The UK's influence on the world, better in or out of the EU?

Had an interesting conversation with a twitter friend last night about the EU and the merits or otherwise of our membership. It was interesting to me anyway. His view was that (regardless of the details and case studies we can all point to, pro and con, which we didn't discuss), we are better off in the EU because of the global power and influence that it affords us.

In a world where major trading blocs are seen to command power and influence - China, India, Russia, the US and the 300million strong (population) EU - his view is that we're better off inside the tent (pissing outwards) rather than outside (pissing in - my vulgar words not his, I hasten to add!).

Which got me thinking. I think his is a common view - common as in popular not 'common as muck' you understand ;). I started a blog entitled 'my mum thinks we should stay in' only last week, which was about a pervading acceptance of 'well we're in now, we may as well stay there and see what happens. It's not that bad.'

The thing is, it is not that bad now - pretty bloody awful if you're a young person in Southern Europe with zero prospects of having any kind of prosperous or productive life ahead of you - but it's not that bad in the UK. Why rock the boat?

But the EU is just getting started on its real agenda for a federal state of Europe in which all nations will be subsumed into a single bloc, with common tax laws, a common defence policy and army; and essentially a single government which will control almost all of our laws whether we want them (vote for them) or not. And if you think your vote doesn't count for much now, wait until it counts for absolutely nothing in 10 years' time if we go on down this essentially socialist route.

But the question at issue was about our influence on the world: Our ability to fight our corner and secure what's right and beneficial for the people of the UK. Are we better off inside the large trading bloc that is the EU, or outside, on our own as a relatively small global player.

If one puts it like that, one can understand my friend's views.

But it's not quite as simple as that.

However you want to slice it, the UK is the 5th or 6th largest economy in the world. I've heard it described as 'the big country' by people who live in much bigger (geographical) countries. And I'm not looking backwards to when 'the sun never sets' and all that crap, but forward from where we are now.

We're behind France, which economically speaking, is a basket case. Behind Germany which is very soon to reap the rewards of its economic blitzkrieg of southern Europe (and not in a good way); behind Japan which is still experiencing stagflation and behind the US which, in terms of debt and foreign ownership, is virtually owned by China these days.

And we're the fastest-growing economy in the G7 (or G8 depending on whether we're friendly towards Russia this week or not).

We're not in great financial shape thanks largely to Labour's last term in office, but we're still very much a 'player' on the world stage.

Within the EU we are about 8% of the vote. And that's important since that is the amount of influence we have on how the EU faces the world. And it's a diminishing figure as more countries join the EU for reasons of political and financial stability, which they don't currently enjoy, being mainly mired in corruption. Whereas we do have relative (to die for - and many are doing just that) financial stability and political freedoms. I wonder what benefit there will be to us in the UK from the accession to the EU of Albania for example?

So 8% influence. We're not leading Europe as we might think we should be after the last unpleasantness (WW2) but instead we're subservient to it. And unpopular to boot. How often are we sneered at by MEPs in Brussels? How often does France ridicule our input? How often does Italy promote our views on what should be done? How often do other EU countries abide by the rules of that organisation if they're inconvenient for them, while we always do? They just ignore EU rules if it suits them whilst we always comply.

France in particular will never allow us to lead the EU in terms of policy because it is a flawed and dying socialist state. It is like (but much bigger than) our own Labour party which hides inconvenient problems (economy, NHS, education, defence equipment, illegal wars, unsustainable welfare state) for someone else (the Tories) to pick up when it all turns to shit.

So we can't ever 'lead' in the EU. It's just never gonna happen.

So what is the alternative?

Outside the EU we would be able to establish our own trade deals with the rest of the world on our own terms. We would be able to trade on our own behalf with our many 'friends' around the world without being constricted by the abysmally slow machinery of the EU which requires 28 states to ratify anything.

That means we would be able, on our own behalf, to trade with countries with whom we have strong links and a good relationship. Like China. India. Russia. With our Commonwealth friends in Canada and Australia and several parts of Africa without needing the EU to approve it. The same EU which, by the way, is perpetuating the rape of Africa (a strong word I know but not too strong in this instance), by restricting trade with Africa and essentially stopping Africa from trading its way into the first world. Forget what you hear about UKIP, this restrictive EU approach to Africa is truly racist in nature.

So the question boils down to whether we are better off having next to no influence over a major trading bloc - the EU - which is, by the way, the only global trading bloc that is shrinking in terms of economic output - or whether we would be better off trading with existing friends in the world's other and much more successful trading blocs on our own behalf.

Would we be better off working with China, India, the US, Canada, Australia, the Commonwealth, or with France and Italy who are (by far) the better EU economies (God help us).

As far as the EU is concerned, the UK is a one-way street. We're good for trade - we have a £46 billion a year trade deficit with the EU, making us by far their biggest customer. They simply cannot survive without us as a trading partner so the concept of them imposing trade tariffs on us is simply laughable.

In short the EU needs us more than we need them, to the tune of £46 billion a year. The EU cannot survive without the UK. It is not the other way around.

And it's time we recognised this; recognised that we're much better off outside but still trading with the EU, but on our own terms and with our own freedom to stand up, not as 8% of a failing bloc, but as the Great Britain we once were and can be again.

Thanks for reading.