Titford Secures 6th Formers' Approval for Leaving the EU

On Thursday night (13.11.08) 60 sixth formers at Brentwood School in Essex were treated to a lively debate on the motion: 'Britain should leave the European Union' between Jeffrey Titford, the Eastern Counties UKIP MEP and Linda Jack who is the number two candidate for the Liberal Democrats at next year's European Election.

Ms Jack centred her case against the motion on the familiar territory of the need for countries to work together through EU membership and that pulling out would leave Britain isolated. Mr Titford pointed out that "there was life before membership of the EU" and highlighted the huge cost of British membership both in financial and political terms, with the unelected European Commission becoming increasingly powerful at the expense of democratically elected governments in the member states. He also illustrated how our basic rights, such as the presumption of innocence are being eroded by the European Arrest Warrant and other attempts to make the British people subject to European style justicial processes.

After an equally lively question and answer session with the students, a vote was taken and the motion was carried by 35 votes to 23. Speaking after the debate Mr Titford said: "I was delighted to be asked to take part in the debate and found the question and answer session particularly stimulating and interesting. It was encouraging to see that many of the students had a good understanding of the very serious problems being created by British membership of the EU or were open-minded enough to take them on board."