FPTP, the majority, or significant minority, depending on how safe the seat is, of the constituency is very likely to end up losers. The big party figures under either system have a high survival rate.
2. We're a top 10 Global economy, people will always want to trade with us.
That's neither here nor there, and makes four assumptions:
-An almost painless Brexit
-Developed economies cannot drop rapidly on a set of political decisions
-The UK remaining an attractive market outside of the EU; with a potential swathe of regulation and issues re its post-Brexit common market access, depending on whose vision we are implementing upon an Out vote, to take care of
-The full EU common market access has little to do with our growth
Big relative to whom? How competitive, and in what? The Leave are lacking on these key details. They can't even agree on the course of our post-Brexit re-alignment.
3 It has to do with us being a large economy and making sensible choices
And what credible source backs this picture up? What are those sensible choices? How did we get so 'large'? There are very selective appeals to history floating about.
4. Scotland and Wales are part of the United Kingdom, it's not them and us.
We will be risking their EU funding, so, yes, if England pulls the blanket, and doesn't replace it -- it is us vs them. The SNP would love that particularly, since it plays well into their Westminster-dominated Union narrative; and the key arguments we used to keep them from departing are indeed overlapping with the Remain camp's arguments this time around.
5. We do stand up for ourselves, we're just largely ignored as the EU seems to mostly about Germany and France running the rest of the Europe and using our money in the process
And whose decision it was to play all sides for as long as possible? Who sent useless parties to Brussels? Is the EU to blame for our major stances on key issues? We got plenty out of Europe by being a rather stroppy neighbour; we can do much more by emulating the German and French examples, whilst not retreating on our defence of the common market principles being of higher priority to any political integration projects.
6. Sure the US will say they'd prefer us as part of the EU, but go ask the US to join a Political union and allow other countries to decide their laws, they'd laugh in your face
Both the USA and Germany are federations, for starters, so, no, the precedented of supra-state law isn't new to them. The USA is also party to large bodies of international law, from human rights to climate protocols. And they would refute that international cooperation is equivalent to this bizarre 'foreign rule' vision Outers are fond of. People sign up to international treaties, including EU treaties, for mutual benefit. No legislation or directive is perfect, of course, but it's a significantly saner, humane and economically sound way of resolving conflicts than war; preventing which, in the first place, was why we have begun on this whole journey into the common market and then the EU.
Furthermore, the US stance has nothing to do with the political side of things; first and foremost, they are cautioning against a potentially significant economic shock of the UK's departure from the EU; and warning against the strategic side of our NATO/EU cooperation being weakened by such a big transition.
When you are fumbling about with short-term interests, you aren't looking at what's going on abroad or in your backyard, and it's right of our core ally to point out their view of the situation to us; if they feel their insight can highlight our strengths and caution us from shedding them needlessly.
