A charming, thoughtful and well-balanced post on the subject of the ‘Brexit’ referendum, following up an earlier post by the same author, can be found here: https://theweeflea.com/2016/05/04/the-eu-referendum-rushed-ill-thought-out-and-extreme/ Recommended reading for those who haven’t made up their minds, and indeed for those who have.
The EU frequently refers to itself as if it were all of Europe. Wider membership of the Council of Europe is one challenge to this claim. At a debate in Rome on 5th April Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, had this to say, “Too many politicians are listening exclusively to their national opinion. … More Europe versus EU
We don’t want to disengage from Europe or reject partnership with our neighbours. However, we believe that the EU’s flaws are so serious that Britain should leave. We can see that the reforms required are fundamental and can only be achieved by a new treaty that replaces existing treaties. The EU will not allow such … More The Wrong Kind of Union
But they’ve made it very clear they’ve got no room for (voters). The Small Faces hit song, 1968 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QQdAdneMPQ) Sometimes they can be annoying but generally we like our neighbours. The variety of culture, language, geography and climate we enjoy in Europe is exciting. Unfortunately the EU has the wrong take on neighbourliness, it’s … More Wouldn’t it be nice to get on with my neighbours?
Nick Clegg, John Major, Emma Thompson and other Europhiles believe we shouldn’t be turning in on ourselves by leaving the partnership with our nearest neighbours. However, it has been said by an insider (Anonymous – on the radio) that our diplomats are almost totally absorbed in intra-EU issues with little brainpower left over to engage with … More Neighbours
In democratic systems disappointing leaders are replaced, often with their opposites. Errors are thereby corrected, typically over-corrected, and so the system zigzags forward, never attaining perfection because the process is too coarse and anyway the goalposts move as the world changes. By contrast, without elections but with an ideology frozen in a bygone age … More Democracy versus Ideology
In this essay we shall sometimes refer to the EU as the Project to reflect the fact that it is an uncompleted process. We shan’t pretend that we present a balanced view: we omit much that is good about the EU, mainly because we are unaware of much that is good about the EU; that … More Introduction
We begin in praise of the most obvious achievements. The EU has: made invasion of one EU country by another almost impossible, made the rise of dictatorship in any European country unlikely, introduced a common currency that is widely trusted, strengthened distrust of incompetent and corrupt national rulers and weakened their power, challenged and moderated … More Benefits of the EU Project
It is remarkable that the EU expects member nations to be democratic yet its own institutions are not. At the time of our last referendum, 51 years ago, Tony Benn asked of the EU: to whom are you accountable and how do we get rid of you? These remain good questions, which haven’t been answered, … More Democracy
National sovereignty cannot always be exercised without harm to others so some compromise and pooling of powers is necessary to achieve peace, harmony and wealth. Although senior politicians and civil servants have long been aware of this implication of the Project, they have consistently disguised the truth, deliberately leaving the British public ill-informed about the … More Sovereignty
This EU Won't Work 