OK the first thing to say here is that I am, by instinct, a Tory. To put it succinctly they try to fix problems whilst Labour tries to hide or ignore them. Labour is the sort of person who hides problems in his bottom drawer for as long as possible and then when they are found out, when they can no longer be hidden, walks away and leaves others to sort out the shit he has created.
I think that sums it up quite accurately if you think about it?
However as far as I am concerned getting the UK out of the EU is a much bigger deal, much more important and frankly I'd vote for a B&Q cactus instead of Dave if it would better secure that goal. Because if one really thinks this through, it will be largely irrelevant who one votes for in the UK in 10 or 20 years' time if we stay in the EU. If we do we will, as night follows day, have to accept the Euro and ditch the pound and whilst that might be an unavoidable economic reality, it will be much more than that in terms of our sovereignty and hard fought for freedoms as one of the world's leading - and path-finding - nations.
We are currently the world's 5th or 6th largest economy. Subsumed into the EU we would have 8% of the voting influence within the only shrinking trading bloc in the world. And we'd be (currently are) unable to make trade deals on our own behalf with friendly countries like the US, Canada, India, Australia and many parts of Africa. Instead we'd continue to support the EU whose tariffs are effectively blocking Africa from trading its way into the first world.
But here's the thing:
Dave is trying to keep people 'on side' by offering a referendum on our membership of the EU. He's trying to keep the antis (like me) on side by hinting that a referendum could just possibly mean Brexit. And since none of the other parties are even contemplating offering us voters a democratic say on our membership (even though the EU now has massive - but totally undemocratic - influence on our daily lives), he's taking credit and making political capital out of this.
But it is entirely illusory.
Dave will not tell us what his renogitiations will be, what powers he wants back for the UK. What he deems to be absolutely sacrosanct in terms of what we need to achieve. The EU is currently in crisis because net recipient Greece might leave. The consequences of the third biggest net contributor (UK) leaving would be catastrophic for the EU. If Dave threatens it with any kind of credibility or seriousness, they would simply have to accede to his (our) requirements. No ifs or buts. They would have absolutely no choice.
Dave holds all the cards here. And he won't play them. He tells us that we need reform of the EU (and so does Miliband and Clegg without having any clue as to what those reforms might be), but he won't make it happen, even though he clearly could if he wanted to.
Greece would clearly be better off outside the Eurozone: Able to devalue and rebalance its economy. 65% of young people in Greece are unemployed - they have nothing to lose really. The only way is up for them. And Spain, Italy, Portugal, Eire and most importantly France are in the teeth of the same dilemma. The EU folding would be a disaster for France (but not the others) since it keeps France's medieval subsistence farming economy going when France itself could not dream of affording to achieve this. But it will eventually have to face reality. The EU is just putting this off as the price for keeping France onside alongside Germany which is effectively raping Europe. A strong term I know, but accurate nonetheless.
The others - the PIGS as they are collectively known - would devalue and pretty soon prosper again, just as Iceland who bailed out its people rather than the banks, has done.
Dave needs to come clean and tell us what is really going on: What is going on is that for some reason (Common Purpose is at its heart I think) Dave has no intention of doing what's right for the UK. Which is getting us out of the monstrous EU. He's holding out a carrot that is entirely illusory.
The latest 'we'll bring forward the referendum to 2016' offer is also illusory. It's like a 'snap' election - brought forward not to being our chance of having a say closer, but because he (they) think that an earlier referendum would be more likely to achieve a 'yes' verdict than a longer drawn-out campaign that would allow us Brexit advocates to win the argument. It is not about enabling Brexit earlier, but to make a stay in vote more likely. This is totally disingenuous of Dave.
It's time we recognised this and stopped giving him credit for offering a referendum that will see the massive machinery of the EU and the UK 'establishment' campaigning for an 'in' vote, when what we really need is 'out'. And we need 'out' because unless we achieve that we will become voiceless puppets of the centralising, unelected, undemocratic Euro regime that is exactly what we fought against in two world wars in the 20th Century.
More importantly we need 'out' because that would almost certainly mean that the whole fundamentally flawed EU project would come tumbling down much to the benefit of our friends in Europe who are currently being economically devastated as a direct result of EU policy. This is not just about the UK's sovereignty and democracy, but about the very survival and possible future prosperity of most of Europe.
One of the founding principles of the EU, post WW2 was to make war impossible ever again. But by forcing peoples, cultures and economies into the same rigid financial straight jacket it is having exactly the opposite effect. It's time we - and our leaders who are just pretending that all's well, when it clearly isn't - admitted that the EU is an ongoing disaster. Free trade will prevent war, forced compliance with Germanic doctrine which is crucifying southern Europe will not.
Wake up for fuck's sake.
Thanks for reading.
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