Should the government be spending tax payers money on EU Leaflets with a one sided view?
The government is spending more than £9m on sending a leaflet to every UK household setting out the case for remaining in the European Union.
It says the 14-page document, to be sent to 27 million homes, responds to public demand for more details about the EU referendum by setting out the facts behind the government’s position.
They said internal opinion polls suggested 85% of people wanted the government to provide more information so they could make an informed decision on 23 June.
Environment Secretary Liz Truss said the leaflets would help voters do so. She also emphasised the government’s view that EU membership “brings economic security, peace and stability”.
An additional £2.89m had been spent on the accompanying website and “digital promotion”.
But the move was met with thinly disguised anger by groups campaigning for EU exit.
“Our money should not be used on propaganda, trying to buy votes. We already send £350m to Brussels each week. We should spend our money on our priorities like the NHS.”
What is your view? Are you happy to be sent out a leaflet telling you why we should stay in the EU? Or would you prefer to have a leaflet that has a balance of pros and cons to help you make an informed decision? Do you think this is a good use of tax payers money?
What are your views?
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I would like to see the breakdown of expenditure on printing , delivery etc
I am sure they could have if they had to do a biased paper could have been produced cheaper
Why not do a balanced document ?
Return them to 10 Downing Street
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We should all read the government brochure as it was issued by the the party that we elected to run the country. The brochure might give you information you were not aware of, and it might help you make a decision yes or no.
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There are currently two groups who want to represent the Leave the EU point of view. Vote Leave and EU/Grassroots Out
Both groups are in chaos and spend a lot of time squabbling, so at the moment there is not much hope of getting anything in print.
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And your request for a balanced television debate seems a remote possibility.
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When we vote on 23rd June we will be voting for what we individually believe will be in the best interests of the UK. We will be voting for what we think will best generate the tax revenue the UK needs to pay for the NHS, the Social Services, and the Armed Forces and so on.
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I believe that withdrawing our membership from the world’s biggest and strongest trading bloc would be an economic disaster. Tax generation from businesses would fall and there would have to be massive cuts to all of the services I listed earlier and many I have not listed.
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I am not alone in that view. The current Conservative Government, under the leadership of David Cameron, has made it very clear that they believe the UK should remain in membership of the EU. As I write Jeremy Corbyn the leader of the Labour party is setting out the reasons why the Labour Party believe the UK should remain in membership. They differ in many ways but they both agree that we are better off remaining in the EU.
Just as you hold your views I hold mine and I will continue to put my views forward on this forum.
The following scenario seems to where we are at the moment.
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Remain in the EU.
The Government believes that voting to remain in the EU is the best decision for the UK. That is their very clearly stated belief. They stated this view it in the House of Commons and in the brochure they are distributing.
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Leave the EU.
There are two rival groups that want to represent the Leave the EU campaign. Vote Leave and Leave.EU/Grassroots Out.
There is a lot of public squabbling going on between the two groups and even more squabbling within each group.
Vote Leave has a committee, but as far as I can tell they have not elected a leader.
Leave.EU/Grassroots Out does not seem to have a committee or a leader.
Neither group has published a document that tells us what would happen if we left the EU.
On Line information.
Vote leave. The web site has a downloadable policy pdf document. It gives a list of things they think are wrong with the EU. The document does not say what they would do if we did leave the EU.
EU/Grassroots Out. This is a bit more difficult. There seem to be a number of different one page web sites and I am not sure which of these is the official site is. The one thing these sites all have in common is asking for money and none of the sites have a policy document.
it seems very unlikely that we are going to get a document explaining why we should leave the EU and what would happen if we did leave the EU from either of these groups.
It is only the Chinese who are propping up th euro.
Vote Leave, and we will run our country ourselves.
The British government must be impartial, as must the Civil Service, and be seen to be so. It is for the Remain camp to find £9 million to distribute this material, if indeed it has any merit worth spending on, not the state.
I am a tax payer, and am required, in some small part, to fund and receive offensive material. In this instance much of the content has been successfully challenged by journalists, economists and the Out campaign.
It is not a matter of weighing in the balance this Government propaganda against the Out campaign's material. No. It is about balancing forty four years of experience of the EU against the unverified claims made for it by a government elected by about 25% of the British electorate.
That statistic brings into question the moral mandate to govern (actually, it is rule in practice) of Cameron's government and thereby his mandate to recommend anything to us.
Has he a moral mandate, or is it a numbers game?
I expect the Civil Service to be impartial or neutral. I do not expect the Government to be impartial or neutral.
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The political party that has been elected by an overall majority in the House of Commons forms the Government after a general election. The Government that runs the country and the political party that has an overall majority in the House of Commons are one and the same.
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The current Government believes that voting to remain in the EU is the best decision for the UK. That is the Governments very clearly stated belief.
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The Government does not have to put forward any other view or state alternative views. Those alternative views can and are being put forward by groups or individuals who believe that the UK should not remain in the EU.
I have already decided how to vote so I will not need to read anything.
Send them all back to number 10.
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As you have decided to vote it must be correct for you to listen to the yes side and the no side.
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To discard the brochure without reading it is wrong. It may be that the brochure will confirm your decision to vote no. Then again it may give you information that you were not aware of before and that new information may change your mind.
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Of course the announcement of the brochure has given a massive boost to the "leave" side of the argument. Even before we have all received the the brochure the "leave" side have had hours of TV coverage where they have shouted unfair. They have also had massive press coverage where they again shouted unfair. They have not paid for the TV coverage or the press coverage, so maybe that is unfair as well.
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The Government has an obligation to decide what it thinks is in the best interests of the country. It cannot be neutral, it must have firmly held views that we can listen to and understand.
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The Government of today has decided that it will be in our best interests to remain in the EU. It is therefore fulfilling an obligation to tell us very clearly what it thinks will be best for the country.
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That is exactly what it has done. It does not have an obligation to put forward the view that we would be better off out of the EU.
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We as citizens have an obligation to look at the document and consider what the Government is saying.
You paint very broad bush strokes on an enormous canvas, it speaks of sound bites or political speech writing which, in the final analysis, is the dark art of masking objective truth behind obfuscations, lies, and promises never to be discharged.
I find no incumbency upon me, or others, to spend even a moment delving into this material.
By the way I do want to stay in the EU!...I just want our leaders to play fair
We don't need a leaflet to inform our decision Mr.Cameron!
We are voting to Leave the wasteful, sclerotic and corrupt EU
As an island we had a natural defence
We all left our homes open and unguarded
The politicians seemed to fight for the public and be proud of it
I am sorry to say it is all me! me! me! today
As my wife and I explain to the young they have to stop looking through rose tinted eyes
We are English and proud of it. We will never be european
YOU DON'T CALL A COW A HORSE IF IT IS BORN IN A STABLE
Europe
As everything is about to change on the
World stage . The big boys of our world
Are getting restless
China is moving in' and the US is getting
Pushed aside
Then there is the Putin connection
Which has to be seen to be believed
One of the worlds richest men ,
Is in charge of Europe !
Don't believe me then open your eyes
And smell the coffee
The western press love to write about
A large dough-boy with rockets
Sometimes I feel like I am sitting
In a 1945 Berlin bunker
I have made up my mind already so the paperwork is definitely wasted on me.
INDUSTRY- AND CARE FOR THE ENVIROMENT.
Why waste all this money on a leaflet that will end up in the waste bin. Half of the promises on all that is being planned The Priminister has already told us he will not be around to see happen,He will be retired.
Spending tax payers money in a one sided - and probably scaremongering - leaflet is wrong. It is also typical of this awful government to push their propaganda at our expense.