As someone who currently has the European fence stuck firmly between each buttock; I would like to suggest the case for Brexit as I see it, for the sake of objectivity and democracy, in reply to the recent article by a colleague entitled ‘What’s The Point In Brexit?’.
So, to shoot the elephant in the room. Immigration is an issue that many people care about. I do not. I understand that whilst some cultural divisions may have arisen out of open borders, these are to be combated with integration, rather than cessation of our welcoming policy. However, it is true that in order to be truly in control of a country its borders must be able to reject heinous individuals, and to accept people with full knowledge of who they are.
Despite disagreeing with Connor, I do not believe that Farage is a racist – in fact, it’s boring to say that he is. He represents a reasonable, if not substantiated, response to immigration on a scale utterly unforeseen before. I also happen to think that after we leave we might let more people in from outside of Europe than we have been able to whilst inside the free-movement policy.
As for economics, I do not claim any expertise. Not wishing to become overly philosophical, I would say that economists are not scientists and can be profoundly wrong about very important issues. Many of them thought the common currency a good enterprise for Britain, and the IMF did not see the onset of the worst financial crisis of my lifetime. The Bank of England’s Mark Carney’s disgracefully undemocratic deposit into the bank of European opinion is a little bit funny. Mr Carney failed to imagine any reaction by the Bank of England, his own organisation, to an economic shock originating from our departure from the EU.
But, I’m not that interested in economics. On the European issue it is a guessing game of dynamic proportion and even where economists are correct, they tend to under or overestimate matters.
My view on the EU – and the reason why my referendum fence tends to lean creakingly towards Brexit – is democracy.
As Stevie Smith wrote: ‘England, you have been here too long / and the songs you sing are the songs you sung / on a braver day. Now you are wrong.’
That braver day may have been just before we gave Malta the right to 15 times greater representation than a British citizen in the European parliament per head of the population.
Fifteen times.
It may have been the day just prior to the hiring of Neil Kinnock or Peter Mandelson as European Commissioners for Britain. They were only appointed as unelected commissioners after being democratically rejected as MPs at the British ballot box.
It is not just Britain that Europe fails. It ignored referendums in France, the Netherlands and Ireland against the European constitution. In these cases, the EU forced a re-vote because the Demos (people) offended the Kratos (power) by rejecting their proposals.
Anyone would agree with the basic principals of the EU. Justice, democracy, rule of law, freedom. It is a shame that the EU does not fulfill its raison d’etre. It laughs in the face of the European peoples whilst it spouts its platitudinous crap and singularly forgets to enforce its own supposed weltanschauung (that is, its own philosophy).
When a country joins the EU, for instance, they must comply with certain regulations and standards which ensure democracy and justice. Croatia did not meet the requirements for an independent judiciary and for erasing corruption from the police force – yet she was welcomed with open pockets.
Finally, to something which I find truly outrageous. Justice is predicated on certain principles, one of which is that no man should be judge in his own court. When the financial crash occurred however, the European Court (a fundamentally political court) ruled in favour of its own wages increasing, against the protocol issued in the original European treaties.
All I can ask of Britain’s youth, who voted overwhelmingly to remain, is: What happened to our noble tradition of dissent: the Chartists, the Blanketeers, the suffragettes? What happened to Labour and Jeremy Corbyn and socialists that now sacrifice their values under the banner of corporatism and expansion?
We sit firmly on our arses wailing that nothing ever changes and when we get the opportunity, we vote with the status quo. The young should spit at the anti-democratic Eurocrats, rather conform sheepishly to what establishment organisations want of us.
Words by Sam Fuller