It’s Friday and there’s lots to talk about. There’s the fallout from David Cameron’s live TV appearance last night, and Nigel Farage has proclaimed that he’s going to lead a “flotilla of boats up the Thames” to call for Brexit on behalf of the fishing industry. Meanwhile the Dalai Lama has distanced himself from a pro-Brexit poster, and we imagine what a possible post-Brexit Boris Johnson cabinet might look like.
You can read about the conversations here and click on the links at the end of each point to get involved, or head over to our EU referendum live blog to follow the news and discussion as it happens.
1. EU referendum live: Cameron says Brexit would be ‘economic self-harm’
Earlier on Friday our Politics live blog focused on the fallout from Cameron’s appearance on Sky last night, described by one headline-stealing audience member and student, Soraya Bouazzaoui, as “waffling and scaremongering”.
It’s fair to say your views echoed Bouazzaoui’s sentiments. Although she didn’t appear to suggest her own voting intentions, she was concerned at how the current remain campaign message was being ignored by friends who want to leave the EU.
Can't wait until the 23rd when the chickens come home to roost! Thousands of hours worth of establishment spin will come to nothing. We won't be bought, bullied, manipulated or frightened into remaining. We're prepared for whatever the aftermath of Brexit look like. We won't cower like the indoctrinated, ignorant remainers scared of potential change. We are leaving, that's the zeitgeist and well you know it. Forget the polls, they're yo-how at present. Watch the exit poll and cry into your sherry if you're a remainer. Good riddance to the EU.
Some were more impressed with the prime minister, or at least thought his performance solidified the “status quo” vote.
I thought last night was good for remain. It clearly wasn't a rigged, friendly audience and, bearing that in mind, Cameron did OK. If I was undecided - and it is the undecideds that this kind of programme is crucial in targeting - I'd probably have been maybe not impressed but something closer to moderately reassured about the status quo.
I don't always agree with DC, but given that he was on pro-Brexit Sky news, grilled by pro-Brexit Faizul Islam and a pro-Brexit audience, you have to admit he kept his cool and held his ground pretty well. He came up with really good points and the case for Brexit came out lookin pretty week, especially on matters on economy. The best Faizul could do was keep bring up Dave's manifesto pledge on failing to keep immigration numbers low (which was a silly thing for DC to promise particularly when the economy has picked up).
The Cameron soundbite most picked up on was his describing a potential Brexit as “economic self harm”.
"Cameron thinks voting for Brexit would be an act of “economic self-harm"
And staying in the EU is self-flagellation - signing up to an attempt to create supranational government under the rule of a technocracy.
As usual Cameron gets the causality the wrong way around. Inside a currency area it is having jobs in every area, strong medical services, good education and decent public services that *causes* a strong economy. Because the people working in those areas are the ones with the money to buy things in their local area - and businesses pop up to service that.
The supranational idea, which is based upon export growth, and therefore stealing demand and skilled individuals from foreigners like some overgrown parasite, is dead. It died in 2008 and it is time to bury the stinking decaying corpse of the idea.
Not all of you agreed economy was what would persuade them to vote in the first place.
It might well be "economic self-harm" but it seems strange to me that politicians fail to realize that so many people will be voting in the referendum based on their cultural, identity or historical perspective - no matter how inaccurate that perspective may be - and NOT purely on issues of financial self-interest. In fact, if the only single thing that mattered to human beings was their short-term financial self-interest, it wouldn't say very much for human beings themselves.
Moving on now, and looking forward to Michael Gove’s turn on Sky on Friday night ...
So there's the fallout from Cameron's gilling yesterday. Brexit lot doinga victory lap already and yet Bremain is still ahead in the Sky poll of polls by 5 points. Anyway I've always said this but I think BEMAIN will have comfortable victory on June 24. Today is the chance of Gove, I really hope Faisal Islam tears Gove apart and this whole Brexit bollocks of "sovereignty" being the answer to everything.
Jobs? So what we'll be more sovereign.
Working directives that protect the working class? So what we'll be more sovereign.
Australia points based system accepts more migrants? So what we'll be more sovereign.
