UK residents, what's your opinion on the EU referendum?

In my opinion, the UK should definitely stay in. So many Britons benefit directly and indirectly from membership that it would be disadvantageous to withdraw. It costs the UK less than £260.00 per household per year to belong to the EU whilst the UK gets back over £2,000.00 per household per year in trade and other benefits: https://fullfact.org/ Any foreseeable deal with the EU as an outsider would never match that return on investment.

On a personal level, two million UK citizens now live in other EU countries. Leaving the EU would cut off the automatic right to apply for the kinds of jobs that many of these people are doing. The horizons of future generations would be limited to the UK except for those prepared to fight through a mass of paperwork to beg for the permission to work in EU countries, the right to work there would be lost. In addition to those two million, there are certainly hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, who have lived and worked in other EU countries at some point of their lives. Many of these will be in receipt of pensions from other EU countries; and many will have relatives — spouses, children, grandchildren, brothers- and sisters-in-law, sons- and daughters-in-law who are nationals of other EU countries and are often resident in those countries. It is membership of the EU which opens these literally life-changing opportunities to everyone in the UK and which enriches both British life and the life of other European countries. It is hard to see any advantage in denying future generations the chance to enjoy these opportunities.

Inside the EU, the UK can influence the development of the Union to its advantage and steer it towards ever more advantageous policies. Just as important, the EU can look the USA, Russia, China and India in the eye and negotiate with them as an equal who must be taken seriously.

If the UK left the EU, Scotland would probably leave the UK in order to re-join the EU. Northern Ireland might seek to join Scotland; or possibly even make an agreement guaranteeing a high degree of independence in an all-Ireland confederation within the EU. England would go through an identity crisis whilst seeking to find a niche in the world with its radically changed status. http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21...

As the UK is only around 11% of the EU economy, the rest of the world would not notice the UK very much. The UK outside the EU would be like Pete Best outside the Beatles: a footnote to the early history of a globally significant phenomenon.