ON JUNE 23 the British people will be given the chance to decide on our continuing membership of the European Union.

It is a simple in or out vote and for me personally it all boils down to one simple question: do I want Britain to be a self-governing nation or do I want it to be ruled by the bureaucrats of the EU.

On that basis it is not a difficult choice for me as I do not believe that Britain’s sovereignty has a price tag and I do also believe we will be far better off out, but there are some people today that do have a ‘what’s in it for me?’ attitude to their own decision-making.

So this is my take on the two options available.

Vote to Leave the EU: What will happen if we leave the EU?

Well, we will be able to retake our rightful and well-earned place on the world stage as the fifth strongest economy in the world and we will be free to make whatever trade deals we like with the 168 non-EU countries in the world without the EU having to do that for us.

There will be many of those 168 countries looking at grabbing a piece of our 65 million people market and the EU is fully aware of this fact and because the EU will have lost one of its major contributors, it will certainly be in no position to also lose our custom and will look at ways to tie up trade deals with Britain just as quickly as possible.

The EU/Ukraine trade deal took just one month, so forget the scaremongering stories that it can take 10 years, it won’t.

These trade deals will have to be competitive simply because of the interest that will be shown from outside the EU.

Vote to Remain: If the people of Britain should choose to remain in the EU then we will lose even more power, partly because every time our government or MEPs say anything against the EU they will simply respond with ‘Well, your people voted for this’.

Also the EU is all about expansionism and with every new country they pull into the EU idealism, Britain loses more of its own vote share.

Marty Caine