Maybe a bit biased but found it interesting nevertheless since people are mentioning Norway and other Non E.U. countries:

http://www.euromove.org.uk/index.php?id=6509

I dunno some would count those MEP's the UK sends to Brussels each day as representive of the UK, no?! I guess no one gets to vote for their MEP's either?

MEPs seem to have done a good job of enriching themselves while taking more power away from domestic voters and putting it into the EU machinery.

Maybe someone who follows our EU negotiators more carefully can enlighten me as to what great deals they have done for us, since the CAP seems to be licence for wholesale fraud, the CFP has been a disaster for British fishermen as well as fishing stocks and the proposed new banking laws will probably spell the end of London as a financial centre in its current form.

I think it would be good for the EU were the UK to leave. The UK have been lukewarm on the project from the outset and have held back the other countries from integrating further.

If a marriage isn't working out there is no point staying in it.

Well people voted for them, what do you expect?!

Bunch of self serving burocrats, oh we have those in Westminster too. What's the difference?

Yes, you probably would count them. But many that didnt get a chance to vote to be a part of the EU probably dont. But then again, who really cares what the populace thinks, no?

If they did leave the EU what would happen to us Brits who got automatic B permits? Would we get to keep them as we're already here and the non-EU rules apply to new entries. Would we still get an automatic C after 5 years (as long as we meet the current criteria).

As a Brit I think they should leave the EU as I don't really see many advantages and look how healthy Switzerland is not being in the EU. I know there's lots of other rubbish contributing to the state of the UK mess but that's just an example.

However, I'd be gutted if there was a change made to my permit as I do like the freedom that comes up the type of permit we get, i.e. not tied to the job and free to move jobs as we please.

What permits do Norwegians get in Switzerland?

I also expect that if Britain left, they'd first negotiate some bilateral treaties like Switzerland has done, so they can keep the benefits without all the costs.

Yup. The UK would most likely join the EFTA and have identical arrangements for it citizens as it does now:

http://www.bfm.admin.ch/content/bfm/...u-17_efta.html

"Citizens of France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemburg, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, have full rights to freedom of movement since June 1, 2007."

Yes, we could all form some sort of european economic communit oh hang on a sec...

maybe someone can confirm, but i suspect the agreement was a bilateral agreement between Switzerland and the UK and if so, the UK leaving EU would have no impact on the agreement on free movement of people or in fact any other bilateral agreements that the UK has concluded with Switzerland.

This kind of figures can be very misleading... apart from the fact that trading partners 2 to 8 on the table I saw were EU members, the big question is how to go about growing you exports to other nations. That tends to be a very expensive exercise - it is always easier to grow sales to an existing market than inter a new one. And then there is the distance factor, it is expensive to ship further a field, so you are not as competitive and in come cases goods just won't travel that far.

My expectation is that the impact would be much bigger than the figures suggest.

Jim2007