As a young man Darwin considered whether he should get married and drew up a list of pros and cons. In a similar vein I shall summarise my thoughts on the EU Referendum

If Remain

The UK will have no hope of controlling mass immigration either now or in the future.

• This will be of great benefit to the top 80% who will have a constant supply of cheap labour for their businesses and home renovations
• but to the detriment of the bottom 20% who will be unable to charge more for their labour or receive increased largess from the taxpayer

The Germans and French will continue to conspire against us

• We will be at the table and can see them doing it
• but we will have to pay for the privilege – and how much can we influence them anyway?

The UK can give good free-market advice (we said the Euro would fail)

• We might help stop the decline of the Eurozone
• but they ignored us on the Euro and will probably ignore us on everything else

The EU is a powerful influence of peace

• It was created to stop war in Europe and for the most part it has worked
• but, a Polish friend says that it is become too much like a Soviet Union.

If Leave

The UK could manage its immigration policy

• We could stop importing cheap labour to the benefit of lower paid British workers
• but, Conservative and Labour governments both instinctively import cheap labour. Conservatives want to keep profits high and Labour needs their taxes and labour to pay for and man the welfare state.

We can maintain a more British identity and sovereignty

• Napoleon said that the destiny of a country was defined by its Institutions and we can prevent the eurofication of the Law.
• but, we want trade with the EU and are strong supporters of international law so will be adopting these laws anyway.

We will all be poorer

• Only a fool would think that incomes will not fall for everyone in the short term (which could be up to 10 years).
• but, the EU could be a sinking ship, we could be better off in the long term if we get out now and redouble our efforts in China and Africa.

 And finally,

I believe that the EU promotes international stability. As a Cold War child I would rather have armies of European workers in the UK than armies of UK soldiers in Europe.

I have voted Remain as the lesser of two evils.