As polls show a definite shift to Brexit, it's not hard to see why. Here's the acid test: If this referendum was not about leaving the EU but about joining it, how would you vote?
Robin Mitchinson
On 14 June 2016 14:45
The English follow the principle that when one lies, it should be a big lie, and one should stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous’. Goebbels.
Does it really matter?
If the verdict is ‘leave’, the unravelling process will take 10 years (or long enough to see the British suits in Brussels safely to their index-linked pensions). Or if ‘stay’, the whole rotting edifice will collapse in those ten years. The signs are clear.
Like the Bourbons, the Brussels nomenklatura have learned nothing and forgotten nothing.
They persist in recruiting new members despite the disaster of admitting countries such as Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria, none of which meets the basic criteria for membership.
Briefly, these are
** Democratic constitution with free elections;
** The rule of law and an independent judiciary;
** Recognition of human rights;
** Protection of minorities
** A functioning market economy;
Turkey could have few problems here. In the queue also are Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Serbia, Bosnia, and Kosovo, in total about 88 million people.
The Balkan candidates are third world criminal states. Bosnia ranks 103 in the world GDP purchasing power league table with Albania at 93, below Gabon, Lebanon, Botswana , even bankrupt Venezuela. From the point of view of readiness to join the EU, none of these countries is, to quote LBJ, 'worth a pitcher of warm spit!’.
They have the disastrous Euro around their necks and cling to it as if it were the Holy Grail. This shows very clearly that they remain committed to ‘ever closer union’ which means monetary union.
If members agree to this, it will signal the end of independent nations, most of which will have suffered greatly in obtaining independence. Instead, they will become satrapies of Brussels, ruled as mere provinces.
Do they seriously imagine that 500,000,000 people will accept this? Dream on.
The structure of the EU has the integrity of a Bangladeshi textile factory; the fault lines cannot be repaired. The fatal flaw is that Brussels, when reflecting on the essentials for a successful union, never asks, ‘What is the community of interest?’.
Only eleven of the 28 members of the EU are in the world top 25 of GDP at purchasing power parity, so national wealth is not a major consideration for membership. And if not, what is?
Perhaps more importantly, the British have absolutely nothing in common politically with the other members; it is pretty well the only member of the club that has a continuous tradition of constitutional democracy and the supremacy of Parliament preceding 1945. Britain was an ancient nation before many of the club members even existed in their present form. (Britannia, who still features on the reverse of our coinage, has been there since around 200AD).
‘The Continent’ is dirigiste. People tend to look to governments for the answers to most problems, on the ‘always keep a hold of nurse’ philosophy.
The British are exactly the opposite, which is why one of the most loathed characteristics of the Brussels elites is its never-ending meddling in ordinary people’s lives, especially in areas where there is no EU commonality e.g. the little herbalist shop that sells only in the immediate area is nevertheless subject to the full weight of the EU Directive of Traditional Herbal Medicine Products.
In short, the European template is the Holy Roman Empire which was neither Holy nor Roman but was definitely German. Britain, of course, disdained to be part of that club.
To return to the here-and-now, the latest ‘Remain’ propaganda gets more absurd by the day.
Dave’s most recent bit of scare mongering is directed at pensioners. Brexit will put your pension at risk, he tells us.
How come? Pensions are purely a matter of domestic policy. The level of pensions is entirely for the government to decide. And, come to that, it was Gordon Brown who wrecked final-salary pension schemes by withdrawing tax breaks on investment earnings.
Dave has done nothing to rectify this, but has watched private pension funds accrue massive deficits as demand outstrips resources.
Osborne tells us that that interest rates will rise and house prices will fall.
Bring it on, George. Millions of us who saved for our retirement now find that the return on capital is less than the rate of inflation due to the Bank flooding the financial market with almost-interest free loans.
The ‘10 percent fall in house prices’ is another George porky. The reality is that house prices may not rise by the predicted 10 percent by 2018. They will be the same as today.
The immigration issue is a simple one. It is racist and discriminatory.
Under the present dispensation , Britain cannot control its borders or immigration from Europe. Anybody with an EU passport may come here without let or hindrance -- and immediately claim social benefits without contributing a penny. This includes hordes of ‘refugees’ once they qualify in Germany or whichever EU member has given them sanctuary.
The only means of immigration control left to the UK is over non-EU citizens -- Indians, Australians and all. So when it comes to admitting a Romanian labourer or an Indian doctor, it’s no contest.
Simple as that.
Here is the acid test.
If this referendum was not about leaving the EU but about joining it, how would you vote?
Robin Mitchinson is a Contributing Editor to The Commentator. A former barrister, living in the Isle of Man, he is an international public management specialist with almost two decades of experience in institutional development, decentralisation and democratisation processes. He has advised governments and major international institutions across the world.
