Liberal Democrat councillor for Mannofield, Airyhall, Braeside, Broomhill, Garthdee, Kaimhill and Ruthrieston Learn more
by Ian Yuill on 19 June, 2016
Membership of the EU is important for Aberdeen – and for communities across Scotland and the UK.
Aberdeen, Scotland and the UK are stronger, better off and safer as part of the European Union. Staying in is the right choice for the sake of jobs, trade, investment, prices and security. The EU is far from perfect but the gains of being in clearly outweigh the costs.
Working in partnership with our neighbours means entrenching the gains we have secured since the Second World War. Open markets, common health care, free movement of people, speedy extradition procedures for criminals, the abolition of mobile phone roaming charges, common working between universities and cementing peace on our continent are just some of the benefits of cooperation within the EU.
Remaining in Europe safeguards thousands of Scottish jobs. Scottish exports to the EU are worth billions of pounds every year.
Three million jobs across the whole of the UK jobs are linked to trade with Europe – the world’s largest single market. That’s one in every ten jobs nationwide.
Families save an average of £450 a year because Scotland is in Europe. Everything from food to flights and phone calls is cheaper.
We still trade with the rest of the world but we get a better deal by negotiating as part of Europe.
Here in Aberdeen EU funding has supported everything from Aberdeen’s hydrogen bus project, the improvement of Aberdeen Harbour to action on energy efficiency.
Across Scotland the EU has supported a huge range of projects including employment programmes, Scotland’s world-leading marine energy centre in Orkney and the Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine in Edinburgh.
Scotland is set to receive around £6 billion in funding from the EU between 2014 and 2020. More than half of the foreign investment which comes to Scotland is from EU member states.
The EU is helping keep Scotland safe too, with people accused of drug trafficking, murder and other serious crimes being removed from the country under the European Arrest Warrant. Criminals and terrorists operate across borders – our police and security services must do so as well. Leaving Europe would put that at risk.
The UK’s and Scotland’s place in the EU helps ensure that every family, every business, and every person in Scotland is part of a stronger, safer and more prosperous nation – and that is why I am voting “Remain” in the referendum.
2 Comments
I am voting to leave the EU, the reasons being; I strongly object to uneducated persons being allowed to flood into the UK with their families, and immediately they start to use and abuse our hospitals, schools, benefit system. I know of East Europeans in Aberdeen claiming council housing or social benefits, by saying they are not able to work, meantime they are working for cash only and claiming benefits. Crime has rising in Aberdeen caused by East Europeans, one has only to read the local papers to see the names of these criminals, they are certainly not Smith or Jones or any UK names. The sad thing is that the politicians shouting to have no controls on our borders do not have these persons as neighbours, it is the less well off who have to share their lives with them. Saying that UK persons have the right to go unhindered to Europe, who in their right mind would move to Romania or any other eastern country. the same applies to Greece, France or Spain, civil unrest and unemployment is dreadful.
Please vote to leave and have the UK once again controlled by MP’s elected by UK citizens.
Some facts:
EU nationals in the UK make a net contribution to the UK’s public finances and economy. You can read more about this at https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/1114/051114-economic-impact-EU-immigration
Turning to the impact of immigrants on the NHS, 35% of doctors and 21.7% of nurses employed in the NHS were born abroad. The NHS could not operate without them. You can read more about this at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/12071030/More-than-a-third-of-NHS-doctors-born-abroad.html
As for crime, the evidence is that immigrants are no more or less likely than people born in the UK to commit crime. You can read more about his at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/uk-migration-six-myths-about-immigration-debunked-as-latest-figures-show-fall-in-non-eu-arrivals-a6895341.html
Finally approximately 1.3 million UK citizens live elsewhere in the EU. You can read more about this at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/18/eu-facts-what-would-leaving-the-eu-mean-for-expats/