We can't predict the future so vote with your heart in the EU referendum

NOW THAT the race to remain or leave the EU has begun, many are asking for facts so that they can decide which way to jump. Truth be known it's all about the heart not the head, there are no facts on either side because the future as ever cannot be predicted.

For example, which politician or economist predicted the banking crash? Which politician predicted that the open borders policy on the continent would become a disastrous nightmare because of wars and the so called Arab Spring? No-one. Because unpredictability is the norm not the exception.

For all their computers and graphs telling which way the stock market indices will move on a daily basis, it is fraught with danger on a single day so what chance a week or a year?

So telling us that it would be right to stay or leave because of certain facts is nonsense; facts by their vary nature are historical. “Facts” change as new ideas emerge. The flat earth became round, the sun went round the heavens, the universe would expand then contract.

So with me being a leaver (it’s my heart you see...who says we can’t do it on our own?) and when told that it’s better to be in the club where we can influence the rules, I ask: precisely what rule over the last 40 years has the UK sponsored in the EU to the betterment of its citizens? Not the fisheries, not sovereignty over our laws, not agriculture, not control over our borders. Being in the club simply means supporting more and more politicians, more and more bureaucrats, more and more regulations to thwart control over our own lives.

So fat chance of any influence to the betterment of the folk here over the next forty.

Stan Hogarth

Palmerston Place, Edinburgh

It is good to hear Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn being so positive about the EU and, unlike the Conservatives who are just interested in the financial aspects, is emphasising environmental issues and climate change.

Like crime, pollution crosses boundaries and the sea is shared by all coastal nations. It isn’t possible to tackle climate change at national level alone. The EU has been involved in environmental work almost from the outset, not least because of the economic benefits of environmental 
improvement.

Georgina Harris

Warrender Park Terrace, Edinburgh