A question for UKIP and their supporteers...

Do you not think that leaving the EU is now a largely symbolic and ultimately futile gesture without a commitment to bring back to at the very least British ownership all the large comapnies owned by European firms and in some cases, Governments?

 

I can see your point but I don't think that you can dictate to business in the same way that a govenment can take back the right to govern it's own country. I vote for a government who I want to run the country that I live in and I resent the creeping interference from Brussells but I'm not losing too much sleep that some of our companies have foreign ownership.

 

So I make the point again, it is a largley symbolic gesture as the interets of those foreign owned companies will rarely align with those of the country.

 

No there is nothing symbolic about it. Foreign ownership of companies is a completey different agenda to the proposal of us coming out of the EU. There are companies owned by companies outside of the EU such as America and Australia too.

 

Redstar,I'm neither right wing nor a UKIP supporter,but the EU is to me another organisation set up to be an elite club of political self servers whose main interest is a soft job with a massive pension and a large measure of control over the masses.
Support for a change in our relationship is not, and should not be allowed to be, a right wing issue,I'm not suggesting you are saying that, but a lot of people see it that way,to me its a cross party issue that the mainstream politicians prefer to shy away from,two notable left leaning people that spring to mind as Eurosceptics are Tony Benn and Bob Crowe neither I would think having the slightest agreement with the rest of UKIP policy.
As to the original question..foreign and multinational ownership is very worrying for the long term,and for me it's been a failure of the much vaunted 'City',the fat cats who prefer to take the quick buck with no thought to the long term effects on the company,the workforce,the honest shareholders or the country as a whole for that matter.I read an article recently concerning the sale of Rolls Royce/Bentley in to German hands..a top German Financier said that had the positions been reversed and Rolls Royce were trying to take over Mercedes..the 'City' in Frankfurt would have rallied together and blocked any such sale.

 

As obvious as this one is, EdF, e.on, RWE. They own and operate a large proportion of the power stations in the UK. Especially EdF who operate most of the nuclear sites and e.on with places such as Ratcliffe. You'd have to question whether they'd be as keen with us outside the EU to add to the power generation pressures we're already under.

 

Whilst ever they make money, they're happy.

 

I hear you and I do support withdrawal from the EU, just not on a Little Englander basis.

 

EDF. 60% State owned the last time I checked.

 

It is far too simplistic to just dismiss the UKIP agenda for withdrawal as being on a little Englander basis.

 

EdF Energy (the UK subsidary) is a part of EdF France, owned by the French state.

Came about through purchasing several UK companies in the south east

 

Aplogies, that was trite of me but that is how it often comes across. I personally don't see how we can campaign for UK Independence when our economy has been systematically sold off to the lowest bidder.

 

I want the opposite. I want to ditch the shower in Westminster and go all-in with the Europeans. It can't be any worse than it is now, and things could actually get better...

It is a global market, and we are global citizens. Once Europe is amalgamated we just need the other continents to follow suit and have a proper United Nation,

 

Internationalism. I like it.

 

Ooo I missed this one

In or out is good for me. Just not the sort of in, moaning about it all the time, approach we have now.
Stay in and we really need to do it properly. This means forming a partnership of the likeminded with the Germans, at least to stop them doing it with the French (after all they don't really like the French, they actually prefer the Brits) we'd need to rebuild our economy into a balanced one rather than one where any growth is just funded by debt. Plus, and this will upset a few, we'd need to ditch the pound, join the Euro and along with our new 'begleiter' in Berlin, start actually running the show.
As none of this is likely the only other option will be to leave. We will regain a certain amount of independence as a nation, but I warn you all that when people like Cameron talk about repatriating laws to Britain and deregulation and removing red tape, what they actually mean is grinding your rights as a citizen and a worker into the dirt. You will lose all your rights and protections you had under the EU and this country will become a giant sweatshop of low skill, low wage long hours jobs. Plus, of course, you will lose the right to simply leave and live elsewhere on the continent. There is NO WAY the average British citizen will gain any benefit from us leaving. You'll be free of the shackles of Brussels of course working for **** wages 50 hours a week with all your rights and benefits taken away. Freedom, yea! bring it on pfft.

 

If we left under the Tories the first things to go would be Human Rights Act, Working Time Directive and Data Protection Laws. Those things that protect us. In would come incentives allowing/forcing us to rival the economic powerhouses of China, Bangladesh and Romania with minimal wages and health and safety laws. Anything that would protect the big city fat cats and their mates.