Poll: The EU Referendum: What Will You Vote? (New Poll)

Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?

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datalol-jack said:
Whilst we are flinging media links and political talking heads on the question of power:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-35624753

A very succinct summary of one of my previous replies: there's a difference between feeling in control (or wishing for it), and having actual power to influence events. The out argument is very vague on their power guarantees -- just promising we will have more won't cut the mustard for many voters.
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The quantity is irrelevant. All that should matter is having the freedom to decide our own destiny or not. If that reads as though I am in the Out camp then it shouldn't - it's just a general point.
 
scorza said:
Well that's an example of industry power getting the EU to do a u-turn, which I have no problem believing happens all the time ;)
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Would be interesting to see how many of those citizen petitions get through, and result in a change of policy course on the issue, compared to a similar system in the UK. Obviously, the trouble with u-turns, is what's a seen as a retreat in one country might not qualify as such in another.

George Hincapie said:
The quantity is irrelevant. All that should matter is having the freedom to decide our own destiny or not. If that reads as though I am in the Out camp then it shouldn't - it's just a general point.
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It depends on how the balance falls for each voter.

If you believe the nation's destiny is now largely determined by the events abroad, and out of strictly sovereign control, then seeking ways to influence those events through arrangements like the EU is prudent.

If you believe otherwise, then concentrating political power at home, and not getting much involved in projects like the EU, is the course to follow.

We straddled both positions ever since the EEC days.
 
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Nate--IRL-- said:
"We can take out our anger on elected representatives in Westminster but whoever is in Government in London cannot remove or reduce VAT"

I had no Idea the UK had no control over VAT.

Nate
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OK so I did a bit of reading and the above is not correct, While member states must have VAT, it's rate can't be lower than 15%.

It is interesting that this has been brought up however. If the UK leaves the EU, is the plan for VAT to be reduced below 15% or even abolished?

Nate
 
Well it went up to 20% 'temporarily' during the coalition days so I would assume if they wanted to drop it to 15% they would have done it by now. It's convenient to blame the big bad EU for not letting them, though. I would class a five point drop as a reduction in VAT, not sure how much it would need to drop by for Gove to consider it a reduction.

Does the EU also legislate what goods are covered by the VAT rate?
 
Nate--IRL-- said:
OK so I did a bit of reading and the above is not correct, While member states must have VAT, it's rate can't be lower than 15%.

It is interesting that this has been brought up however. If the UK leaves the EU, is the plan for VAT to be reduced below 15% or even abolished?

Nate
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https://www.gov.uk/vat-rates

Some items are still not VAT-able, zero-rated or reduced, though. Certain items can become VAT-able by an act of our parliament, but not the EUP, as far as my knowledge goes. I'm also not sure if the categories of goods in each bracket are quite uniform across the bloc.

An accountant would know more, but I believe having a fixed baseline VAT is one of those consumer market levelling measures. More digging required!

Doubt it would go, though. We could try to undercut Ireland and Norway, however. ;) Even the US has a sales tax of about 9%, no?
 
datalol-jack said:
https://www.gov.uk/vat-rates

Some items are still not VAT-able, zero-rated or reduced, though. Certain items can become VAT-able by an act of our parliament, but not the EUP, as far as my knowledge goes. I'm also not sure if the categories of goods in each bracket are quite uniform across the bloc.

An accountant would know more, but I believe having a fixed baseline VAT is one of those consumer market levelling measures. More digging required!

Doubt it would go, though. We could try to undercut Ireland and Norway, however. ;) Even the US has a sales tax of about 9%, no?
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It depends what state you live in. But when we leave none of our VAT tax will go to the EU any more ;)
 
Having recently been through a global outsource of IT, its amazing how my colleagues every where in the world, except Europe were royally shafted by our former employer.
EU workers rights stopped them doing the same to us, and the irony is that everyone left, and the Europeans were left to pick up the mess!
People who want to leave, should be asking what happens to those rights if we are out?
I have no doubt we will be worse off, and I for one will be voting to stay.
 
mods1965 said:
Having recently been through a global outsource of IT, its amazing how my colleagues every where in the world, except Europe were royally shafted by our former employer.
EU workers rights stopped them doing the same to us, and the irony is that everyone left, and the Europeans were left to pick up the mess!
People who want to leave, should be asking what happens to those rights if we are out?
I have no doubt we will be worse off, and I for one will be voting to stay.
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I'm sure IDS will look after us! :D
 
Iain Duncan Smith wanting out is probably just to scare the disabled/poor into voting to stay in as he has spent the past 6yrs terrorising them even whilst shackled by European Human Rights laws, god help them if the Tories draft a new Bill of Rights.
 
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