There are strong reasons why this country should regain its independence from the EU and many of them are economic. Britain would be wealthier out of the EU.

Many are tempted to vote Remain for fear of the unknown. People and businesses don’t like change. That’s natural. But even if we remain in the EU, there will be many further changes as Brussels has made it clear there must be greater integration of our tax, our economy, our army, and our law with Europe. New EU laws to change our pensions have been described by the Government as “damaging and reckless”.

Albania, Serbia, Montenegro and eventually Turkey will all join the EU allowing free movement across borders, increasing the strain on our schools and NHS, and this will increase the need for Britain and Germany to fund EU construction programmes in those countries.

So voting Remain does not mean you are voting for what you know.

We cannot control our borders. Every 3 years a million more people migrate to the UK than leave. Our population has risen rapidly and this is one of the reasons why the NHS is under such strain despite it being given additional funding.

And when Turkey eventually joins, and Britain supports Turkey’s membership, it means the frontier of the EU will border on Syria, Iraq and Iran.

But there is an alternative. In 2015, the UK gave £17.8 billion of British taxpayers’ money to the EU. We received £4.9 billion back in a rebate – but the EU could reduce that at any time in the future – and £4.4 billion was spent in the UK by the EU on many projects some which we wanted and some we didn’t. We couldn’t choose. The remainder, £8.5 billion, was spent on propping up the EU. That amount rose to £10.5 billion in 2013 and will increase further when new countries join.

So if we were to leave the EU, we could still spend the equivalent of their £4.4bn in the UK, exactly as at present if we wish, and have an additional £10 billion each year to spend on what we want. (Data from HM Treasury).

It could pay for an additional 25 fully equipped and staffed NHS hospitals each year.

But isn’t leaving the EU (‘Brexit’) just turning inwards on ourselves, becoming ‘Little Englanders’? No!

I want us to be free to increase our trade globally and make our own arrangements with other countries. We are forbidden to do so in the EU. Britain is still the largest investor in the United States (not Germany or China) and they in us. We are the 5th largest economy in the world! Yet we are locked into the EU. Europe and Antarctica are the only two continents whose economies are declining in relation to the others. By leaving the EU we would be free to strengthen our global trade and still be able to trade with the EU just as other nations do who are not in the EU.

We are Germany’s No.1 export market in the EU for cars and France’s No.1 export market for agricultural products. It would cost them more if the EU were to hinder trade between us so that just isn’t going to happen. Yet every prediction of economic disaster if we leave the EU is all based on this. Ridiculous!

And what of other scare stories? We’ve had threats of World War 3, plague, and economic catastrophe forecast by the Treasury and IMF who can barely forecast 6 months ahead. And as we approach 23rd June, the scare stories will increase. With the machinery of Government behind it, Number 10 will be asking the Establishment to scare everyone to get us to vote Remain in the EU.

This does beg the question: if Brexit is so catastrophic, why were we offered the referendum in the first place?

The fact is that with £10bn extra in our economy rather than giving it to Brussels, with no EU regulations to contend with, and the ability to control our borders and choose skilled immigrant workers (like doctors and nurses) rather than unskilled economic migrants from Eastern Europe, we will all become wealthier.

With extreme right wing parties in Austria, France and elsewhere, immigration and EU economic instability will increase.

But leaving does not mean turning our back on Europe, we will re-join the world. We will remain members of the European Space Agency, students will be still able to study on the Erasmus programme in European universities, and holidays will remain cheap. Like the Eurovision Song Contest, these are not EU run.

So the choice is clear. Stick with a failing EU which will drag us down with it or vote for Independence to spend our money on our own priorities and control our own borders? I’ll vote to Leave on 23rd June.

Published in the Lichfield Mercury