You may hold the odd personal notion that England has no government/Parliament but that doesn't make it so. Do we live in a democracy or no?
It's not a personal notion, it's a fact. For England to hold an in/out referendum on the EU, it would first have to have a referendum on English Independance. The UK could hold an in/out referendum, but Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland could try and stop it, though it's far from clear if they could actually do anything about it. Again I think you are confused, England is not Britain or the UK.
As for the old chestnut about economic suicide. We currently export more elsewhere than we do to Europe, it's simply a matter of strengthening those markets.
Perhaps, but Europe is our single biggest market, we have unrestricted access and influence over how it operates. A countries immediate trading partners are always it's most important economic partners. While successive UK governments have sold off and run down our industry, we are now waking up to the importance of actually making stuff. A big slice of our industry is now foreign companies who came to the UK to access the EU single market, they came on the understanding that they would always have unrestricted access to the biggest single market in the world.
The hope of those wanting out, is that we will maintain full access, but the reality is that if we do there will be no guarantees and we will have no influence over any decision making within the EU. It's already making some of our biggest manufacturers nervous, and don't forget that these same firms are the ones selling round the globe from the UK. If they ain't happy, if they don't see a steady pound and long term guaranteed access to the EU they'll get on the ferry to the EU and leave. Trust me, we ain't gonna leave the EU.
When David Cameron played his veto card recently, he was basically playing to a domestic audience, problem was he pissed off his EU partners and they called his bluff, he won't make that same mistake twice.
most immigrants didn't come here for the culture they came for the money
Well yeah, most immigrants come from the EU. Was the Empire built to learn about other cultures, or was it about exploitation and making money?
Oh How flippantly a person's views are dismissed when they don't concur
I didn't dismiss them, I was pointing out that there was nothing to comment on. No substance. Politicians, for example, love that sort of language, it sounds if they are saying something when in fact they have said nothing.
Hand wringing and accusations of BNP and EDL sympathies would abound, just as their names were raised earlier simply because I offered an opposing point of view.
I didn't accuse you of BNP or EDL sympathies. There has been quite a bit of support for right wing extremists and fascists recently on this forum, ie BNP, EDL etc, that's what I was referring to.
The infrastructure is crumbling and there aren't sufficient jobs, schools or houses.
That's down to economic miss management. We had the world's worst banker - Sir Fred the Shred, who was best friends with the worst chancellor in British history - Gordon Brown. We have a country still obsessed with privatisation, driving down wages terms and conditions, raising taxes for the poor and allowing the rich to pay nothing.
Immigrants and minorities always make a handy scapegoat, but immigrants and minorities are not to blame for the current economic mess that we have in the UK.
As for multicultural success, just look at team GB, and what an astounding success it was. I hope Wee Eck has taken note and is somehow finding real funding for Team Scotland for the Commonwealth Games in 2014. Bring on the real games, bring on Glasgow 2014!
