WE MUST VOTE TO LEAVE THE EUROPEAN UNION

Those who say that the United Kingdom should remain within 'a reformed European Union' simply have no case. Rather than state positive reasons for continued membership, they rely on scare-mongering, telling us all how dangerous it will be and how difficult life will become should we vote to leave. They tell us that we will cut ourselves off from the EU economy and other major international markets. This is total bullshit.

The UK is one of the largest and most important economies in the world. It has the second largest economy in the EU, being second in size to Germany and comprising some 16% of the total. Indeed, The economy of the EU is wholly reliant on 4 countries - Germany, the UK, France and Italy, which together make up close to 65% of the Union's total GDP. Astonishingly, 18 of the 27 EU members together comprise only 12½% of its GDP and yet these minnows are able to dictate policy to the rest, if it suits them, in selected areas.

The truth is that the EU needs the UK every bit as much as the UK needs the EU, probably much more so. Without the UK, the burden of carrying the mish-mash of minor nations will fall evermore heavily on Germany and France; neither wants to risk this happening and so they will, reluctantly, agree to a few irrelevant yet headline grabbing 'reforms' which David Cameron can present to British voters as 'victory' in his campaign to achieve change in the EU. In truth, nothing will change.

From the perspective of the UK, leaving the EU will relieve us of the need to continue to support a large number of tiny and relatively unproductive economies. Germany, France, Italy and others will have no choice but to continue trading with us, and we will have the added benefit of being able to trade freely with the rest of the world, including its largest economies in the USA, Japan and China, as well as re-establishing links with the Commonwealth.

The European Union is a disaster. It is based on outworn notions and run by a largely faceless elite; it has expanded well beyond it's initial boundaries, as a political construct, and is now an amalgam of countries, many of which have nothing in common other than their geographical locations. It has become the geopolitical equivalent of the camel, often referred to as being a horse designed by a committee; the European Union is an organisation designed by politicians for their own purposes. It should be consigned to history and the UK leaving would be the catalyst for it's dissolution.

Vote to leave.