Canonical Urges Remain Vote In Thursday’s Referendum

Ubuntu-creator Canonical has come out in support of the remain campaign ahead of Thursday’s EU referendum in Britain.

Canonical’s senior vice president Chris Kenyon argued that the UK will be better off both socially and economically inside of the European Union.

Special deal

“The UK has a special deal with Europe, a better deal than any other country will ever obtain, or that the UK could ever attain again,” he said.

“We are privileged to live in a world that is increasingly integrated. Successive generations have benefitted from ever greater access to opportunities that match their interests and their aspirations.”

The UK goes to the polls on Thursday, where voters will decide on Britain’s future relationship with the European Union.

Within the technology industry, there’s almost unanimous support for the remain campaign, citing economic, societal, and technological benefits of remaining in the UK.

It is likely any ‘Brexit’ voters within technology are keeping quiet about their choice, however, for fear of being ousted in what has become a particularly rabid and divisive campaign.

But Canonical, which this week announced updates to its open source Snap packaging system, has made no secret of its stance before this week’s vote.

“Canonical supports the Remain campaign,” said Kenyon.

“No successful country can control every aspect of its economy in this connected world. Isolation is not control. As much as we celebrate the feisty independence so central to the British character, we are sanguine about the fact that British interests are better served by retaining its unique status in Europe, and investing in its position of leadership inside the EU,” he added.

Read: TechWeekEurope’s full referendum coverage

In a poll conducted over the last few weeks, many TechWeekEurope readers came out in support of the remain campaign, believing that the British technology industry is better off staying in the European Union.

More than half (55.6 percent) agree that UK tech benefits from the EU, compared to a third (33.9 percent) who disagreed. A further 10.5 percent said they didn’t know.

The CEOs of BT and Virgin Media have also suggested broadband infrastructure investment could be at risk in the event of a Brexit and earlier this week, the UK heads of IBM, Microsoft and SAP were among 34 to have signed an open letter urging the UK to vote ‘remain’.

The results of the referendum are due to be announced on Friday.

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