The big question (Europe) and BREXIT

This is the year of the great debate "should we stay in the European Union".

The referendum which may take place as soon as June is probably as momentous a political decision as any we are asked to make.

Is there an inevitability about coming out. Loosening our bond with the EU because of its proclaimed aim of eventual Federalisation and the concomitant loss of National Identity and the inability to control ones own destiny. 

Is the EU not much more than the result of Globalisation and the control of everything passing to the financiers.

We have had the case for European Unity which in the 50s and the 60s meant a consolidation of values, values which in the past had been used as a reason for going to war. Inevitably the daily discourse between nations and having a conduit to funnel those discussions, (the EU),  meant that we see we had more in common with each other and that the jingoism which national leaders and their parliaments used to whip up a fabricated cause, was not in anyone's interest other than a small coterie of industrialists who saw money to be made.

Is the EU democratic ? It elects members to sit in its parliament but the organisation  seems to be governed by committees of bureaucrats who formulate the rules and then pass the new already formulated provisions through a complicated collective majority voting system which bypasses the national preference. In some ways the electorate are one further step away from democratic accountability (if there ever was such a thing) since in electing their own national parliament, a large percentage of voters falling on the wrong side of their preference, they have little or no say in the decisions which are handed down by the EU.   These decisions which in a National Parliament can be overturned by electing the Opposition at the next General Election, and who may see fit to abolish the law are powerless in the collective called the European Union.

The one thing I will say is that the blend of political opinion across the spectre of Europe has to my mind a wider, more humanitarian, society orientated taste than the class driven individualistic system we have in this country. There are many regulations which the man in the street benefits from which emanate from European legislation and which would never have reached the statute book left to the special interest groups which make up our parliament in Westminster. 

Would there be a loss of entry into the European market place. Would any losses be made up in the world wide markets which are beginning to flourish. This is unanswerable other than to say it's in our own hands. We can wrest back the industrial and design skills which we were once proud of.  We can reapply the finance which currently is used in the financial casino to investment in manufacturing, directed as a national priority. We are not a Polynesian Island and we do have the educational structors to provide the know how so long as the investment is there.

Of course we would face the tariff barriers which non EU countries face when selling into Europe and depending on the product these can be substantial. Of course we sell more to Europe than Europe buys from us so the disadvantage might be compensated for and of course, we would be free to look for markets elsewhere which currently we can not do without being constrained by the limits that are imposed on us by having to follow the EU rules and regulations.

Of course here we get to the pith of the matter since matters such as 'Health and Safety', 'Standards of Production', even 'Wages and Conditions' generally are the subject of EU Law and we are obliged to ensure our workforce and and workplace meet the standards won over the decades since our joining. One of the obstacles to the Global Monoliths treating everything in terms of the bottom line (the profit) and ignoring the human misery which comes from unregulated labour arrangements, (an example is the rise of China and cheap sweatshop manufacturing) has been the strength of the European belief in a balanced economy where the society is considered and not misused. The neocon Free Marketeers are queuing up for an opportunity to scrap the standards which protect us and for Market Forces to be free to find their level.

The world used to be our market place and perhaps because we have relinquished much of the productive capital and know how we are not in a fit position to tender our goods and services. Perhaps the cold douche of reality will stimulate this Island into putting things right or perhaps more likely it will put out the fires for ever and we can become a Theme Park and compete with Disney

Is Europe secure and definable any more. Europe has found difficulty in harmonising the countries who are members and this has led to financial strain which is still unresolved. 

Greece as an example is a financial basket case which predominantly Germany won't sanction the necessary restructuring to allow it to become viable again. A bankruptcy court would sever its previous debt and constrain its spending power but Germany, for political or ideological reasons says no and there is no arguing with the Bundesbank. There are other nations Spain, Italy, Ireland  in a similar position. Would we want to be under the thumb of Frau Merkel ?

 I know we don't have any battleships to remind her of our voice but to have a voice at all, is something.

Is the dream of the free movement of labour too much of a danger now with the huge influx of people from the Middle East with their cultural and religious differences that overtime produce immense strains on the indigenous (if still recognisable) population. Do our political class still make decisions based on labour quotas as has Mrs Merkel in the hope that the good nature of the local population will assimilate and, more to the point be assimilated by the new comers.

Will the social construct of a multiracial society stand the weight of time or will we all be at each other's throats, not as in the past, nation on nation but person to person, within the national state?