"It's all about immigration" (is it?)

Let us accept for the moment that Britain has an immigration problem. The recently published figures for net migration in the last year show that 333,000 more people came into the country long-term than left. Over half of that figure (188,000) is for people outside the EU.

The Conservatives have been promising since they came to power in the Coalition Government six years ago to bring net migration down from outside the EU down to tens of thousands. They have signally failed to do that. Whatever the reasons for failing in this goal, this cannot be because the UK government does not control its own borders. It does. Leaving the EU won't stop non EU nationals coming into the country. It may reduce the number of EU nationals, but it doesn't look hard for someone without an EU passport to settle in Britain, so would it really make much of a difference? 

The Brexit camp accept that immigration is necessary - they want to control it, not to stop it. But on what basis? They cite the Australian "points system" which ensures that people are only allowed in if they have skills the country needs. 

My first thought was "I bet the native born Australians (the group of indigenous people we disparagingly refer to as 'aborigines')  wish they had thought of such a scheme when Britain started dumping its convicts on them in the 19th century.

My second thought was "oh, so we want to make sure that only skilled people come into the country, so that we can keep all of the unskilled, low paid jobs for the native population". (I'm sorry I am still thinking of Australia here!) Do our  young people really have no higher aspirations than to be assured of a job sweeping the streets or cleaning cars when they leave school?

"All the decisions are made in Brussels"

The decisions made in Brussels are those that affect all EU countries. You might as well say "why should MPs from Cornwall and Leeds and London be making decisions about things that affect me in Norfolk?" or "why should councillors from Kings Lynn and Great Yarmouth be making decisions about things that affect me in Diss?" The question to ask is not "where are decisions made?", but "are decisions made in the right place?" 

If your answer is "no decisions should be made abroad that affect the UK", fair enough, but you can't stop it happening, even if we leave the EU. Europe is our biggest market place. We will have to make goods that comply with their standards if we want to sell to the continent. Decisions made in the EU about those things will continue to affect us, but outside the EU we will have no say, however hard we negotiate. 

What people often mean when they talk about decisions taken at the European level, is the Human Rights Act. Britain has been signed up to the European Convention on Human Rights since the 1950s, when we helped to write it. It has nothing to do with the EU, and leaving the EU will not change the application of the convention to UK law. 

The arguments about the Human Rights Act are for another place, but consider this one point: If Britain abolishes the HRA, it is my human rights and your human rights that will be abolished.

"EU is not democratic" Pull the other one!

I have heard the argument " the EU is not democratic" so many times, that I sort of gave up arguing against it, until I realised that this particular argument is based on astounding ignorance about how our democracy in the UK works.

The standard line of attack I normally make is that our MEPs are elected on a proportional system, which means that, ironically,  UKIP  have one MP in the UK Parliament but 24 in the European Parliament (because the EU electoral system is more democratic than the British "first past the post" system).

So far so good. They then say "ah but the decisions are made by the EU Comissioners, and they are appointed, not elected!" Therefore - not democratic?

Actually when you think about it, this no different from the way it works in the UK. Most of the decisions in Government are made by ministers. None of them are directly elected to their posts. The Prime Minister is appointed by the Queen, the Government ministers from the Chancellor of the Exchequer downwards are appointed by the prime minister. In the EU the commissioners are appointed by the elected governments of the member states (one for each member state). The Commission is of comparative size to our cabinet, so what is the difference?