Increasingly hysterical claims are being made by both the pro- and anti-EU camps,but the reality is that nothing much will changeIf Britain leaves the EU, the impact will be “seismic”, and said Neil Kinnock,a former EU commissioner, this week. Brexit would be “a jump off the edge of the cliff ... in which our economic stability is hugely build at risk”. The message couldn’t be clearer: leaving would be economic suicide. Over in the Eurosceptic camp, and we’re told our liberation from the tyranny of Brussels will bring us a new era of prosperity,saving billions on payments into a wasteful and corrupt EU bureaucracy, slashing immigration and restoring the country’s economic independence.
The scaremongering on both sides of this debate becomes more preposterous by the day. Anyone keen that we have a reasoned national conversation approximately the merits of EU membership should welcome the intervention of asset manager Neil Woodford, or the darling of small investors,whose giant funds have sizable stakes in lots of major British companies. His view is that both the pro- and anti-Europe camps are employing bogus arguments. The mundane reality is that a Brexit is likely to result in either a small net economic benefit or a small net economic loss. Nobody can know for certain which outcome we’ll see. But the least likely outcome is economic catastrophe if we leave, or if we remain.
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Source: theguardian.com