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Is the EU a real democracy? – Often described as the world’s oldest parliamentary democracy, the British are immensely proud of their evolutionary democracy, and as a result have become immensely critical of the European Union and its branches of government. On the face of it, the EU has a democratic structure and is undoubtedly representative – more so than many national parliaments, including Britain’s. Yet voter turnout has been declining for years and public approval of the European project has fallen in five of the six largest member states. Alongside this, the concept of democracy deficit has widely been used to question the complex, often confusing and ineffective law-making ... policies of the EU Parliament. Additionally, the European President is not directly elected, and ultimately, voters do not have a direct vote for the presidential candidates in question. • The EU has changed – The European Union is not the vigorous entity that the United Kingdom joined in 1973. Then the European Economic Community had the legitimacy of the strong economic growth which characterised the years after the Second World War... The EU of 2016 by contrast has been hit by a series of extremely damaging blows: the economic crisis of 2008; the self-inflicted damage from failure to deal with the flaws of the euro following the crisis ... terrorist attacks from ISIS and immense migration flows into the Union. All of these blows have created powerful anti-establishment, anti-EU constituencies across the continent, not just in the UK. • Lack of Opportunity – Having the 5th largest economy and GDP in world make the UK a global financial player and a crucial EU member state. Additionally, London is the largest and only world city of the European Union. It plays an essential role in finance, technology, business and world commerce; in 2018 it was ranked as the world’s most powerful city by the World Economic forum. Compare this to the North-West/East of England, the Midlands or Wales and you have a very different scenario. My home county of Lancashire is the 7th worst region of the EU for income inequality and wealth distribution, it voted overwhelmingly to leave the EU. After the financial crisis of 2008, matters have only worsened. The Conservative government proposed austerity measures and cut public spending in welfare ... The hardest hit areas, you guessed it, voted to leave the EU. • Freedom of movement – The sheer volume of people moving to the UK ... from southern Europe appears to have been a major factor in driving the Leave Vote. It is noticeable, in parts of the country, such as London and the major cities, where there had long been foreign communities; the British were much more relaxed about immigration and voted heavily to stay in the Union. The Leave Vote surged in parts of the country where there was very little new or historical immigration, but where voters feared that immigration might soon arrive in their neighbourhoods. Many claim that a nation-state should have control over its own immigration policy, • What did Brussels ever do for us? - A lot of British people fail to realise or actually struggle to find out what the EU does for them. This isn’t unique to the UK as a member state, but ... the geographical, cultural and economic situation of the UK might actually make this problem worse, as the people of the UK feel far removed from Brussels and its decision making process. Additionally, the UK pays more to the EU than it receives in EU funding. But how are the funds that are received, spent in the UK? EU money, both here and in the rest of the EU, is spent according to the Union's spending priorities ... However, many Brits believe that they should in charge of their finances and should be able to choose where their money goes. • Cameron and the Conservatives - [P]erhaps the biggest critical juncture in Britain’s recent ... history was David Cameron’s promise, made public in January 2013, to hold an in/out referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union if the Conservatives were returned at the next general election.