I am a left wing Eurosceptic. Tories who believe Thatcherism was just an hors d’oeuvre, click away now!
My worries about Europe sit roughly under the following four headings:
- – Lack of democratic accountability and the European Commission having primacy over the European Parliament. This has allowed terrible things to happen such as the Trans Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) that will give primacy of corporate demands over national law.
- – The Euro, which feeds into
- – Ever closer union? How can 27 different cultures developed over Millennia be amalgamated into one in under 50 years?
- – Trade. The UK has more trade with the US than the rest of the EU combined.
I am however going to vote to remain in Europe in June. Why? It comes down to who will be setting up the post EU Britain and, honestly, these ogres scare the crap out of me.
Bojo
Boris Johnson, the blond haired former Bullingdon Boy and Old Etonian who has driven London’s transport as Mayor for the last umpteen years. I wouldn’t let him drive a bus to be honest. He has a hatred of working people and was the architect of the new union laws that state that a union can only go on strike if a majority of the union as a whole vote for a strike.
Unlike Cameron you can see his direction of travel but I don’t like his direction at all. He is an ardent right winger and if you think the welfare cuts of today are swingeing, you’re having a laugh. If you think the NHS is getting a kicking right now? It’ll be flushed down the loo like a bad curry. If you think the middle classes are safe? Please pass me what you’re on as I’d like some.
Let me make this clear – if Cameron loses the referendum the hounds will be out for him and there will be a leadership election in very quick time. We will see Bojo as PM within months of voting to leave the EU.
Farage
I refused to pronounce this man’s name the ‘French‘ way but rather like Garage. His dreadful party has somehow made people think that migrants only come to the UK for benefits, not the fantastic opportunities for employment that so many Brits refuse. UKIP, which until the PM in waiting Bojo came along led the Brexit campaign make the Tory right look like Jeremy Corbyn’s inner circle.
The Euro
Whether we like it or not, 27 of the richest economies in the world will affect the 7thbiggest.
Whether we like to believe it or no, the £ is just flotsam in the economic winds of today. Whatever happens to the Euro in the coming months, weeks or years will affect us. So much of our trade is across the Channel, and even a vote tomorrow would let this continue for over a year as we disentangle ourselves from the EU. We may even cause a financial crisis as much of trade within the EU passes through London and we will be a pariah state as major companies flee the City for safety inside the EU.
Democracy
We live in a dictatorship where democracy comes but every 5 years. You just have to see the referendum in Dorchester coming up over the Cabinet system in West Dorset – we don’t like small cliques making decisions when we elect councils and chambers of Parliament. The Westminster democracy we have today only serves the elite. Europe actually waters the elected dictatorship we have down (well, forgetting TTIP…)
I see us becoming a dirty little right wing dictatorship, not unlike Belarus. A bit of a joke. Somewhere that has pretty soldiers dressed in red with funny hats marching in squares outside the Queen’s council house.
Have you seen the news of the boundary changes between constituencies? This is a process of gerrymandering to make Tory party seats safer and opposition parties seats less safe.
What about the proposed cuts to the money paid to opposition parties to oppose the government? What about the limits to Trade Union funding for the Labour Party? I don’t see corresponding limits to hedge fund donations to the Tories!
The First Past the Post system is a joke as far as democracy is concerned. Will that remain? Do Turkeys in Westminster vote for Christmas?
Scotland has killed off Labour due to the privations of Blairism there. In Westminster, the Lothian Question has been ‘answered’ in such a way that only English MPs can vote for certain issues in Parliament. England is horribly right wing.
Overall?
If Jeremy Corbyn were Prime Minister today, had renegotiated our membership of the EU and asked the people to leave because he couldn’t get a good deal? I’d see the guy with bleary eyes and have heard he was awake for five days straight in eyeball to eyeball negotiations. Cameron looked like he’d been to a party in Oxfordshire after his negotiations. Notice he had a full 8 hours sleep before he spoke to his minions, sorry, us.
If Jeremy Corbyn had agreed something with the EU I would believe it would be for the best, not some media hyped bullshit and lies. I would likely not call myself a Eurosceptic as my own reservations may well be allayed.
To that extent, I am voting against what I believe in in June, and voting to stay in.
Richard Shrubb
