As the last full week of campaigning began on Monday we saw senior figures in the government give way to Labour’s campaign heavyweights to make the case for remain. Here we look at your reaction to speeches by Gordon Brown and shadow foreign secretary, Hilary Benn. We also follow your discussion as reporters head to regions the media is often accused of ignoring, and we hear a warning from the president of the European council, Donald Tusk.
Click on the links at the end of each section to get involved, or head over to our EU referendum live blog to follow the news and discussion as it happens.
1. Lead the EU, don’t leave: Gordon Brown heads Labour’s push to remain
Our morning briefing described this as “Labour day”, with David Cameron stepping back to allow Jeremy Corbyn’s party to say its piece for the remain campaign. Political editor Heather Stewart calls it a push “carefully choreographed with No 10” to win over voters, describing a “lead, not leave” strategy, and who we expect to deliver it.
Brown’s speech in Leicester forms the centrepiece on Monday, with much of what he said trailed in advance, including some of the reforms he believes Britain could achieve from within the EU. Hilary Benn, the shadow foreign secretary, also delivered a wide-ranging speech aiming to persuade voters to remain. Your discussions struck a cynical tone.
Many of you thought that Brown’s Gillian Duffy moment symbolised the disconnect between the public and politicians and that this harms his ability to persuade.
Gordon Brown is literally the worst person to make the immigration argument that Remain could have come up with.
THAT moment when he was caught saying what he really thinks has come to symbolise the disconnect between the people and the politicians on this issue.
He is supposed to be of the party of the working class, but has nothing but sneering contempt for the views of working class people.
Brown's intervention is more likely to win votes for Leave than Remain.
I don't think labour voters will easily forget the "bigot" incident.
But there was some discussion that stemmed from support for Labour’s voices.
Good move from Remain to give Labour this week for the positive EU case. Leave are running a negative campaign on immigration. All the more foolhardy as the EU workers' countries they are targeting negatively now would have to approve any future EU trade deal through their democratic institutions.
David Cameron needs the support of the Labour party and its members to win the Remain Campaign. However that is a big ask as most Labour supporters are already questioning their support of Labour, and with Labour crossing the floor to support the Tories, its not looking good for Labour at future general elections.
The former prime minister also said “illegal immigration is a more serious problem than EU immigration”, and this reader pre-empted the headline we used to sum up Hilary Benn’s speech with a similar focus:
The ridiculous thing about all this is that Brexit will only leave to marginally less immigration anyway. The government's economic plans are entirely reliant on continued immigration so there's no chance of them cutting it significantly. You only have to look at their record on non-EU immigration to know it won't happen. If you want less immigration the only option is to elect a UKIP government (god help us).
But almost overwhelmingly, people weren’t convinced.
"Brown says illegal immigration a more serious problem than EU immigration"
So this is Labour's comprehensive strategy for convincing the UK to stay by blaming the "wrong" type of immigrant.
All the ills of the U.K. populace can now be identified as being caused by another group of people. In other words "Don't hate the EU migrant, but hate all those from other places of the world."
Still, you can understand why I'm not convinced, worse still, my ancestry is from the Commonwealth, so if this is the bremain campaign strategy, then I feel vindicated in voting leave.
Thanks Gordon for helping me to make up my mind.
2. EU cash flows to Cornwall, but many want to leave
The charge that the media – the Guardian included – and campaigning politicians ignore the somewhat patronisingly referred to “regions” (ie anywhere but London) is a common one in below-the-line debates. John Harris’s Anywhere but Westminster series aims to address this feeling, but other reporters have also been around the country speaking to people before the referendum.
Stephen Morris went to Cornwall, a region his piece says has ostensibly benefited from the EU. According to the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly local enterprise partnership, by 2020, if the status quo remains, Cornwall will have made £2.5bn from EU money being matched with public and private funding. So why, he asks, does Euroscepticism run so deep?
Posting from Camborne. Breaking news, I don't know one single person voting remain, and a large number passionately voting Brexit who will be at the polling stations come hell or high water will probably guarantee a massive leave vote locally.
Camborne of course is a post-industrial disaster zone with massive social deprivation, a benefits culture, homelessness and high early mortality rates, in fairness all acknowledged by the EU. Falmouth, in contrast, is relatively very posh and now a university town, but even there the article suggests lots of outers.
Bizzarely, the Camborne and Falmouth constituency (or it may be the other way round) has Farming Minister George Eustace as it's MP - one of the most prominent outers, and a local employer of Eastern European Labour. Think his workforce will benefit if we Brexit? Think the inflow of EU immigrants will cease? Hmmm...???
Anyway, I know Cornish people have a proud heritage of resisting external control, whatever the origin of the perceived oppression.
Lastly, most commonly spoken languages in Trelowarren Street now? (That's our High Street to you English!) Polish, Albanian and Rumanian. There may be a hint here.
Jackson, meet marty239.
I’m for Remain and a Cornish resident. The funding has seen some excellent facilities come to Cornwall, but the truth is this investment simply doesn’t touch the lives of those most likely to lean towards Leave: the lower income/less educated/elderly – and these groups comprise a significant proportion of the population. The investment *sounds* good and it is, but in practical terms an innovation centre in Falmouth offers little to a low income family struggling in Camborne. The EU is not their real enemy, but they believe the narrative – and quite how an area as deprived as Camborne can elect a Tory MP in George Eustice is a mystery my head can’t cope with.
