They are in a tiswas

  There is a debate going on in the House of Lords regarding the consequences of the decision by the democratic majority within the country to leave the EU.

One of the terms which keeps coming up in their Lordships debate is the term "national interest". What do they, what do we, understand by the term. 

I suppose Sir Philip Green has a view, although his treatment of both the tax system and his workers, make his "interest" a rather self centred down interest. The interest of the 'unemployed worker' is very different to Philip Greens view and whilst speech maker after speech maker in the House of Lords  wears sackcloth and ashes since for them, the Referendum is terrifying, as terrifying as the confrontation of King Charles 1  by Oliver Cromwell, with the old having to move over for the new. The whole aspect of a separation from the "status quo" is unthinkable.

They are casting around for ways to draw back from the implications of the vote. 

One is the implicit responsibility of Parliament towards its citizens to protect these citizens from there worst inclinations (the refusal to bring back hanging which if the pollsters are to be believed, the majority of people in the country favour, depending on the heinous nature of the crime). 

There are also parliamentary statutes which are in place to make important and far reaching political decisions such as taking the county out of the EU. 

Decisions with the potential to do terminal harm to the economic health of the nation are it is argued decisions for the elected MPs.

Of course these men and women in the House of Lords, who are like the Commission in the EU, unelected but who hold important positions in business and commerce, "have an interest". 

Largely the assumption of their Lordships seems to reflect a tremendous negativity, even a passivity, an echo of Chamberlin's Munich deal with Hitler where "peace in our time" was so desired that it obscured the reality of what was going on in Germany. 

No one seemed to be troubled by the the growing strength of unelected bureaucracy in the EU or the growing Federalism which seems the only way to save the euro. The economic situation was viewed only from the exclusion of the European market and no opinions were forthcoming regarding our trading potential with the rest of the world to which at the moment we are severely inhibited by the fact that "all trade deals have to be negotiated by the Commission for the benefit of Europe as a whole".
Nobody seem to think we can gain something of a trade balance, even a modest surplus as we strike deals on our own right. 

Even being granted WTO (World Trade Organisations) access to the EU market and there are many countries which trade with Europe who lie outside EU membership but who trade on the basis of WTO rules which applies a cost premium of roughly, three and a half percent customs duty. I would suggest we could live with that if at the same time we did something about our poor efficiency which requires spending on both training and education and a significant improvement of our capital investment to modernise our declining industries.

These are big asks but it only requires the will and imagination, a will and imagination which all self employed people have to grasp. The gravy train of the massive cartel which is the EU is coming to an end. The sloth and automatic assumption of turnover and profits is at an end and the excitement of once more running your own show is soon to be upon us.

Perhaps if we could rein back the corporate pay structure differentials where CEOs receive nearly 200 times more than what their workers are paid. 

Perhaps if we could be assured that the corporations paid tax, commensurate to what the man in the street pays, particularly the self employed running a small to medium sized company.

Perhaps if we stopped the disparity of private and public education with all the distortion that privilege brings.

On reflection perhaps it's no wonder their Lordships are in such a tiswas.