The phoney war over what deal David Cameron might strike with the EU is over and the referendum debate has now begun in earnest.
The outcome of this debate will impact every financial adviser and every client, for good or ill. It is a debate I urge you not to ignore, and you should consider how best to position your clients’ affairs for either outcome.
There will be strong views from both camps, as I well recall from 1975 when I was an active campaigner for a ‘yes’ vote to stay in the common market. However, the EU of today is not what we were asked to vote for in 1975.
Then, there were just nine members working together as a trading group compared to today’s 28. There were no expectations of political or monetary union, nor of an EU Court of Justice and an EU Parliament with supremacy over our own UK laws, all of which we have now.
Indeed, if staying in the EU was a pitch on TV’s Dragon’s Den, then all of the dragons would soon be out because, in my opinion, it simply does not stand up to analysis as a business proposition.
Why would any business, let alone the UK, which is one of the world’s largest and most successful economies, want to have its freedom to trade across the world in whatever way it wished handicapped by all the rules and regulations of the EU?
Mr Cameron rightly wanted to achieve fundamental changes, and I believe he has worked extremely hard to try to get them. Unfortunately, though, he was up against entrenched EU positions and closed minds that were stuck in a time warp.
Mr Cameron wanted to achieve fundamental changes and has worked extremely hard to try to get themThe financial sector and your clients have absolutely nothing to fear from leaving the EU. We sell less to Europe than they sell to us, and they are certain to be enthusiastic about wanting to continue to trade with us.
In addition, our security comes, not from our membership of the EU, but from our prominent membership of Nato and the UN Security Council.
We have had almost one thousand years of independence, and little more than 40 years in the EU. The 23 June is the last opportunity we will ever have to have to take back control of our country’s destiny. I believe that the generations to come will forever judge us harshly if we fail to grasp this opportunity to leave the EU.
Ken Davy is chairman of SimplyBiz Group
