Quote:
Originally Posted by Wynonie Harris
Right, Ken, you may have answered this already, but if you did, I must have missed it. Do you think Graham Jones did the right thing in voting against holding a referendum on EU membership? If you think he did do the right thing, why?
|
I would never undermine Graham Jones and so the straight answer is yes.
I have my own opinions on the EU which I will expand on further but I have known Graham for just over three years and in that time he has demonstrated a grasp of politics which far exceeds my own. I have discussed the matter with him in the past and he has made several points which weakened my resolve on pulling out of Europe. We don't agree entirely on this issue but he is a man with a clear vision of the bigger picture and I trust him implicitly to make the best judgements in Parliament on my behalf as a resident of Hyndburn.
I must admit to remaining a Eurosceptic despite hearing several quite convincing arguments in favour. As it stands, we are being told that if Greece leaves the Euro it will damage Great Britain so I'm not entirely sure how much self-harm we would do if we pull out ourselves. If things stay on their current course it may transpire that the Eurozone starts to break up anyway but it doesn't sound like that would be great news in broader terms.
My own personal feeling is that this issue will never go away until we hold a referendum and get it over with. However, the problem with any referendum is a lack of public information and this is where they start being a little bit dangerous. The wording needs to be right and I will cite the Scottish referendum as an example of one where the SNP's preferred question may be seen by some to be leading the answer. The full facts and ramifications need to be presented to the public in such as way that they know exactly what they are voting for or against.
At the moment I suspect a sizeable number of people would vote to withdraw from Europe tomorrow based on what they either know or think they know from the media but that is a long way from having the full facts, it is merely an edited version of the truth.
I don't know enough about Europe to discuss it properly so until that changes I will leave decisions to those who do.