By leaving the EU, all our existing legislation that has been enacted will stay. It just means that our elected government will have the power to remove legislation without getting permission from unelected commissioners.
Under the Lisbon treaty, we will continue to be members of the EU for two years following a vote to leave. I expect if we vote to leave, there will be another referendum in 2017 after the EU has had some serious introspection about the democratic deficit. I would expect them to try to keep the UK as a member.
In the news yesterday, before the deal was announced, there was talk of incorporating a specific guarantee that any decision this time would be final, and the EU would not then come back to the UK offering an improved deal later, precisely because of the issue you raised there.
Any mention of that has been notably absent in every news report I've seen so far today. Does anyone know what happened there?
Oh I am well aware. I am referring to the Conservatives' manifesto promise to repeal the Human Rights Act, which so far has been kicked into the long grass due to opposition and infeasibility. But since the ECHR is a European thing, EU or no, I think it will inevitably be brought up again with the referendum.
(Side note: The EU is actually trying to join the ECHR as member in itself. Wondering when that process will be finished.)
> By leaving the EU, all our existing legislation that has been enacted will stay.
Sure, most of it, but what of it? We nonetheless lose participation in the Single Market etc.
[edit for clarity]
By being a net importer from the EU in trade terms, a net contributor in EU budget terms, and having net immigration from the EU? Or by not fully participating in the ever-closer political union and the Eurozone, neither of which has exactly been a huge success in recent years?
This is a complicated issue with several reasonable arguments both for the UK remaining and for the UK leaving. There is a fundamental underlying tension because the UK simply has different priorities in some areas than its European neighbours, such that while no party is inherently right or wrong, not everyone's goals are aligned.
Still, the idea that England is just dragging everyone else down is silly. That's why most of the other EU leaders have been trying, with varying degrees of subtlety, to encourage the UK to stay.
* Combined with the sovereign debt crisis and the migrant crisis, this could be the end of the EU (perhaps unlikely, but)
* The UK leaving the EU with the Republic of Ireland staying in (there's little support for RoI leaving) could create problems in Northern Ireland
* The UK voting to leave the EU, with Scotland having voted to stay, could lead to another Scottish independence referendum
* The UK voting to stay in the EU, with England having voted to leave, might (though I don't know how likely it is) upset people in England
* Whatever way the result goes, it might bring down the current UK Government and force elections
* If the UK leaves, other countries might consider it as well
* If the UK stays, other countries might want to renegotiate their terms as well
* This will bring up the European Convention on/Court of Human Rights, and Human Rights Act, issue again - what happens if the UK actually does leave the ECHR or repeal the HRA? Especially in Northern Ireland, where the HRA is part of the Good Friday Agreement, and in Scotland, where laws must comply with the ECHR
I'm not an expert on any of this. It'll be interesting to see what happens, certainly.