There is great confusion on the cost of the EU. Cost is measured not just in cash, but in regulation and also the additional cost of importing through the non-tariff barriers imposed by the EU .

This latter cost is immense and arises from the non-tariff regulatory “discouragement” put in the way of say, importers of electrical products or clothes from the Far East into the EU, who are told to raise their prices to the same level as EU manufacturers, or be excluded from the market altogether through regulation.

The cost of this to Britain in terms of having to pay higher prices than necessary for these imports has been calculated by leading economist Professor Patrick Minford at £30 billion per annum) In a recent interview with the Financial Times, EU Commissioner Gunther Verheugen (who, incidentally was photographed on a naturist beach with his mistress last summer) admitted that EU legislation costs European business £405 billion a year. This represents 5.5% of the total EU GDP and is equivalent to losing the total output of a country the size of Holland every year.

The benefits of the Single Market were being outweighed by the cost of extra regulation involved in its creating. 5.5% of the UK’s GDP is approx. £55 billion : this reinforces an estimated total figure of around £100 billion p.a., which has been calculated by the US Federal Reserve Bank. In summary this is made up as follows UnnecessaryRegulation £ 55 billion Additionalcost of imports £ 30 billion Cashcontributions £ 15 billion TOTAL £100 billion What this means is that, should the UK leave the EU, every UK citizen would enjoy a permanent and effort-free 10% increase in his/her living standards as an “independence dividend”

Peter Lindsay (UKIP Surrey News)