Do you chaps really think all this through or do you just believe the claptrap espoused by politicians?
“I work for global company and we are very tied up with European rules.”
Exactly, 237. If the UK left the EU your company could still trade in Europe by abiding by EU rules. The other 95% of UK companies that have no dealings in Europe would not have to (whereas currently they do).
“If we leave a sizable % of the 1.5 to 2 million UK citizens living in the EU either full or part time will come back permanently, so how will that affect the NHS?”
Why should they Eddie, any more than the Poles and Latvians settled here will return? As I said yesterday there is a UN agreement on Treaties which prevents people being forced to relinquish rights they had taken under a treaty should that treaty be rescinded. Further than this, even if it did happen the ex-pats returning will nowhere near reach the numbers arriving from Europe under “free movement” (At least one million arrived to settle in the last 5 years and that number is probably an under-estimate) which would no longer be allowed.
I also read (I think it was in this thread) that old people are more likely to vote “Leave” because they don’t care (presumably on the premise that they are about to croak it). I believe that the reverse is true – older people are likely to vote “Leave” precisely because they DO care. Most have children and grandchildren who will left to tolerate the shambles that our continued membership will inevitably bring. If older people didn’t care they simply wouldn’t vote and polls suggest they are more likely to vote that the young.
SP’s point about reducing benefits for UK citizens is perfectly valid. At present they are too generous for many people (though not perhaps for those needy rather than greedy). However, if we left the EU there would be no need to adjust benefit levels to those we could afford to pay to all-comers because we simply wouldn’t allow in people with no visible means of support (which currently we are forced to).
The above two scenarios from 237 and Eddie are but two examples of people simply falling for propaganda which simply has no basis. There is no reason to believe that companies trading with Europe would not be able to continue to do so on roughly the same basis as they do now. There is no reason to believe that ex-pats living elsewhere in the EU will be repatriated. Think it though, do some research and don’t fall for politicians’ nonsense.