LOVE it or loathe it, the European Union is here to stay. Or is it?

The Government survived a backbench revolt on Monday to stave off a referendum on the UK’s membership, but the issue is sure to stick around.

But while politicians wrangle over what should or shouldn’t be done, what do the people on the street think?

In Bournemouth many people the Daily Echo approached said they didn’t have enough interest – or know enough about it – to comment. One man even said: “The EU? What’s that then?”

But those that did had strong views one way or the other, the majority saying the country should leave the EU.

Luciano Morello, originally from Palermo, Italy, and living in Bournemouth for 11 years, said: “It’s absolutely rubbish. For me it’s a big mistake. Everything doubled up, for example in Italy one banana was 1,000 Lire, with the Euro it was 2,000 Lire.

“A lot of people do not have money anymore. I can tell you that the people in Italy are ruined, there’s no middle class anymore, just rich and poor.”

Derek Houghton, 81, from Southbourne, said: “I’m all for coming out of it. I don’t believe we should be governed by Brussels and the Human Rights issue annoys me.

“We’re no longer our own country.”

Edward Restelica, 30, from Albania originally, has been in Bournemouth for 10 years and the UK for 14.

He said: “I think we should be out of the EU, I think the referendum would have been a very good idea.

“This country can survive without the EU and I think it would be better without it because we’re not in the same currency as the EU.”

Others said it should be up to the people, not the politicians.

Nigel Hedges, president of Bournemouth Chamber of Trade and Commerce, said: “We should have a referendum without a doubt.

“If the individual parties had promised a referendum and then decided not, then people are going to say ‘where’s the democracy in that?’ “They have said this is not the time with Europe financially on fire, is this the time to chuck more petrol on it?

“But this has been going on for so long and the last referendum we had was in 1973 and what has it mutated into?

“As much as we love, treasure and value the EU, we should love, treasure and value our own country more.”

Tara Reeves, 40, from Christchurch, added: “I have to say I’m developing an interest in the EU because it’s very important at the moment.

“I feel politicians now are very much about what they think should happen, I’m not sure they’re representing us, so I would like to have a referendum, I think it would be good.

“The EU has got pluses and minuses.”

But for some the EU has brought opportunities that they would not have been able to dream of otherwise.

Anna Malinowska, 29, a Pole who has been in the UK for five years, said: “It’s very important for Polish politicians to fight for Polish people in the European parliament.

“They have been struggling over there because everything is tight at the moment with the credit crunch.”

She said her worry was for countries like France and Germany, who pay more into the EU.

“There’s a huge community of Polish people in the whole of Great Britain. It’s much easier here for young people than in Poland,” Anna added.