That's a 'No' then, I take it?

This has just popped up in email inboxes around the country:

This Government strongly believes that the benefits of EU Membership clearly outweigh the costs. UK membership of the EU is central to the pursuit of stability, growth and employment, and firmly in our national interest, both economically and in a wider political and strategic context. Our membership of the EU has brought real benefits in jobs, peace and security. Through it, we belong to the world’s biggest trading bloc with a Single Market of over 490 million people. Half the UK’s trade is now within the EU, with an estimated 3.5 million British jobs linked to it, directly and indirectly. 57% of total British trade in goods is with the EU. 62% of our total exports go to the EU. In 2005, British investments in the EU totalled over £17bn.

The benefits are not limited to the rights of British companies to buy and sell across the Single Market. Our EU membership also allows our citizens to live, work, study and travel across Europe and to receive free medical care if we fall sick on holiday*. Improved maternity pay, the right to paid holidays and now the reduction in the cost of mobile phone calls when abroad, are just some of the practical benefits the EU has helped deliver.

A number of studies related to the costs and benefits of various aspects of the EU are available in the UK**. The Government takes account of such studies as part of its ongoing approach to EU policy issues. The Government does not therefore see the need to commission an independent cost-benefit analysis of membership of the EU.

* That last sentence reproduced more-or -less verbatim from their spin on "Why we don't need a Referendum either" ... 'Our membership allows us to live, work and travel across Europe and to receive free medical care if we fall sick on holiday'.

** Try Gerard Batten's Bruges Group pamphlet, which, IMHO, understated the net cost by half.