The Referendum by Numbers: Law
More or Less
BBC
4.6 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 15 June 2016
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
If it seems the EU referendum debate just involves two politicians shouting contradictory statistics at each other - then we are here to help. In this series, we're giving you a break from the politicians and we're going to try to figure out the truth. Bracing concept, isn't it? We'll be looking at some of the big questions - the cost of being a member, immigration, regulations and trade. But today we're looking at lawmaking. Tim Harford asks how much UK law comes from the EU and are we always being outvoted on what to implement?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the third in our special series of more or less an umbrella against |
| 0:12.3 | the deluge of statistics raining down on us in the EU |
| 0:16.1 | referendum debate. One of the major issues in the campaign has been the loss of sovereignty. |
| 0:21.7 | That might seem a purely philosophical argument. |
| 0:25.0 | Some say the British Parliament shouldn't sign away powers to Brussels. |
| 0:29.0 | Others observe that, with the exception of North Korea, |
| 0:32.0 | all nations sign agreements with other |
| 0:34.4 | nations to limit their powers for mutual benefit. But as is the fashion these days, |
| 0:39.9 | an argument that seems to be about principles has instead been peppered with statistics. |
| 0:46.0 | Many people who wish to leave the EU claim that a large percentage of UK laws now emerge from the European Union, eroding the sovereignty of the Westminster |
| 0:55.6 | Parliament. |
| 0:56.9 | And their pro-remain opponents, unsurprisingly, dispute those claims. |
| 1:01.9 | For example, here's a debate between Nigel Farage of the UK Independence Party and the then |
| 1:07.1 | Deputy Prime Minister Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg before the European election in 2014. |
| 1:14.0 | You'll hear from Nigel Faro, |
| 1:15.0 | oh, 75% of our laws. |
| 1:16.3 | No, actually the House of Commons has shown that roughly 7%. |
| 1:19.8 | 7% of all new laws are related to the European Union. |
| 1:23.4 | Oh dear, oh dear. |
| 1:26.4 | You've used some seconds up, I'd hurry up. |
| 1:28.8 | 7%. |
| 1:30.0 | What are you on about? |
... |
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