The response to the IMF is divided, amongst the campaigners, along the lines you would expect. The pro EU camp say "Told you so!" and the pro exit supporters say a mixture of "don't listen" "Bugger off!" or "The IMF doesn't know what it's talking about".
For my part this is totally to be expected from the IMF. Business doesn't like change too much. Life, it seems for these people at least, is complicated enough without adding further to their woes. Perhaps that should read "hoops to jump through".
However, anyone who suggests that leaving the current EU set up will have no effect are at best barking mad and at worst being disingenuous.
Have no doubt dear readers that the process of leaving the EU will be fraught with problems. If only in the short term. But it will be an upheaval. The question we, the voters have to ask ourselves is, after the dust has settled, will we be in a better place?
This "better place" could mean several things. We might be financially in a mess but at least it would be OUR mess. We might actually be better off, if UKIP are to be believed, in all aspects.
I am not sure we would be in any way a better country for having let UKIP have a go at running it. I know this is not a reasoned argument but they are all barking mad.
OK, so there is a mood of anti immigration in this country but the case for immigration is not listened to. Never let the facts get in the way of a good story. There is evidence for the financial improvement of this country provided by immigration. It is disputed admittedly, but mostly by MigrationWatch and many people do not trust their impartiality on this matter. Some might enjoy the irony of criticizing an organisation as untrustworthy based on a Wikipedia article!
My impression, that once you take the English Defense League out of the statistics many of the people complaining about immigration do not actually have to deal with it on a daily basis. This is not a scientific survey but I wouldn't mind a bet that most of UKIP supporters are middle class and suburban. But that is, I admit a slight dislike of middle class suburbia. Of which I am one. But I am not complaining about the level of immigration.
Leaving the EU would only serve to prevent us from gaining the services of people who are effectively propping the country up. It is not the rich that are doing it because they just squirrel their money away in offshore accounts!
As for the rest of the UKIP party well, where shall we start. Nigel Farage has stated that women should either choose children OR a career. Apparently those banker types don't like having to get to know new people all the time. Which perhaps points to the "clubby" nature of London financial markets - white, male and public school.
Not that I have anything against public schools per se. Except that in this country it seems that a public school education gets you an inordinate lift to your life chances based on your parents ability to pay.
There was a high profile case where a UKIP councillor stated that the serious floods of a few years ago were God's retribution for voting for same sex marriage.
So I have nothing to learn from UKIP.
My issue is that I am not sure who I would rather run the country. I have come to dislike Westminster politics. The real work of Parliament appear sto go on in the select committees. There is no real debate in the chamber anymore, it is far too stage managed in there now. And anyway MP's vote which ever way they are told to vote by the Whips.
Since World War 2 there has been a sort of covenant between Parliament and the populace. That there would be full employment and the state would look after you. Thatch and her monetarist lackeys did away with that notion. Government's job was about money supply.
Now you can argue about how unhealthy the nation was from a financial point of view in the years after the war. What you cannot deny is how much the standard of living has improved in that time.
So what frightens me is that we would see a Conservative government with nothing to hold it back from telling us that stopping benefits for the young and disadvantaged is fair whilst allowing their rich sponsors to duck out of their public responsibility of paying their taxes.
We must first seek a fairer means of representation. Time and again this country has had to rely on the un democratic institution of the House of Lords to reign in feckless government.
Brussels on the other hand is run by a lot of unelected bureaucrats. So far the process has been beneficial and however much I might mock the EU I like the fundamental rights charter and especially the social chapter of the Maastricht treaty, that many Conservative government opted out of. To lose these now would see a step back toward Victorian values returning to the labour market. Some say that zero hour contracts already are.
I am occasionally frustrated at the way the EU fails to respond to international situations. From the Balkan Conflict in the 1990's to the current migration crisis. Although it is worth remembering that it is still within living memory that Europe had the opposite attitude and waged war on at least 3 continents.
On June 23rd we have to make a decision. Do we let a load of hooray henrys from Eton rule us or let a load of hooray henrys from Eton rule us but with severe guidance from Brussels.
I'll take the latter thanks.
No comments:
Post a Comment