Nexr stop - Brussels!

After some six years of wrangling we, in the UK, have the prospect of another referendum. They are becoming somewhat commonplace in this day and age. We got a vote on changing the voting system for Westminster parliamentary seats. Which changed nothing. And now we have a vote on "should I stay or should I go" with regards to Europe. Which will probably change nothing. 

roll on roll off roll over!

My stance at the moment is that membership of the EU has for me been a largely positive experience. Where should I start?  Well duty free of course! France used to have amuch more liberal attitude to taxing of alcoholic beverages. So much so that it was well worth the cost of spending a day on a cross channel ferry. Of being tossed around like, well something that gets thrown around the room roughly, a lot. And carrying as much of  what only 100 years ago would have been classified as contraband, and flaunting it to the customs boys because they couldn't touch us for it. Oh yes! Dear reader those WERE the days.

Now I know that this sort of thing seems trite when considering the fate of a great and historic nation or even the UK but to be honest, if I really looked hard that is the sum total of the effect of the EU on my life. Good or bad. It is the experience of many others. Approximatley 400 if I am honest, those that shared the life or death ride from Portsmouth to Cherbourg on the Spirit of Free Enterprise (or some similar name) as it leapt from wave to wave with a crash and rattle and not a little groaning. There would be this moment of silence as we sensed the ship falling but all was quiet in that moment before it hit the waves again and EVERYTHING juddered and shook. There was palpable holding of breaths to see if this was the one that flipped us over!

So what is it that the "Brexit" people hope to gain. Political independance for Westminster is the sum of all their ambitions.

One can have sympathy for the view. Westminster is a democratically elected parliament but often has to follow dogma from Brussels without any right to reply. There is a parliament in the EU that votes on issues but there is also this council of governmental heads that does seem to do an awful lot as well. Quite a lot of EU directives are administerd by EU "Quangoes" which are not elected. There is much to be sorted out if the EU is ever to become a truly democratic organisation.

However I have my doubts over the democracy of Westminster as I have noted in previous postings.

Personally I am not entirley sure that faceless beaurocrats in Brussels aren't preferable to the chinless wonders from Eton that seem to be running Westminster at the moment