The Brexit boys break cover!

I.D.S.

Well it has happened! A member of the "Britain Out!" Campaign has been on the telly this morning to tell us that leaving Europe will be breeze and the best thing that ever happened to us.

The culprit this time was Iain Duncan Smith (IDS). Current Work and Pensions Minister. Now I realise that at the very least, in the interest of a fair and democratic campaign where there is plenty of public debate and examination of the facts, at the very least someone has got to stand up and make a case for either side. What concerns me is the style of the rhetoric that the "Brexit" campaigners use.

I have blogged in the past about UKIP. How their glorious leader is an eloquent mouthpiece for the party but he is literally all they have. Their ideas for how to proceed for a UK outside the EU are the same ones that were used when we had the old empire. We will trade with the Commonwealth. Obviously they have just been standing around kicking their heels for the last 40 years waiting for us to come back. Oh no! They trade with China! There is nothing we can offer the Commonwealth outside of financial services that they can't get cheaper from ANYWHERE else!

The rhetoric used by IDS was unfortunatley rather too much like a 1950's war movie. The BBC news website quoted him saying that "We have stood alone in war" and "shaped the business of the world". I cannot find any newspaper article to back that and I didn't see the inerview. But it is the sort of thing that alarms me. It is so backward looking.

I often suspect that the Brexit campaigners are lost in a heady mixture of nostalgia for the old days of empire etc. The last time the UK was able to act as a superpower was June 6th 1944. It was a long time ago.

Harking back to a time long gone does not seem to me to be the right reason to leave the EU. The Brexit campaigners, I believe are lost in some kind of fantasy world. IDS claimed that we would be able to control our borders and suppress immigration.

This appeals to a certain kind of Conservative voter. It is mostly a white English perspective. The fact is this country needs immigration at all levels.

In a short space we will have a third of the population being over 65 a third under 20 so the third in between is going to cop the taxation lot! So you see the UK needs all these working age immigrants to work and pay tax. It used to be the called the demographic time bomb, There are currently no nations able to halt  the flow of economic migration let alone the refugees from Syria not without draconian measures.

Unless you can improve economic patterns in the rest of the world people will always seek work on stranger shores. Even English folk lore contains a story of an economic migrant who thought the streets of London were paved with gold. Step forward Dick Whittington

The ties that bind Europe are currently under strain, it is true. The Greek/Italian/Irish/Spanish/Portugese bail outs have engendered animosity toward debtor nations amongst, well the Germans. It would seem only Gordon Brown as Chancellor of the Exchequer, or at the very least the Treasury mandarins, seemed to be aware of this possibility.

We have just withstood one of the worst financial meltdowns since the 1930's and it would seem that unique action is required to engender political and financial well being, some sort of "New Deal" for the 21st Century. Europe should be clubbing together to haul themselves out of the mire not prizing fingers from from the lifeboat.

Weimer Republic circa 1930

Nationalism, of the kind we see in UKIP often rears it's head during periods of hardship. Let us not forget that the Nazi's came to power from the wreckage of the Weimar Republic. I do not mind putting UKIP in the same sentence as the Nazi's. Actions speak louder than words and many of UKIP's elected officials have demonstrated they are at least barmy if not actually dangerous.

Anyway where was I?

So far Brexit campaigners have not identified real benefits for leaving the EU. Sovreignty is their only just cause thus far. It is a big one to be fair. However, as stated in previous posts I have concerns over Westminsters legitimacy to be honest. UK politics requires too much  intervention from an unelected chamber to dampen down ardent fancies of a government that does not enjoy the mandate it says it has. This does not strike me as some sort of democratic paradise that needs to be preserved at all costs.

However the turn out for euro elections is poor in this country and always has been, so that is an issue of concern for the pro EU faction. How can they defend an institution the country feels so ambivalent towards?

I await the published material for both campaigns with baited breath.