UK withdrawal from EU

[pignutpilot]

With the growing anti-EU sentiment in the UK, how do you think it will affect us mariners if we were to withdraw from Europe?

I personally think it would be a great thing for us mariners, and would create many jobs for us working in the oil and gas fields around the UK.

Other countries such as Norway, Brazil, Australia and the USA and maybe more, seem to protect the jobs in their own oil and gas fields for labour from their own countries. But it seems to be that with current EU laws it restricts us from putting similar local job protection schemes in place.

[bobofinga]

Would much prefer Scotland to withdraw from the UK and protect our jobs in our oil and gas fields.

[gadget123]

Would much prefer Scotland to withdraw from the UK and protect our jobs in our oil and gas fields.

Only works if you leave the EU too.

[bobofinga]

Only works if you leave the EU too.

Would be very happy with that also.

[GuinnessMan]

Would be very happy with that also.

I'm sure things will be great if Scotland was to be like North Korea....

[bobofinga]

I'm sure things will be great if Scotland was to be like North Korea....

How would Scotland end up like North Korea?

[HolyNougat]

I think it would be a disaster if the UK left the Eurozone.
It also seems unlikely that we would be able to reclaim many jobs from the north sea and introducing protectionist measures like that that would result in many job losses for British Citizens elsewhere.
I love the idea of England stealing Scottish oil.... or that Scotland should pin its hopes on a volatile / decreasing reserve and stick two fingers up the UK and Europe. Perhaps we should have border control and visa's to keep out all the foreigners? (i.e English and Welsh etc.)

[SBunting]

Personally, I think the EU implement a lot of measures on the shipping industry that look good on their behalf, e.g. cutting emissions and what not. But for a lot of the smaller companies around, these harsh deadlines and costly adjustments to tonnage might just be their end. I don't know much about the whole EU thing, but when I hear about it it seems we would be better off without them.

I think Scotland's got the best system for itself of the whole UK and love the country! But that oil belongs to the whole UK, and I think if they get independence some of that Oil will go too :S

But it's a whole big political mess, let's just all go to sea and forget them all! lol :-)

[bobofinga]

I think you'll find if Scotland does become independent in Autumn 2014 , then that oil does NOT belong to the whole of the UK. 90% of the UKs remaining oil reserves are in Scottish waters. So yes 'some' will go to the rest of the UK , 10% in old fields in the CNS.

[Lewis]

Protectionism doesn't work. You have to look past short term gains and look at what's happens next. So say you make a law saying only Scottish people are allowed on ships that come in to Scottish ports. This might push up wages. It would also put up cost of shipping would go up so goods in shops would be more expensive. So as a whole we'd be worse off.

It's basically mercantilism which a great scot - Adam Smith - killed off a long time ago.

[Lewis]

I think you'll find if Scotland does become independent in Autumn 2014 , then that oil does NOT belong to the whole of the UK. 90% of the UKs remaining oil reserves are in Scottish waters. So yes 'some' will go to the rest of the UK , 10% in old fields in the CNS.

That's not guaranteed it would have to be negotiated after a yes vote.

[bobofinga]

I'm not saying ALL ships coming into Scotland have to have Scottish crew like it is in Australia. I'm just suggesting a more sensible approach to protecting jobs similar to the Irish set up where at least 1 crew member onboard working in Irish waters HAS to be Irish.

[Lewis]

That would still cause the same problem just to a smaller extent.

[bobofinga]

They have a similar policy in of a lot of other countries with Offshore Industries and they seem to cope fine.

[HolyNougat]

Look at the US, their merchant navy is tiny considering the size of their economy, as is the Aussie merchant fleet - the reason for all of this is that the costs of operating in a unionized, protectionist system as so high that it is easier just flag out and operate elsewhere. Sure, you create some jobs in the domestic area, just like the Americans and Australians do, but the overall effect is to dramatically reduce your appeal to ship-owners. So generally, closing your labour market does not work.
And as for this whole breaking up the UK thing - last time I checked the "U" stood for United - As a Welshman, I think that the whole devolution nonsense is just an excuse to create a whole layer of government that we neither need or can afford - if countries like the US or most of the European members can avoid breaking up, I don't see why we need to.