Here’s our take on it. The whole documentary is about the need for deregulation. It’s fundamentally a neoliberal infomercial, painting history through the mantra of deregulation leads to growth and regulation leads to stagnation. They tell us that the EU is over-regulated, so we need to get out – and then we will economically prosper. That’s the thesis. The only problem is that they have no business/ economist backing whatsoever. Instead of interviewing CEOs of Airbus, Rolls-Royce, etc (all of which have come out for Remain), the documentary interviews just the standard clique of Nigel Lawson, Daniel Hannan, James Delingpole, Nigel Farage, etc… Politicians and right-wing journalists – with Kate Hoey thrown it.
So with an economic argument fallen flat, we’re left with their wrapping of “freedom” and claims to support the little man against the Euro elite. Two problems here. Firstly, a “free” Britain could not make its “own laws” all the time when dealing in the international space. So to “go global” and make all those spiffing trade deals, there needs to be agreements on regulations. That’s what the single market is. Agreed standards. Right now our governments and MEPs are elected by us and vote on cross-border agreements. If we pull out – how do we get a democratic say? We don’t. And we don’t gain freedoms on Brexit, we lose them. We lose freedom of movement, freedom to hire from the EU visa-free, freedoms of access to the single market, freedoms associated with the working time directive potentially, rights to cross-border care potentially. What are the freedoms these Brexiteers speak of then? It is simply their own freedom to rule this country. Little people get no more freedoms as the neoliberals roll their protections away.
Finally, they blame the EU for everything – including declining fish in the sea (which, incidentally has been a problem since bottom-trawling began some 150 years ago), even peddling the myth of the Dutch trawler that takes 25% of the UK quota (a problem of allocation at the UK government level – not the EU’s diktat). They also imply that all those EU regulations that swirl around us are unique in the world. They are not. In fact, the UK has its own stunning bureaucracy and love of gold-plating of EU regulations. So why aren’t they attacking that? Simple – it’s a bigger ideological thing. They want us to vote leave so that they can take control and pursue their glorious economic deregulation, unshackled – because you help the little person by taking away environmental, social and health protections.
Scientists for EU
