European Union

#1 The net contribution from the UK to the EU budget"You testified that our net contribution to the EU was 10.5 billion"Our net contribution to the EU budget last year, and I backed it up with government statistics. I have proved that we could save money if we were to leave the EU. #2 There is no trade benefit to the United Kingdom in staying in the European UnionThis is just semantics. By "trade benefit", it means "Net trade benefit compared with not being a part of the EU". #3 There is trade benefit to the United Kingdom in leaving the European UnionEven if valid, pro's points do not make the case for it being favourable to stay as a part of the European Union. In a previous round, he cites 2 billion euros per annum being the fee in the EEA to have access to the same trade, which means it would cost less to just be a member of the EEA. There are other benefits to just being a part of the European Economic Area, rather than the EU. Norway have been able to opt out of the common agricultural policy, the common fisheries policy (that has costed tens of thousands of jobs to be lost), justice and home affairs, and foreign policy decisions [1 (the video)]. As Farage references, the Swiss have been able to have a lot of benefits that they wouldn't be able to if they were a part of the EU. Last february, a majority of swiss voters voted for stricter immigration laws [2], and as Nigel puts it so well, "If they could have their own [trade] deal, we could have a better one". And as I proved earlier, we are very important to the EU trade-wise. #4 If we left the EU, there'd be a significant decrease in Fuel PovertyTo just say "what? " and just claim everything I said had nothing to do with my point does not disprove what I said. • I proved that leaving the EU would be a good thing because there'd be less Fuel Poverty. • You conceded that there'd be less Fuel Poverty, but said that it wouldn't be a good thing because less elderly people would die and so there'd be less housing available. • I pointed out the facts that a) if we left the EU, we'd be able to have stricter immigration, so the housing situation would definitely be better if we were to leave the EU. As a link I sourced showed earlier, 40% of future housing in the UK will be due to immigration. b) That a lot of elderly people live on old people's homes, and not many people who aren't elderly would be willing to live in them. (earlier) c) That Fuel Poverty is going to be a serious and growing problem for households in the UK in the future. #5 The European Union is not responsible for peace and puts us in risk of having a war/riotsIn this rebuttal to my point, pro does not seek to prove that we would not see a situation comparable to Greece's just a few years ago (in fact, he completely ignores it), but he says that the fact that the EU does not insure peace is not a positive argument in favour of leaving the EU, which it isn't, it is a rebuttal of a common argument in favour of staying in the EU. #6 The EU has destroyed over 97,000 UK jobsI find pro's argument incredibly weak here. My point was about the "EU-related" jobs is that we'd be able to maintain them by just, say, being a member of the European Economic Area [EEA]. We would still be able to do trade with EU countries if we weren't a part of the EU. #7 Outside of the EU, we will be able to have a fair and sensible immigration policyEven taking your argument into consideration, that means the number of migrants who'd instead be going to other countries rather than their own due to no weak immigration policy in the UK is 500,000/4/the number of other comparably desirable countries (France, Germany, Spain, Russia, the US, Japan, etc. ) per annum until those countries get developed enough is very insignificant. But, that's assuming that we don't also work to combat the reasons why people migrate to more desirable countries AND have a sensible immigration policy. The reason why we'd want both is • Once that number of people who would have not bothered coming to this country if they could easily find work in their own country would actually stay in our country once they were settled (and so there'd be no point coming back! ), and then the housing situation would be worse (they'd feel no reason why they should leave any more than a British person should, by the time their country's economy is comparably good to Britain's). And also, • A lot of migrants would come from quite well-off countries, such as the ones I've listed above. A vast majority of them wouldn't be tempted to stay in their own country by the same methods anyway. Don't forget that there's also a lot of Britons that leave to go to other countries for employment. #8 Outside of the EU, we would be able to restore democracy to our countryPro ignores most of my arguments I made about this point in the last round, but that can be expected when he's responding to paragraphs of my arguments with only a small one of his. He doesn't even a refute a point I made which was relevant to the particular argument he was criticizing, that i) British people have no say in a vast majority of elected MEPsii) The MEPs elect the European Comissionersiii) The European Comissioners initiate legislation and have way more power than MEPsC) Therefore, there is a lack of democracy in the EU. Conclusion: I have maintained a strong case for the UK leaving the EU, partly because my opponent is conceding/ignoring a lot of my points. Thank you. Sources[1] EEA: Farage's response to PM Cameron, [2] February 2014, . http://www.bbc.co.uk...