VOTE LEAVE AND FORGET THE IMF

As the EU debate, or should that be row, rumbles on, a host of major political figures and organisations have lined up to tell us how dangerous a UK exit would be. They tell us all manner of horror stories about what 'could' happen, without any of them saying that these disasters actually 'would' happen.

The latest intervention from the International Monetary Fund warns of the potential 'severe regional and global damage' that BREXIT 'could' cause, as well as saying that it would disrupt established trading relationships. Implicitly, the IMF seems to be acknowledging that a UK withdrawal from this protectionist bloc might result in problems for the bloc itself which others have rather ignored. However, problems for the remainder of the EU would also surely mean that they'd have no choice but to be very cautious about being unfriendly to the UK; in a roundabout way, the IMF is actually implying that a UK exit may well be potentially so disruptive that everyone else would have to treat us with kid gloves in order to avoid global meltdown. The deal we might then get from a position outside of the bloc might well be far better than anyone can currently imagine.

The IMF is, of course, little more than a supra-national company doing its best to maintain the status quo; it doesn't want change and would rather have a stable and stagnant world than a changing and vibrant one; for them, change is dangerous as it's much harder to control than is stagnation. Major change is anathema. the IMF is also renowned for revising its forecasts every 5 minutes, rendering its economic foresight of rather less value than such an apparently august body would like it to be. It's head is a former French Finance Minister, Christine Legarde, raising questions as to its independence when it comes to matters relating to the EU anyway.

The truth is that no one really knows what the consequences of BREXIT would be, but the global establishment would much rather have stability and everything staying as it is than risk the consequences of change. Leaving the EU would undoubtedly test the ability of much-vaunted politicians to manage a tricky situation but it is, without doubt, the only sensible option for the British people to take. Let's leave this suffocating organisation; vote to leave on 23rd June.