Eddie Izzard talks to you about the EU Referendum! Monday 23rd May

I said "England", please learn how to read.

I said "England", please learn how to read.

England isn't a country - unless you plan it on leaving the United Kingdom too.

And is Northumberland as densely populated as Surrey?

There must be some room up north. Let's get that northern powerhouse going.

I agree with you, we are better in than out and we have no chance of making the EU work better if we leave it altogether. The EU isn't perfect - either is the way the UK or any other governmental system is run.

But it's worth doing - what we are trying to do, work across a whole continent, it's an incredibly difficult thing, it's never been done before, and of course it isn't easy but I strong believe it's worth trying.

David Cameron has tried to renegotiate something, it may not be enough for some people but we won't fix it by running away and hiding.

Hello TSR,

Thanks for having me here and for all your questions. I have three live talks to get ready for this evening so will try to get through as many of your questions in the next half an hour as possible.

Eddie

Dear Mr Izzard...

How do you feel about the ability of democratically elected MPs to provide redress of greivances being taken away on matters of EU competence?
One example was a man in Mr. Rees-Mogg's constituency. His cow died at Christmas and, due to the slow nature of the post office around Christmas, the paperwork didn't arrive at the EU in time. The farmer was then ordered by the EU to pay a fine. When he approached his MP to ask for the fine to be waived due to the perfectly reasonable circumstances (He can hardly be blamed for the inconsiderate cow dying when the post office was busy), the MP couldn't go to the government and have the fine waived. If the UK government waived the fine for the farmer, the UK themselves would be fined by the EU.

Why should young voters waste what is likely their first vote to vote for a system in which they are governed by those they did not elect?
It's a little ironic that their first vote in a democracy would be to remain in an undemocratic system. Whereas we can democratically elect and unelect our MPs, we cannot elect the European Commission or the European Court. We have but eight percent of the vote in the EU, are on the losing side twice as much as the next most-defeated state, and are not fairly represented in comparison to other EU nations (Malta, for example, has 15 times as many representatives in the council of ministers per capita than we do.)

Are EU bureaucrats and politcians paid fairly?
EU politicians and bureaucrats have been more than generous to themselves (One outstanding example is when the European Commission took the European Council to the European Court. The Council wanted to cut the wages of the Court and Commission as was to be done in sufficient economic crisis. The Court, not wanting to lose their wages, decided that the worst financial crisis in most of our lifetimes was not sufficient reason to cut their wages.) .Over ten thousand EU employees are paid more than our Prime Minister, David Cameron - that's 1 in 5 of everyone who works for the EU. Juncker himself earns more than Obama. On top of all that, they've decided to charge themselves special low rates (8-24%) of tax.

Why should we beleive that the EU is capable of reform?
When Mr. Cameron went to the EU earlier this year, he asked for a very reasonable set of rights for the UK to have within the EU such as the right to veto measures that would be bad for the UK. Nearly all of these were denied, even with the threat of Britain leaving the EU. If we vote in and confirm that we are indeed capable of being scared into submission and do not intend to leave, why would they ever reform to our advantage?

More questions to come later.

Yes but people are going all over the uk and it's so often anglocentric people interchange those terms...
Anyway that still leaves Malta with 4 times the density and the Netherlands are pretty much equal so your claim is still wrong.

The big question though - will Eddie be coming back?

Enjoyed reading your post and you make some valid points. But I would like to pick out one piece from your post that doesn't truly reflect this referendum (please don't take this to heart, I agree with everything else). The story about the farmer having to pay a fine for his dead cow because his paperwork didn't reach the EU in time. The content of this paragraph and its presence within your post almost implies that farmers are significant victims and are at a loss when it comes to the EU.

With most of the rural areas in England (aside from some places in the southwest) being strongholds of the Tory party, I find it likely they will benefit either way the vote lands. Back in 2013, proposals from the European Union to reduce the amount that farmers receive in subsidies were knocked back by the UK government, at the same time the chancellor was imposing benefit cuts on the working class. The proposals included limiting the amount of money a single farm owner could receive a year to £250,000 of taxpayer money as well as reducing the received rate per hectare. Government responded with 'we must help the farmers', even though they account for 0.1% of the UK population. These are people who own their land, many are from the highest of socio-economic backgrounds in the UK, they are exempt from capital gains tax, inheritance tax and receive £2.5 to £3 billion a year from the EU. To add to the absurdity, Ian Duncan Smith, who was on an annual salary of £134,565 in his previous ministerial role benefitted from 1.5 million euros in the space of 10 years at his estate via the same European Union subsidies. If you needed any more confirmation that these farming subsidies are just a transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich and a device for fueling social disparity.

To insinuate that farmers are some how the aggrieved party in the midst of this referendum is misleading and probably the work of BBC propaganda. Of course it's an issue but the ability of that farmer to pay the fine will no doubt surpass the ability of most working class or even middle class people to keep food on the table.

I think a got fixated again [face palm], interested to hear your opinion.

Wow... Eddie didn't even answer or argue a single point to leave. Is this how weak the remain side is? That they're trying to sway us with someone who has no political background, someone that avoids any sort of argument and just seeks to make a little echo chamber for the rest of the remainiacs?

Poor display.

Yeah because Vote Remain clearly orchestrated this...

Why are you deliberately misleading young voters by calling your campaign, "stand up for Europe". You are insulting our intelligence by suggesting this referendum is on whether we will leave a geographical continent.

has impoverished millions of African farmers through protectionist trade barriers so stop pretending the EU is some soppy liberal haven.

I've not found the quality of his arguments to be significantly different to other in voters

The EU encompasses 90% of European landmass- I think it's a fair point of address. And I credit young voters with being able to tell the difference between the continent and the political institution, or are you worried about those alleged colouring in books?...