Emailed in by MBK from The Independent (the Irish one):
On Thursday week we will know if Britain is going to stay or leave the European Union...
No we won't. The referendum outcome is not binding on the government, and precedents tell us the most likely outcome is a fudged renegotiation and another referendum even more rigged than this one. Even if the government respects a Brexit outcome, it will be years before anything changes.
And if Britain decides to go - Irish farming will be the first in the firing line.
Britain has 64 million people and is the world's fifth largest economy. They are also hefty net contributors to the EU budget with a contribution of £13m last year. CAP, which still accounts for 37pc of the EU budget, and could take a big hit if Britain leave [sic].
Fair point. Subsidising our own landowners is insane, subsidising land owners in other countries is beyond insane. So that's a modest win for us.
Some 50pc of Irish beef goes to Britain in trade worth €1.1bn per year. Britain buy 60pc of our pigmeat worth €3.3m per year.
Ireland also buys heftily from Britain, importing €3.8bn, against exports of €5.1bn. Of course people will argue, with some justification, that Ireland and Britain have always traded, long before any EU.
So why would we stop buying it all of a sudden..? We buy food and drink from all over the world, from EU and non-EU countries alike.
But the real rub here, and it is still not taken properly on board by many people engaged in this debate, is that if Britain leave [sic], our trade arrangements with them will have to be fixed via Brussels and the other member states.
Aha, so the Eurocrats would punish the Irish to teach the UK a lesson. Whose fault would that be? FFS.
Debate Magazine
