To remain in the EU, or to leave? That is the big question.

Since the ‘facts’ of the arguments are hard to absorb, and difficult to verify, many are going with their gut instinct. Either way, our future after the referendum is almost impossible to forecast.

Yes, the EU bureaucracy is unwieldy, and expensive, but the EU has at least brought together European powers that until so very recently were continually at war with one another.

Immigration, or fear of immigrants, seems to be one of the major issues, and yet apparently if we were to leave the EU but apply to remain in the single market for trade benefits, we would continue to be obliged to accept the free movement of EU citizens into the UK. Apparently people are worried about the entry of more countries (Turkey, Albania etc) into the EU, but if we were on the outside we would have no say whatsoever and yet would still be forced to allow free entry into the UK of all EU citizens.

Furthermore, if the UK were to leave the EU, complex and costly border controls would need to be established between the Republic of Ireland and the North. Scotland would possibly choose to leave the UK, partly in order to remain in the EU, in which case the same border arrangements would be needed along the Scottish border. And what if Wales was also to agitate to leave the UK? Preventing illegal entry into England via land borders would be extremely problematic.

There are nationalistic, anti-EU movements in other countries. France’s Front National is also calling for an exit from the EU. One wonders therefore why communist Russia should be funding Marine Le Pen’s extreme right wing party, unless it’s in their interest to encourage the break-up of the European Union.

Despite the shortcomings of our present membership of the EU, I feel on the whole we are together a power for the good (security, the environment, immigration and peace) and that imagining ‘Great’ Britain can again stand alone in a world where cooperation is ever more essential, is a risky, backward-looking stance.

Guy Whitmarsh

Richards Castle,

Ludlow,