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Let's put to bed some of the popular myths and scaremongering propaganda that anti EU lobbyists put forward. For instance Britain's trade with other EU countries has risen from about a third of our trade when we first joined to nearly 60 per cent now, despite the huge increase in the purchasing power of China, India, and oil producing countries in that time. The fastest growth rates of UK exports in recent years have been to the new EU Member States. 3.5 million Jobs are dependent on the export of goods and services to the EU.
If we were out of the EU, there would have even less likelihood of selling UK manufactured products to other EU countries, so the figures would be worse.
Once the rebate is taken into account, our net contribution is £3.3bn in 2009-10 about £1 per week per person. Some of this finances things like infrastructure development in the poorer EU countries, which British firms regularly win tenders for.
By being a member of the EU a firm can register a trademark once, valid throughout the EU, without having to go through 27 different sets of national rules, form-filling and fee paying. A lorry taking British exports to Italy used to need over 20 documents to present at frontiers. Thanks to EU legislation this is now down to one.
A Mori poll which interviewed 102 executives from Britain's largest businesses, 78 of them replied that the single market had been helpful to UK business.
Only 9.1 per cent of UK laws stem from the EU.
The EU is the worlds largest market and if Britain left it then what of the tariffs that would be imposed on UK trade with the EU. The UK is a country of 60 million people that is reliant on imports.
Both Norway and Switzerland have to accept EU market legislation with no say in shaping it. Both contribute to the EU budget (more per capita net contributions than the UK!). Both are small countries with very special features: massive oil reserves for Norway and a unique banking sector for Switzerland.
We are in it,thanks to Ted Heath, now lets stop whinging and make the best of it.