EU referendum; eroding trust is like playing with fire (TL:DR at the bottom)

The scaremongering has worked; I think we might be better out. 

Listening to David Cameron talk about our hopeless potential without Europe reminds me of the 1990’s when car manufacturing decimated my amazing city of Birmingham.
I grew up experiencing my father lose his job countless times, manufacturing was dying in my city.
When Rover finally fell in 2005, Birmingham’s unemployment levels were at breaking point and reinvigorating manufacturing was deemed impossible. (unsurprisingly the supply chain did come back, but now it's foreign owned).
Watching the car industry fall in Birmingham was painful. I understood why it was happening but I've always struggled with why it needed to happen as it did, especially when tax breaks are given to large players in other West Midlands cities.

I wondered why the Government couldn't bail them out? Perhaps structuring finance to involve the regions internationally recognised engineering Universities. Now renewable-energy specialists.
I didn't feel it was too ideological, though I definitely saw the effort as something that benefited the public purse and Birmingham.

At the time I wrote to my MP and asked the question, I didn't receive a response. But over the years I've spoken to many politicians who have all given similar answers.
That protectionism is a dirty word, and more crucially it would be very difficult under EU regulation.

The answer was clearly a lack of vision. Difficult is not always impossible as is proved in Italy.
Even Thatcher bailed British Leyland out in the 1980’s and vicariously sustained the International brands now owned by our European neighbours. Any fair criticism levied at Thatcher's handling of the companies final demise could be defended using Leyland's many decades of mismanagement.

Fast forward to 2016 and our steel industry is crippled once more. As with the 1990’s, Europe is not there to save us.
And this time Cameron doesn't have an economic plan, or the honesty to help the British people understand why we can't compete. What was he renegotiating again?

For a Government who ‘are the builders’ they don’t place much faith in the British people, or British business. For a nation with world leading high tech RnD and Universities we barely consider how emerging talent can pair with industrial strategies.  Yet big business does very well from our contracts and subsidies.

From world leaders in wind turbines we now only have one manufacturer, a small business in St. Ives.
Yet Laing O’Rouke has been granted £22m over four years to develop advanced manufacturing of housing. The supply chain is cited as benefiting but no small and medium employer (SME) strategy has been released. SMEs are our local and regional employers/trainers. They employ over 50% of the British workforce.
The companies who will directly benefit from this £22m are big business, the majority non-UK based.

Something is rotten.

As someone with Polish heritage my family came before the single market, when Britain was seen as the bastion of morality. Britain got most of the way there in the end, but I don’t think it was because of the EU. I believe the EU simply held us to account.
And it’s that ‘held us to account’ that worries me. Unlike Spain, Greece and Ireland, Poland said a firm ‘no’ the euro. They saw the damage it does to the local economy. But the EU will eventually ‘hold them to account’, and the Polish Zloty will be no more.
By that time, as with Spain, Greece and Ireland, ‘help me up’ funding will be slashed.

As an established economic power we’re not eligible for the favourable EU funding given to nations such as Poland. And we shouldn't be. But where we give Poland help to become sustainable we shouldn't take away from prosperous nations. Nations like Britain and before the euro, Ireland.

Policies such as the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) have damaged our farming industry as well as provided it sustenance. New farmers, mostly young farmers, need already subsidised land to truly benefit.  How can a system work to lock out the next generation? Farming is already tough enough. Milk producing SMEs in europe have halved in a decade, the price of milk is down 45%.
The fishing and discard policy is also ludicrously wasteful.

When so much is weighted against proportionate policy, how can a prosperous nation with dwindling resources survive? Germany has established protective practices ingrained in their economy, as does Denmark and France. We do not.
I feel as though Cameron’s scaremongering has made me realise we need control, control of our destiny.

Not over immigration, as the Brexit brigade would have us believe, but over the economy that matters to us. The local economy.
From farmers who might better compete in their own market, to British businesses who struggle under prohibitive EU frameworks.

Democratically I think we’re a strong nation. We’re able to separate right from wrong and adapt accordingly. I feel that has moved a lot of the positive EU accountability away from the argument, and I recognise there’s a lot.
We’re part of an established system of regulations and few small businesses would be impacted. Small business is used to regulation change, frustratingly the EU imposes a lot.
Those that are impacted would find more support in the British marketplace. But the question remains, would it be enough to keep them afloat?
Foreign nations such as Germany would still crave our 65 million population. We are their third best import partner.  If we did leave surely they’d be very ready to make agreements? It's a chance I would take.
Perhaps in the meantime a proper industrial strategy could develop and products could go the other way?

The scaremongering has reaffirmed to me that our economy may be vital but we must understand what economy we’re affecting.

I feel torn because I feel we've wasted so many opportunities and resources without thinking of the consequences, and I know the well meaning EU has contributed to that.

I believe in Britain but it seems our Government do not, they see Europe saving us but they won't tell us how for either point of view.

I'm genuinely still not sure what I'm voting and know I’ll be pausing before I mark my ballot paper, 

The big question is do I believe in a fixed term parliament and eternal fixed first past the post Conservative government, especially one so firm in politicising their position?
It will be a long pause at the booth.

TL:DR - I don't know which way to vote but this Government only sees a prosperous Britain in the EU. We've made massive mistakes, for example in car manufacturing, but Cameron, the man with an economic plan, has none if we leave. 
He's a scaremonger not a leader, and it's made me realise that perhaps taking control of our potential is actually a very strong argument. But who sets out the vision?