Quote Originally Posted by mr brightside View Post
Not exactly irony, just a lack of hope. When i think about the problems facing the planet now and in the near future, all of them look to boil down to overpopulation, and i really struggle to see a way round it for us all as a unit. The only workable solution i see is to band together in groups and defend our resources, Brexit would satisfy this. The politicians are talking about how trade would suffer and that businesses would find it difficult, but in the long term the UK would have a strong base from which to legislate against population related threats if it were out of the EU. I don't think this unrest we're seeing is a minor blip, i think we're going to see more of the same just like with stock market problems.
I share your concern about overpopulation, but I don't think "band together in groups and defend our resources" is a solution. That can escalate, and at worst can provide a rather unpleasant solution to overpopulation (e.g. the populations of Dresden and Hiroshima were reduced in 1945) - and I don't think that is what you are advocating! Far better to try to co-operate to solve the world's problems. Note that prosperous countries tend to have the lowest population growth rates.

So my view is fairly close to Noel's:
Quote Originally Posted by noel View Post
As an internationalist, I think we should stay in
As a believer in the free market, I think we should leave
As a pragmatist, we should stay in
Democratically I see arguments either way - the EU parliament is elected, but local issues have no way to be taken into account give the scale of the thing
Legally, I quite like having a legal framework that prevents power being misused by UK parliament. And things like the EU working time directive, and paternity leave are good examples of progressive policies
As a radical, we should leave and forge our own identity, rather than being one of the many

Which leads me to a mildly pro-European stance, but I wouldn't be offended if we decide to leave.
I don't imagine that the UK economy will crash if we leave, although there is likely to be a period of instability while we negotiate new trade deals, etc. But it just seems so small-minded to not want to play our part in solving Europe's problems. And leaving won't make any difference to the migration pressures.