Responding to news that the campaign to keep the UK in the EU will be the side urging a yes vote in the upcoming referendum TUV Castlereagh East councillor Andrew Girvin said:
“Last year’s Scottish independence referendum illustrated the difference which the question can make. Those making the case for Scotland to stay in the Union found it difficult to escape charges of negativity purely because they were asking people to vote no. Conversely those urging a yes vote found it easier to portray their campaign as positive and forward looking.
“Cameron’s decision to frame the question in the terms reported which gives the pro-EU camp the chance to front the Yes campaign removes any doubt that regardless of the outcome of his so-called renegotiations he wants us to remain shackled to Brussels.
“In reality there is nothing negative about wishing to liberate the UK from the dictates of Brussels. For over 40 years the EU has been a huge drain on our national resources. As UK taxpayers we pour £19 billion pa into Brussels and even with the rebate and grants we get back less than half. In 2014 Treasury figures showed that the UK contribution to the EU was £19.234 billion while the UK rebate was £4.888 billion and we got a total of £4.539 billion in EU grants. The net cost of EU membership for the UK in 2014 was £9,807,000,000.00. That translates into a staggering daily cost of £26.9m or over £1m every hour!
“The EU is ripping us off to the tune of a Northern Bank robbery every day. There’s nothing negative about putting a stop to that!”