Whichever way you are voting in the EU referendum, you may find the BBCs reality checker worth a read. Both sides in this debate are pushing the boundaries of reality and this page gives as close to an honest answer to the questions claims and counter claims as I have seen so far:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-eu-referendum-35603388

This page has a guide to the issues:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36027205

and this one has details of how the EU works:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zgjwtyc

If you look at the debate perhaps slightly selfishly and only think about the North East, I would suggest that there is a huge reason for voting to remain in the EU. No UK government of any persuasion can be guaranteed to provide the investment into the North East which comes from the EU. County Durham alone is getting over £120m of EU investment over the six years to 2020. A big chunk of this is investment in job creation, and I remain unconvinced that any money saved – if money was saved – from leaving the EU would ever find its way to the North East, and as a result we would end up in a far worse situation. The Tories don’t care about the North East and Labour take us for granted. I predict that is set to continue as it has done for decades. Being in the EU helps to counteract this and it would be dangerous to lose such huge investment in our County and our region. Just one small consideration out of many.