The Cornish people who are going towards Brexit are insular and ignorant of the facts....they seem totally unaware of how much funding is coming into the county from the EU - considerably more than has ever come from the hollow promises of the British government. They appear to have got caught up in rhetoric and meaningless rants with no basis in reality. Like many others in Britain they want to kick out against the politicians & this anger has got tangled up in a misunderstanding of what the EU is actually about. Maybe behind it all is fear of the Unknown - some form of xenophobia. Once again, perfect fodder for the likes of UKIP & Boris J, who are taking advantage of voter's ignorance and gullibility in the same way that Trump is conning the underclasses of America....feeding them with lies and fuelling their fears. Just remember voters those people will not be there for you if they actually get into positions of power & you will put them in power if you vote to leave the EU.
You can click the links on any of these comments to get involved in the conversation.
Its telling that the first gentleman interviewed gave as his reason for leaving that he didnt want to be ruled by unelected Bureaucrats. Although he is buying into a lie, it is a widespread ooinion. That is Leave in a nutshell. Ordinary people buy into the right wing tabloid rhetoric spouted daily by our press. The fact that just about all independent opinion from the IFS through to the Chinese Premier state that it is likely Brexit would be a disaster for the country, is filtered out. This will be a single issue referendum for voters and it is really worrying. The EU is a massively complex organisations that has brought us, wealth, peace and prosperity. To make your mind up by not balancing pros and cons is irrational. But millions of people buy into the deliberate single issues the right wing press parrot: immigration and losing our democracy. The fact immigration massively helped our recovery and we have not lost any democracy whatsoever misses the point. The right wing press know that people will believe any rhetoric if it is repeated often enough. This country is sleepwalking into the disaster that will be Brexit
Join the debate here. Also worth a look is Ben Quinn’s piece on divisions in East Kent.
3. EU referendum live: Brexit could eventually lead to downfall of western civilisation, says EU chief
Donald Tusk, president of the European council, has given an interview to German newspaper Bild in which he warned of the ultimate downfall if the UK left the EU. These comments dominated our fast-moving live blog for a time, with your conversations reflecting this.
Tusk said: “As a historian I fear that Brexit could be the beginning of the destruction of not only the EU but also of western political civilisation in its entirety.”
Don't discount what Tusk says.
The organisations that evolved into the EU were founded precisely because people saw a need for the European countries, and France and Germany in particular, to become economically dependent on each other so that there would be no more wars.
Two world wars were fought that arose largely out of French and German animosity.
The more recent history of the EU has been one of getting countries to democracy, whether it's Spain or Greece, and out from under the former Iron Curtain.
Europe, as a collection of nations, has always had the potential to be highly unstable. That it isn't is largely because currently those nations all sit at the same table making decisions together and sharing trade. They have deliberately created a situation where they need one another.
Right now, the EU is facing very serious problems and is in the middle of a refugee crisis and implementing reforms to the eurozone.
The member states are very vulnerable to populist far right politicians - Marine Le Pen being the best known example - falsely promising people a strong motherland if only we go it alone and kick out the immigrants.
If Britain leaves, and especially if Britain gets a good deal, European voters will ask why, if Britain can leave and take all the benefits without shouldering the burdens, they shouldn't to.
That could well trigger a shift in European domestic politics to the right and a rush for the door at precisely the time when doing so would cause the collapse of a number of the member states' economies (Greece, Spain, Italy).
You then get civil disorder and fascism (remember, Greece was well on its way to electing a fascist government).
And you then have a ticking bomb sitting right on our doorstep.
Meanwhile, Russia is building up its military at its western edge so much that NATO is panicking about how to defend eastern Europe and talking about installing a missile shield.
Please don't think that because we've had peace for 70 years the same underlying issues that have plagued the European continent for centuries couldn't resurface.
Many of you were worried.
Whilst Tusk's comments may seem at first glance a little shall we say alarming - what he might be driving at is the inexorable rise of the right both here and in the USA.
One aspect of this EU debate that is seldom discussed is why the Treaty of Rome was signed in the first place. The answer to that is PEACE.
Since the Roman Empire Europe has been at war almost continually. In the 200 or so years before the Treaty of Rome was signed in 1958 European nations had been at each others throats almost continually. NATO kept Russia at bay but just as big a threat was war between Germany and France. Something that had broken out in 1792, 1806, 1870, 1914 and 1939.
The fact that we consider war between Western European states unthinkable in 2016 is because of the success of the EU. If we leave and the EU unravels we will be in a very dangerous place. Brexiters dismiss this as hysteria but I for one would rather not find out whether they are right.
This is getting more and more depressing every day.
Perhaps Brexit is what this country needs - shoot itself into the foot - the subsequent rise of English nationalism, economic recession, unemployment and chaos. Perhaps people will realise then, that the empire and the victorious wars have gone long time ago, and that England is indeed little and Britain not great anymore.
Finally, a call to change the focus provoked much reaction.
The downfall of Western Civilisation started some time ago when we "decided" that everything should be translated into Money knowing full well that we are ruining ourselves and our future. Staying in or Leaving the EU will not change the attitude. Both camps are getting pathetic.
Where are the guarantees that Stay/Leave will emphasize a return to conscience, respect, loyalty, real democracy and a caring society?
We’ll be back tomorrow with another roundup of what you’re talking about in the comment sections on the EU referendum. You can help inform what we report on by filling in the form below.
So labour (a party I'm a member of) have brought out the big guns....? Gordon, who dismisses immigration concerns as bigotry, and Hilary Benn, who showed absolutely no grasp of the EU in his interview the other day, claiming that Corbyn, if PM could nationalise the railways if we stay in the EU, despite the law preventing this being read to him. Just keep pissing any chance of Labour gaining back working class votes by backing remain and telling us not to worry about immigration.
Labour should smell the paintwork and back leave instead of pandering to the bankers etc. It might well get one hell of a shock when this back fires and its vote falls a part at the next election.
But Tony Benn must be in his grave, wondering how on earth he produced a warmongering, EU loving tosser of a son. Socialist values and concern for the working class clearly aren't genetic.