Dear CHERFUL,

From a leading business group in the UK.

“The EU enables easy access through the single market to the UK’s largest trading partner – 45% of UK exports in 2014 were to the EU amounting to £227 billion worth of goods and services each year.1 While the share of UK exports to the EU is declining as the UK increases its trade with countries outside of it, the value of exports to the EU has increased on average by 3.3% each year between 1999 and 2015. 2 80% of British businesses that trade overseas do so with the EU3 – it is a growing and critical market for us. Similarly small businesses often look to trade with the EU when exporting for the first time. Preserving access to the single market is therefore highly valuable.”

“In 2014, the EU cost the UK £9.8 billion in direct budgetary contributions. But, the collective impact of the benefits of EU membership has made the average household in the UK around £2,700-3,300 better off and added £70-90 billion every year to the UK economy. This is a return of 9 to 1.”

“Harmonisation of EU rules and standards has made it easier for businesses to enter new markets. With one set of standards across the EU, a business in the UK can trade across 27 other countries more simply than if outside and operating under a different set of rules.”

http://news.cbi.org.uk/business-issues/uk-and-the-european-union/eu-business-facts/eu-two-futures-cbi-april-2016-pdf/

The economic argument will only work if the UK can access all these markets as before.

Doubtful.

It seems the leavers are relying on less regulation meaning less cost of production and therefore making the UK more competitive internationally. However a tightening of trade with the EU as a result will have a huge impact.

Keep it up Steely, digging a hole to bury your Greens.

You are confirming everything that many of us, but not enough, have always known. The arrogance of bureaucrats who believe they are better, & more equal than the ordinary citizen who pays their salary.

More of the public is waking up to the control freaks that find their way into positions of influence. With enough savvy to change a car wheel, they want to tell everyone what to do, & how to do it.

Bureaucrats, green to the core, & the Greens, bureaucratic to the core.

The author is correct in pointing out elites over-favour some minorities and ordinary people value "secure borders".

Much of the majority Leave result was indeed about Britain retaking control of its borders.

So in the runup to our own Election forgotten Australians remain worried about their Borders. We don't want regional/world bodies like the UN or our Greens, using trendy guilt to persuade Australia to take in:

- more boatloads of $10,000 per seat "refugees" or

- those Muslims who will not settle into our society

Turnbull should not indulge his big money, small "l" liberal tendencies by welcoming to his dinner parties, those who rate Sharia Law higher than Australia's secular laws.

ASIO should now bury any (end of 2015 phonecalls to MPs) notions of Obama/Merkel political correctness. Turnbull now realises many/most Aussies favour a stricter visa system and tighter border controls (including airports).

Returning to the Greens - the main refugee advocate, Sarah Hanson-Young, is not a Senator for South Australia but the Senator for Nauru.

Suggest people vote Greens Last or not at all.

[Deleted for abuse]

SteeleRedux,

Well said....anyone who lauds the complete dog's breakfast of the Brexit campaign needs their head examined.

There was "no" exit plan.

The "leave" vote appears to have been achieved via the mechanism of lying and misleading the general population on immigration and the NHS.

Here's the latest:

"The leaders of Germany, France and Italy have vowed there will be no informal talks or deals made with Britain before it formally tells Brussels it is leaving the European Union.

The warning by the EU's three most populous continental nations means Britain must first take the plunge of invoking Article 50 to leave the union before being able to negotiate its future trade and other ties with the bloc."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-28/brexit-germany-france-italy-vow-no-informal-talks/7548940

Another informative book on govts being forced to act for the well-being of the general population, in the wake of the Industrial Revolution is E. Royston Pike's "Human Documents of the Industrial Revolution in Britain", exposing as it does the system which led to the degradation of people and their communities in Britain as the shift from country to urban environment was entrenched - how the Factory Acts were established to curb the excesses of laissez faire enterprise.

"Turnbull was elected on the presupposition that you win elections from the middle. While this is standard dogma in the departments of politics and peace and conflict studies, it is wrong."

It is important not to draw conclusions like this based on what happens in places without compulsory voting. The whole point of compulsory voting is not to hand power over to the lunatic fringes, and it works very well for that purpose.