Clegg is such a

[Suff]

D1ck. He is going to have his impassioned speech about how the UK would be marginalised outside of the EU.

OK Mr Clegg. So the EU is the largest single borderless market is it? 500 million people? And China is what? Chopped liver? Or 1.3billion people growing faster than any other country on earth, economically that is. OK the EU is the largest combined economy on the planet, but only the most optimistic fool would count it as a single market like the US or China.

So, outside of the EU we have the US (300 million), China (1.3bn), India (1bn), in people alone. Then we have Japan, Brazil and a host of other countries in the tree of economies.

All of whom we can organise preferential trade deals just as we can with the EU. Are our politicians so useless that they are unable to negotiate trade deals? Something France and Germany would love to see in the rest of the world. Staying in the EU limits our marketing outside of the EU and inside the EU our market is limited by the dynamics of the EU.

The only thing the EU can promise is dull grey anonymity in a "safe" environment where we don't have to worry too much about the consequences of our decisions. Someone else will take care of it if we fall.... Or, for anyone who saw the Communism of the USSR, Communism by the back door on the quasi legitimacy of a "comfort zone".

But what is the UK? A country which relied on comfort zones? Hardly! The UK is a nation of risk takers (or it used to be). A nation that went out in the world and moulded it into something different. A force in the world. Not always for good, but certainly a force.

Hiding in the EU will not grow the UK. Only the spotlight of the world markets and the challenge of competing with the rest of the world will revitalise the UK. More drudgery with cheap immigrant labour for tentative "gains" to the economy is not going to lift the UK back to any kind of prominence. The EU institutions will never allow it. Witness the rage when the UK _DARED_ to use the Veto when they wanted something. Witness how fast they crawled back to the table with offers when we intimated that the money tap would be turned off.

The UK is a power in the world. Think it isn't? Think back. Gulf War1. Maggie all but put a broom handle up Bush senior's backside and dragged him to the war. Gulf War2, the US was not going in without the UK. How different it might have been if Blair had said NO. But Blair was the ultimate tool for the US, eminently swayed by money and the "vision" of power. If Blair had said NO, the US would not have attacked.

You think this is not true? Look at Syria. Russia said no, China said no and the US was going. Britain said NO and it was really NO. Even when France said "Yes", the US stopped and went to the representatives to get a ruling.

France may be another permanent member of the UN Security Council, but the US would never go into Syria without the UK. Such is our power in the world.

So tell me Mr Clegg. Why should I listen to a lying word you say? Nothing you say adds up. Nothing you do gives me faith in your honesty.

It is time for the UK to wake up and realise that the #7 economy in the world and the #4 military power in the world doesn't need to be chained to a sick and rotting corpse of the EU. The UK has done it's time, transitioned it's economy, repositioned itself in the world, all within the blanket of the EU. The UK no longer needs the EU, but mark my words, the EU badly needs the UK. That, I humbly submit, is no good reason for the UK to tie itself ever more closely to a country which is ever more out of step with the economy and culture of the UK.

It is time for the UK to leave the comfort blanket of the EU and get back to what it does best. Leading the World.

[KateLMead]

How I agree with you Suff, the hypocrisy of the man leaves nothing to ones imagination. Mega rich, wife works on a mammoth salary for an American company One that by all accounts is questionable . As for the extra bedroom farce time these millionaires who own those mammoth properties opened up their doors and took in some of the pensioners he wants ejected from their homes. I cannot name one MP whom I feel I can trust, so Farage will get my next vote as a life long Conservative , I am utterly disillusioned. As for care for the elderly and infirm, not too different from the Nazi philosophy
In the last war.

[cromwell]

Unfortunately most of our politicians are of the "The end justifies the means" persuasion.
Clegg's "end" is to keep us in the EU, so if he has to fib a little bit (or a lot), he's going to do it. Other "the end justifies the means" types were Ted Heath (initial entry into the EEC) and Tony Blair with his enthusiasm for dodgy dossiers and illegal invasions.
I always smile when someone says that we are a "representative democracy". Representative of what, I wonder?

[Workingman]

Aha, the "debate" has begun.

Nigel will be up next with his plans for an EU free Utopia.

Dave will plead for a second term unhindered by the LibDems and of course he will promise a definite in/out referendum - the "out" vote being his least favoured option.

Ed will "um" and "ah" to the point where nobody knows where he stands on the matter so that neither side can attack him, but there will be hints from his advisers that Labour wants an "in" vote.

Alex couldn't care less. Scotland will be independent by then and he wants to stay in.

I think that I will sit this one out for a while.

[cromwell]

Well Comrade Ed has a ten-yard start due to the skewed electoral boundaries. Will he manage to blow this advantage? We'll find out in due course.

[Suff]

It hasn't quite percolated through to the frontal brain activity of most EU countries, but the EU must keep expanding into areas of lesser economy and larger labour force. Because it must keep the inflow of money and workers going and also must keep the outflow of goods and services to these countries flowing too.

The moment it doesn't, it will strangle in it's own effluence. Because the EU is one large Ponzi scheme and it can only continue so far. When it stagnates, the stench will be apparent to all. Then, let the games begin!

If anyone thinks that Romania and Bulgaria will be the end of it, think again. Think Turkey, the Balkan States and further east and south.

For Each new entrant, there will be the vision of labour and wages from the "rich" states. Which means cheap migrant labour for the next 50 years at least.

Anyone confident that it won't be the UK which bears the brunt of this? Yes Germany will be heavily impacted by Turkey, which is why Germany keeps blocking their entry, but the UK will take the vast majority of the rest.

This is a guarantee. Not a "potential".

I'd like to hear Clegg tell us how this is "good" for us....

[cromwell]

He won't. He'll' make some remarks about bordering on racism, talk about the need for "a skilled workforce in the 21st century" and about "the well known economic benefits" of immigration to Britain.
He won't mention about the competition for jobs, the poor working conditions, the overcrowding, the pressure on schools and hospitals, etc etc.