British Immigrants in other EU countries? We know Rajoy and Dutch PM have said they will reciprocate any sanctions on their citizens. So what we'll be more sovereign.
In fact the classic BS from Brexiters is that somehow Pensioners leeching off healthcare systems in other EU countries are NET countributors. Laughable.
Questions I’d like Gove to answer tonight
An exit vote will affect millions of people directly and could be life changing for many but it’s impossible to get definitive answers from the Brexit campaign
Expats could lose their Right to residency in the EU country where they are living, if they are allowed to stay they could lose their reciprocal health care rights, they probably will have their state pensions frozen, they will almost certainly be affected by a drop in the value of the pound, which many forecasts say could be as much as 20%.
What guarantees can the Brexit camp give these people and with what authority they can give these assurances? Or don’t they care, are these people just collateral damage, a price worth paying?
Farmers will lose EU subsidies without those farmers will either go out of business or their produce will have to rise dramatically in price.
What guarantees can the Brexit camp give the farmers and with what authority they can give these assurances?
Many firms are saying jobs will be lost on an exit vote Nissan, Ryan air, Lloyds bank, HSBC bank.
What guarantees can the Brexit camp give the people that are going to lose their jobs that leaving the EU is worth the stress on themselves and their family’s worth it?
Toyota and others have said production will be cut back, Pharmaceutical have said research will suffer
What guarantees can the Brexit camp give that this won’t happen and on what authority they can give these assurances
Many workers are concerned employment rights could be lost on exit from EU will the Brexit campaign guarantee that all these workers’ rights will be protected and with what authority they can give these assurances. Working Time directive, maternity rights, parental leave rights, equal pay rights, Anti-discrimination rights, Atypical rights, Rights to information and consultation, Health and safety rights will these be safe guarded, and on what authority could you guarantee this.
Will immigration be lower with an exit vote?
Last night Cameron was accused of waffling would you agree all poloticians suffer from the sme infliction?
Join the debate here – you can also read more of your comments on Thursday night’s live blog: David Cameron grilled on Sky News – as it happened.
2. Nigel Farage to lead pro-Brexit flotilla up Thames
Promising a “big, visual and dramatic” event organised by Scottish skippers, who set up the pro-Brexit Fishing for Leave Campaign several weeks ago, Nigel Farage spoke about the fishing industry on London radio station LBC on Friday morning.
The group argues that the fishing industry would be better off if the UK left the EU but had the same status as Iceland, Norway and the Faroe Islands during fisheries quota talks. It looks like in support, Farage will be up early to don his lifejacket at Southend-on-Sea in time to reach Westminster for the final PMQs before the referendum on 23 June.
As ever many of you were sceptical about Farage’s position, and keen to remind him of his responsibilities in the European parliament.
If Farage is such a strong supporter of the UK fishing industry then why did he only turn up for one meeting of 42 during the period that he was a member of the European Parliament Fisheries Committee and in a position to actually do something positive to promote the industry rather than useless grandstanding?
Oh the irony.
You couldn't make it up.
Let's just take Ukip's propaganda on UK fishing:
The EU didn't help act on all the Uks expert advice to prevent overfishing and extinction of our fish stocks?
'UKIP’s new election poster unveiled in Grimsby today highlights the plight of fishing businesses that have been ‘gutted due to the EU’. Greenpeace has responded that UKIP’s voting record in the European Parliament and Nigel Farage’s appalling attendance on the Fisheries Committee makes a mockery of UKIP’s claim to be standing up for fishermen.
Over the three years that Nigel Farage was a member of the European Parliament Fisheries Committee, he attended one out of 42 meetings. Greenpeace research released today shows that during the three major votes to fix the flaws of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), Nigel Farage was in the building but failed to vote in favour of improving the legislation.
In 2013, Nigel Farage was again present but chose not to vote on the part of the reform of the CFP that introduces an obligation on governments to give more fishing quota to sustainable fishermen who contribute the most to the local, coastal economies. This would see the government giving more fishing quota to local, low impact fishing fleets, such as the fishermen featured in UKIP’s poster.'
Of course there was some support for the campaign – even if not the man himself, who was accused of a cynical exploitation of his status in the media.
