Before the county head to their polling stations, Norfolk Chamber tackled the question on everyone’s minds – whether to stay in the EU or to leave? Europe: The Business Debate saw over 70 delegates attend an interactive panel debate at the Norwich City Football Club on June 10.
Norfolk Chamber’s President Jonathan Cage, Create Engineering, welcomed guests and explained the Chamber’s neutral position on the referendum. The event was hosted by BBC Radio Norfolk’s Nick Conrad who conducted a smooth flowing debate and also brought an element of wit to an otherwise heavy subject.
The event kicked off with a live poll in order to gauge the audience’s initial voting preferences. In contrast to other regional polls, the event poll showed a clear preference with 65% of the audience voting for remaining in the EU. Attendees were then able to hear from both sides of the EU debate with each of the guest speakers providing an opening speech, sharing their views on the vote and how it could affect business.
The expert panel consisted of Stephen Booth co-director of Open Europe, Hussein Kassim Professor in Politics UEA, Chloe Smith Norwich North MP, Stuart Agnew MEP, Derek Wood former Lord Mayor of Norwich and Luke Morris deputy chair for Business for Britain East of England. With so much knowledge and insight present on one panel it enabled the audience to directly get valid opinions on the referendum.
Before the panel Q+A began, delegates were given a short break to allow discussion in order to ready them to face the panel with their all important questions. Panellists then tackled the topics which arose, these include; priorities for change and reform, business regulations, political instability, housing crisis, immigration, TTIP, the economy and the long term implications of the vote.
Numerous key messages came from the panel, Luke Morris campaigning for Britain to leave the EU advised that ‘voters are stepping into uncertainty in whichever box they cross, but unfortunately uncertainty is a fact of life’ whilst stressing the importance of Britain’s ability to make trade deals with countries outside of the EU, advising ‘Getting out of the EU is not going to be the silver bullet to all of our problems but I think it will be a big improvement to where we are.’
The remain panel highlighted the importance of access to a free market, and reminded delegates that the EU supports tackling climate change and provides common security intelligence. Chloe Smith advised ‘To leave the EU would make Britain poorer in GDP terms and poorer in terms of the jobs that are available and to the next generation’, ‘we face a sever shock if we leave which is not worth taking’.
Neutral experts were on hand to either support or deny any allegations made by either side of the debate, Hussein Kassim summarised that ultimately the vote is all about trade-offs, whilst Stephen Booth advised ‘there are challenges on both sides’ noting that the EU still needs reform if we vote to remain in.
After the fast paced Q+A with the panel, the event finished off with another live audience poll. The results showed a 7% increase in votes to the leave campaign, totalling at 42%, however the majority of the audience still voted to remain in the EU.
