The E.U Referrendum

Just said on the BBC news if Cameron loses and we vote to leave, he would surely be gone as Prime-minister, but then if goes, who takes over.....

In isolation, none of them.

Polls depend on who they ask, what they ask and how representative they are, the comments are for those who can be bothered to post views. I normally find them (in different papers and topics) mainly being contrary to the article. If they agreed with the writing then they don't post as their point has already been made.

That has been an open secret for some time. As for his successor, "I refer the honourable gentleman to the answer he gave some moments ago."

Purely a personal view but Osborne will be a continuation of the status quo while Boris will be a break from a 'discredited' campaign in which George nailed his colours to the mast of in. Also with the fixed term Parliaments we will have 3 years of him before we go to the General Election.

That said, I heard Jacob Rees-Mogg say that Cameron's eventual successor should come from the losing side to heal any rifts, so what do I know?

Because Mercedes, BMW and VW will not want to lose their UK sales, and the Germans have far more clout in the EU than the others, and within Germany, those car manufacturers have more clout than anyone else!

I live in Germany. Have done so for the last sixteen years.

The view amongst my German friends, well, it's difficult to gauge, as basically the Germans tend to just do as they are told. Some are totally against the EU, and are quietly cheering on the UK to leave. Since WW2 they have been conditioned to just accept things (political etc) that are imposed upon them. It's difficult to put into words, but in the UK we have a long history of independence. It has been over one thousand years since the last invasion and rule by someone else. In Europe, most of the countries have been ruled by outsiders within living memory.
Historically, Britain has stood alone, and many times it has watched Europe (led by their politicians) rip itself apart. Sometimes (like WW2) we have had to step in and slap a few about.
Deeply ingrained in the British psyche is this belief that Britain can operate quite nicely. Historically, Britain was/is one of the greatest trading nations in the world.
I think the British now find it hard to accept, that those very Europeans, who time after time have screwed up, are now in a position to tell us what to do.
As an economy, the Eurozone is a disaster. Greece will implode again. All that has happened there is that a plaster was put across a sucking chest wound. The Italian banks are close to collapse. Portugal is still in dire straits. Unemployment amongst u25's is about 30%, reaching 50% in Spain. Meanwhile, millions of young migrants are being allowed in. There are no jobs for them. That is going to end well isn't it? In October, 2016, visa rules for Turkish citizens will change. 75 million Turks will then have access to the EU. This is in exchange for the EU giving Turkey 3 billion Euro to stop the flow of immigrants. Oh, the 3 billion was just the first payment, Turkey have not stopped the flow of migrants, and 75 million more will have access to the EU. That will benefit us in what way?
The EU is out of control.

I remember a discussion I had with some German friends when the Greek crisis was all the news. One of them said (something like), "what needs to be done is that German officials need to go to Greece and run their country. They need to learn that they need to be more like Germans". This is the Germanic attitude. The rest of Europe should learn to be like them. I pointed out that I rather like the Italians to be Italian. I like the Greeks to be Greek, the French to be French etc etc. I do not think I would like a Europe where everyone was the same.

Imagine the result of crossbreeding them two, would make a good horror film  troglodytes at dawn

I think we can be sure that if the vote out wins it will take about 5 years to go through and the EU will make the process as slow as possible while still collecting their £55m per day.

We can also be sure that if the in vote wins then the EU will ignore the tiny concessions that Cameron claimed and in the process make mugs of all of us.

I don't think the amount we contribute is the issue. As a wealthy nation, we, just like the Germans and French, contribute more in total and per head than poorer nations.

As part of an economic community, that's the way it works. The wealthier subsidise poor areas of Europe for the overall common good.

Just like people in Bristol and especially London subsidise places like Liverpool, Middlesbrough, and rural areas like North Wales.

The asylum seeker issue is hot news currently, but that's because of a massive civil war in Syria, and the EU has to respond. We've taken far fewer than Germany.

The real issue for me is how much of our sovereignty we are willing to give up to achieve the aim (of some) for a truly united Europe, and if we want that at all.