The free movement of people is the EU’s greatest achievement. So why do the brexiteers hate it so much

 Progressive European Party

The EU has immigration guidelines that all members have to adhere to. However in the case of UK and Ireland

“Ireland and the United Kingdom choose, on a case-by-case basis, whether or not to adopt EU rules on immigration, visa and asylum policies”

So when the brexiteers say they are not against immigration, they just want to be able to for example bring doctors from India. We already can. What we can’t do is stop a doctor coming here from France, but why would we want to. None of the leave arguments are rational and most of them are lies or at best distortions of the truth.

EU nationals coming here put a strain on the Health service, we are told. When many of them work in the health service and help to keep it running. And they all have to have health insurance in any case.

The treasury gets a considerable amount of tax revenue from the EU nationals that are working here. More than enough to pay for all the extra  infrastructure costs and with a lot left over.

Seeing as all EU nationals have to have health insurance, and a job or be financially independent, or they can be sent back and seeing as we have the same rights to go there it is hardly something to complain about.

Immigration from the EU is a win win situation. They benefit from coming here, otherwise why would they come. The treasury benefits from the not inconsiderable extra tax revenue. And the whole of our society benefits from the health workers, plumbers, fruit pickers and so forth that we need.

Remind Boris Johnson what he said in December 2016!

With our ageing population we need more people of working age, do we want to be in the situation of having people in their 70’s driving the buses and working on the building sites. Of course we can replace EU immigration with workers from further afield. But what possible advantage would there be in doing so. In any case, the argument from the brexiteers is always about reducing immigration. Remember the “breaking point” poster.

If immigration was considerably reduced it would be disastrous for us. There always seems to be Government targets to reduce immigration down to some level or other by some arbitrary date. There is never a target for an increase. If we did have an increase of EU workers and business our economy would be doing even better. We get no benefit from a German car manufacturer building a factory in Germany. However, if they built it here even if they only employed German staff we would get a great deal of benefit from it. We are in the ludicrous situation of UK businesses advertising abroad for staff while at the same time our Government is trying to bring down immigration. What do they have for breakfast, it's definitely not Weetabix.

  EU migration is falling. But things are getting worse

When we leave the EU it is not membership of the single market or the customs union that we most need to retain. No matter how important both of these are for our economy. The one thing we really need to preserve from our EU membership is the free movement of people. The one thing that the Brexit argument was most desperate to stop is the one thing that we need to keep above all else.

Philip Notley

#progEuroparty