Liberal Democrat worries about cost of EU

View of a Liberal Democrat - Richard Dean

UKIP claim that we pay £55 million per day to be a member of the EU. My UKIP neighbours ask what we get back for that money. What should I tell them?

First off, it seems we get about £22 million a day back in cash, in the form of grants and subsidies. But even UKIP neighbours can do simple arithmetic. That leaves a net cost of about £33 million per day, or about 50p per day on average for every man, woman, and child in the UK. What do we get in return?

Some say: “Simple – we get free trade”. But, say my UKIP neighbours: “We’d get that anyway if we weren’t a member. The UK is a nice big fat market for continental companies, and they don’t want to lose their profit centres! They want access to the UK and will grant access to the continent in return.”

So, would we really get free trade outside of the EU? Do we really have to pay that £33 million to access free trade with Europe?

So I say: “We get to participate in making the rules, and that’s valuable”. “Ha ha!” say my neighbours, “Think Sovereignty! Think unelected civil servants in Brussels making the rules!”. “But wait!” I retort, “Isn’t the role of MEPs to check the civil servants’ proposals, even to reject them sometimes?” “Are you joking?” say my neighbours. “MEPs have no power; anyway it’s a gravy train for them! That’s where the money goes!” “Nige too?” I meekly ask. “No, not Nige” they reply, “He’s the good guy!”.

The European Movement says we get about £25 billion extra GDP from the Single Market, and more in “wider benefits”. But how does that work? And how can it be explained to my UKIP neighbours when they say: “Wouldn’t the European Movement say that anyway? It’s all a big trick of the Money Power!” ?

So I’m stumped. I come over to Liberal Democrat Voice for a bit of enlightenment and I see the Chair of the Association of Liberal Democrat Engineers and Scientists claiming that “80% of Lib Dem voters more-or-less reject…the idea of ‘Ever-closer Union’”. One respondent to that post had a great argument about how our future is a choice between pooling sovereignty or accepting European Free Trade Association status. But that’s a prediction about what might happen, and we all know how uncertain predictions can be!

And I remember my neighbours’ parting words “We’d do better OUT as a sovereign nation – free to do what we like!”. Another “what might happen” argument – but one they accept.

Well, I tried to say that 50p a day isn’t much, even for someone on a low wage – it’s less than the annual cost of inflation. But no-one believed that, not even my friends!

So now my head hurts. Please help! Is UKIP winning the argument?

I’d just like to know what we get for £33 million a day.

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