With the EU referendum taking place on June 23, we asked two young people to outline opposing views on UK's relationship with the EU. Here, Joe Hamilton puts forward the case for voting to leave the EU.

One of the main issues with the EU is of course its currency, the Euro. But, you may cry, 'we don't use the euro in the UK' and you would of course be right – we chose not to use the euro unlike the majority of the EU.

However, we still find ourselves spending copious amounts of money bailing out countries that have gone into recession as a result of a currency we chose not to use. It just seems ridiculous to me that we are paying for the mistakes of other countries when they are mistakes we deliberately did not make. This money could be spent elsewhere in the UK, helping to make lives better, if we were not part of the EU.

The EU is undemocratic. Laws are made in Brussels that then come into effect across the EU and these laws override those already in place in these countries. If a law was decided on by the EU in Brussels then we would almost definitely see it controlling us in the UK.

I find it ridiculous how we have these politicians in Brussels making decisions that change day to day life in the UK. Laws that effect Britain should be made in Britain.

Having seen the huge injustices of the European Union I expect that you will be asking yourselves, 'why on earth did we even join the EU in the first place?' and the answer is simple, the ideals of the EU are (in hindsight) perhaps overly ambitious and the EU is not what it once was.

The fact is that the trade block we joined in the early 1970s which then accounted for 36 percent of world GDP, will account for less than 15 percent in 2020. What this means is that the EU's influence around the world is decreasing and we're losing major trade because of it.

Britain would be far better if we opened up trade with other countries who are growing and stronger than the EU.

When we joined in the 1970s China was barely an emerging economy. Now we have these enormous growing economies like China and India who will soon dominate the world stage. We should leave the EU and trade with countries such as the US and China because it would elevate our position in world trade.

That's right folks; the EU is a sinking ship. It's holding us back and if we don't jump ship soon it'll be too late to save ourselves from the impending seas of recession and oppression.

Joe Hamilton, 17, Wolterton