And yet the fisherman, the ones who actually matter here, are fully supportive and behind Mr Farage.
They know the game Mr Farage has to play and they accept it.
Right now our Nigel is the only person looking out for hard working decent everyday Joes.
For Nigel Farage this referendum is about getting as much media attention as possible. That of course was always the case.
Farage has enough wit to know that he presence damages Leave's cause. However Farage's self promotion is more important to him than the referendum. That has always been the case.
3. Boris Johnson’s post-Brexit cabinet: the possible lineup
So while Michael Gove gets ready to face the cameras, he might happen upon some futurology he quite likes when browsing his Guardian app ...
Political correspondent Rowena Mason has imagined a future where Boris Johnson leads the UK with Michael Gove as his deputy and suggests some of the other options for top jobs if, as predicted, Cameron was forced out in the result of a Leave vote.
Some of you were worried.
So, Vote Brexit, get the most right-wing government in living memory. And if Scotland leaves the UK after Brexit we can look forward to Tory governments stretching into the distant future.
And still people haven't woken up to the fact that the most enthusiastic Brexiteers are the far right elites.
The prospect of Gove in charges of the negotiations is especially terrifying. When even the Telegraph starts publishing articles attacking his approach to an exit (i.e. by refusing to have anything to do with the single market) alarm bells should really be ringing.
There was also a harking back to the days after Tony Blair left office and Gordon Brown took his place in Number 10, as you looked at the realities of our democracy.
Boris wouldn't become Prime Minister immediately; he'd need to win a leadership contest first. You can bet that Osborne and May won't go down without a fight. Putting Owen Paterson back at Defra would be an unmitigated disaster; we cannot, in the 21st Century have another Environment Secretary who doesn't believe in god-damn global warming.
Basically this fantasy cabinet is one that makes hardline right-wingers salivate in delight and should leave everyone else quaking in absolute horror.
Boris oversaw London as it was turned into a holiday town for corrupt foreign billionaires. And now this Latin speaking wazzock thinks he's somehow entitled to be Prime Minister? The last unelected PM we had didn't exactly end well, did it?
Assuming a Brexit - as this piece does, they should dissolve Parliament and call an election.
Tory divisions are unprecedented at the moment, but if a snap GE is called post-referendum the Conservatives will undoubtedly win as Labour are a complete shambles. This will give them the mandate they need to continue unchecked, hence could actually benefit them. Of course it's a gamble, but the payoff could be huge.
Back to the present-day PM. Did you agree with John Harris that we’re now witnessing the tragic decline of David Cameron?
How is Cameron's decline tragic? What is tragic is what Cameron and co have done to the poorest and most vulnerable in this country!
It's not tragic. He's done it to himself repeatedly. Scottish Referendum. EU Referendum. Every time he decides to risk what little legacy, and the country as a whole on cheap political stunts.
The scariest thing is, he's the most moderate front facing Tory grandee. There will be hell if Osborne, May or BoJo get the PM role. Riots, marches the works.
Finally, our feature showcasing Europeans living in the UK garnered possibly the most poignant comment of the day:
The article with the interviews of EU nationals gave me a lump in my throat. I am one of them too, and regardless of the outcome of the referendum, the whole campaign has definitely made me feel a lot less welcome here in the UK. I don't know if I want to live in a country that doesn't want me, and I have lived here for over 15 years. It is a really sad situation.
We’ll be back on Monday with another roundup of what you’re talking about in the comment sections on the EU referendum.
Many of you have asked to see more EU referendum facts, so it’s worth taking a look at this piece on what happens next and why the same statistics can be used to suit both sides of the debate. You can help inform what we report on by filling in the form below.
Remain needs to address that no one trusts Cameron and Osborne any more. Perhaps a press conference in which they admit that people are reluctant to listen to politicians and so today we're giving the platform to X, Y and Z beyond reproach luminaries.
Of course this only works if said luminaries are less stuck up their own arses than Corbyn and can thus see that in the grand scheme of things it's more important to the country to make the case for EU membership than to avoid sullying oneself for five minutes by standing next to a Tory.