Peter Luff MP on the EU

Conservative MP for Mid Worcestershire, Peter Luff, has written the following in his local newspaper:

My New Year resolution is to speak out on one of the most important issues affecting all of us, not just in Droitwich Spa aand Worcestershire, but in the whole country – our relationship with the European Union write Peter Luff MP.

A dangerous view is developing that we would be better off out. This is nonsense and it’s time for the sane voices to start speaking up.

The jobs, influence and peace that the EU has brought are real and tangible. The current Eurozone problems would affect us whether or not we were in the EU, but thank heavens we stayed out of the Euro ourselves. In a recent survey the three main reasons for the disillusion with the EU were immigration, the budget and human rights legislation. Let’s take them in turn.

People have a point on immigration – the Labour party has now apologized for not introducing the same controls asa the rest of Europe at the time of the big eastern enlargement. The very sudden influx was not the EUs fault – it was the last government’s.

On the budget, current estimates suggest that our net contribution – the difference between what we pay in and what we get back – in 2012 will be around £8 million, which sounds a lot of money. But in the same year we will have spent more than £200 billion on welfare payments, over £90 billion on education and around £110 billion on the NHS. So the total cost of the welfare state last year will be about £400 billion – and expenditure on the EU is around 2% of that.

Finally human rights laws are absolutely nothing to do with the EU – they are the result of a totally separate institution called the Council of Europe. It’s about time to start busting the myths and reminding the country which side our bread is buttered on

And the Tories tell us to trust them to do the right thing where the EU is concerned?