A letter to my grandkids and niece.
Dear girls – you are very precious to me .
I can understand you feeling frustrated that while you voted to Remain everyone else – or so you thought – voted to Leave. After all, you were born as part of the EU, you have known nothing else and now you believe that your young life and future has been hijacked by the oldies.
Wait a while and hear me out.
But first……There’s part of the Leavers that I don’t want to be part of. The Television interviewers seem to target those who repeat a mantra of ‘ we want our country back’. ‘ no immigration’. There have been reports in the media of attacks on immigrants ‘ get out Polish vermin’ and ‘ go back to where you come from’ which quite frankly frightens me. The Remain diatribe from Facebook that my nephew sent me that was written by a Remainder was of the same ilk – again quite frightening that such a response could come from presumably a person living in Great Britain rather than Nazi Germany.
Why did I (we) vote leave?
I believe the system is flawed and is not capable of reforming itself. I thought the whole process of the referendum would be a cathartic one that would force the EU to reform – we will see.
At the moment the euro is like a one sized dress. One size fits all. Whether you are size eight ( I wish) or size 18 – there’s only one dress that you can wear. The euro is like that , it has no mechanism to cope with the different financial problems of individual countries who are not allowed to adjust their own interest rates to cope. The highly mechanised Northern European countries have a different work ethos from the Southern countries where- in one country – tax evasion is a national sport and where civil servants were paid for 13 months of work In one year. Corruption has shown to be a major inhibitor of reform. Overspending and over borrowing by some countries has to be paid for by the more affluent countries The euro will only work if there is true fiscal union with one government and that isn’t going to work In this century or the next . And Quantative Easing ain’t the answer either.
I am an advocate of free trade – all over the world . Where trading finds its own level without government interference. The effect of subsidies to EU farmers have the effect of keeping the farmers from poorer countries outside the EU even poorer. It also has the effect of stopping EU farmers becoming more efficient because they have that cushion of subsidies .
The political elites of countries joining the EU have a clear self interest in participating in governing Europe in terms of power, status and money Look at Jean Claude Juncker formerly the PM of tiny Luxembourg now the President of the EU commission . Germany is now an equal in Europe rather than seen as a war mongering state ( and that’s good) The desire to avoid another European/World war is great but it was NATO that has done this rather than the EU. Remember the Balkan conflict? The EU were crap at sorting that one out .
Believe you me – I didn’t vote Leave without some research. It wasn’t immigration ( has to be integrated and therefore there has to be some element of control otherwise we get ghettos rather than integration) or sovereignty ( the UK court has challenged the European Court of Justice and won which gives me some hope ) and which again is like one size doesn’t fit all. It is a question of accountability by a ruling elite who can’t see the flaws in their systems and are incapable of reform because it would upset their AppleCart
Democracy – one man one vote – regardless of status: creed: religion: gender : race: or age. The ease of movement and the ability to get a job outside the UK will not disappear Oldies do have a brain and have paid a damn sight more tax than you youngsters . Move over kids we have the same rights as you . Lecture over. Love to you both . Grandma
