Referendum Mark 3

We are in a quandary. 

Who do we believe when the main players who are out and about quoting statistics and dire warnings are those same people known for their deceit. 

The BREXIT referendum is drawing ever closer and as claim and counter claim assail our ears we plunge deeper into a trough of despondency, who is right and what will it really mean.

The vote is not for a day or a year not even a decade but virtually for ever. The implications of getting it wrong can be catastrophic and yet for most of us we are lambs to the slaughter not really knowing and for many, not really caring. To wake up tomorrow sharing the bed with a stranger is no big deal say some. To others its a crime against their sense of empowerment to control their destiny.

Like a tennis match the proverbial ball is played from one side of the net to the other but unlike tennis there are no rules, no umpire, no recall to Hawk Eye. It's as if one side is using a cricket ball whilst the other fields three players.

I suppose it can be divided into three questions :-

1. Do we reject our Parliamentary process for a Bureaucratic Federalist  decision making body which has at heart it's own agenda.

A1. Given that our own Parliament is far from perfect, with a voting system which is profoundly undemocratic and inherently, an extension of the elitist Public (Private) School system which discounts so many of the countries citizens, Would an unelected elitist system, garnered from a wider, possibly more enlightened stock of people be better at administering our laws and conditions. 

The killer is that they are unelected and therefore we the people are impotent to their will. At least currently we are under the impression that we can rid ourselves of our government if we wish.

2. The economic advantage of trading into a large more or less equal in standards market place with rules of engagement which are common to all.

A2. Our trade with Europe is fundamental to our financial existence, not with standing the argument that we are inhibited in trading outside the EU. As far as I know there are more Mercedes sold in China than anywhere else so if the Germans can do it why can't we. Do we have to seek EU approval ? If others have done so why not us.? 

Reciprocal trade has the barrier that trade tariffs might apply to goods coming into the EU but again the Chinese are currently swamping the EU market with cut price steel.

Have we the industrial base to manufacture to the world at large. Not any longer. 

Our Empire is gone and with it the trade preferences we were happy to negotiate away by Edward Heath in his obsession to join the EU.

Are we in fact a second rate nation when it comes to large scale manufacturing. Yes. 

We are leaders in niche products, mostly expensive goods for a specialised market, pharmaceuticals and of course the Services Industry, particularly financial products.

Could we survive on these low volume high labour cost products feeding into a world of chameleon like proportions where insecurity and market made billionaires come and go with a percentage point change here and there.

3. Immigration and the changing face of our society is an emotional subject. Does it matter if we lose our identity. 

A3. Of course it does. People have given their lives for a concept of who we thought we were. But have we already passed the Rubicon with a nation of so many different backgrounds and so many different callings. The horse has bolted. Would it not be better if we became accustomed to the new surrounding and drew succour from an infusion of new ideas and tastes. I'm not sure.

What I am sure of, there is a cost to immigration that this government is not willing to accept. The cost to the services provided by any modern society has to be in line with the number of people calling on those services and other than tweaking around the edges little has been done in housing, schooling, health, and welfare to acknowledge that in a fairly short period our population has grown by 10 million and exponentially will accelerate as the higher birth rate amongst the new arrivals fuels the shortages. 

Can we afford it is the million dollar question or will standards have to decline in line with other poor countries. Will the distinction and the distance between the haves and the have nots continue to grow and the ghettoisation of parts of the country become entrenched. 

To be sure to be sure, that is the question !!!