EU or Not EU, That is the Question (originally published on Linked-in on the 4 May 2016)

For those of you lucky enough to be a member of the European Union, I could do with some help.

I need to decide whether to vote to stay in, or come out, on the 23rd June.

It's a tough call.

So I thought, what is it that I directly benefit from, by being in the EU?

I'm struggling to come up with anything significant...

It's nice travelling through the EU without border controls and once in the Euro area only needing one currency.  Would I really miss this?

I enjoy meeting other EU nationals who have moved to the UK and work hard.  Is this a direct benefit to me?

I'm told it's essential the UK stays in the EU otherwise GDP will drop and business will become "quite difficult".

Then I see the UK's population growing through a combination of EU migration plus "other migration". The roads are clogged up, schools cannot cope with the numbers, the Health Service is nearly overwhelmed, property prices are sky high; all a bit of a mess and likely to stay that way, or get worse, as the population grows.

The Government recommends the UK stays in the EU for trade reasons plus the uncertainty created by leaving. Neither of these directly impact me.

I know of one small UK company that stopped producing brilliant motorbike trailers because they could not afford the EU certification process. I'd quite happily by the trailer without this certificate, but I'm not able to. It appears small businesses tend to suffer under EU regulations.

So please help me out; what direct benefits am I getting from being in the EU?