Charles Crawford was British Ambassador in Sarajevo, Belgrade and Warsaw before leaving the Foreign Office in 2007 to become an international relations consultant and speechwriter
22 June 2016
 |
| Birthday celebrations for Queen Elizabeth II in Green Park, June 12 Credit: Will Oliver/EPA |
Back in the mid-2000s, Tony Blair addressed the annual gathering of British ambassadors. In the Q&A our then Ambassador in Paris warned the Prime Minister that London’s EU policies were going down badly in Paris.
In reply, Tony Blair said something fascinating and subtle: “Well, I think you’ve been in Paris a bit too long, John! At some point you have to make an almost aesthetic choice about what you’re trying to do and what you are.”
What are we trying to do? What are we? Big questions. The referendum campaign has been rancorous if not revolting precisely because there is no agreement on either. The Remain and Leave camps instead struggle to "frame" the debate to suit their arguments.
Money. Security. Sovereignty. Freedom. Identity. Fear. Hope. Beware – Brexit is a crazy leap into the dark! No – it’s a confident stride into the light! Let’s be Illinois! No – let’s be Canada! Back in February Financial Times political columnist Janan Garesh said:
The referendum is not about "what kind of country we want to be". A weighing of interests is not a matter of the soul.
Wrong. Weighing of interests is exactly a matter of the soul, since the soul decides what interests count for what. How to balance the supposed economic benefits to the UK of being in the EU against the obvious erosion of our historic parliamentary democracy? Is it "better" to be poorer for a few years but richer later? Is it "better" to be poorer than we might have been, but have greater national control over our own policies?
Political philosopher Philip Blond has also been on Twitter:
Political philosopher Philip Blond has also been on Twitter:
If sovereignty is the power to shape events to your national interest it's clear that being in the EU increases UK sovereignty (PM is right)
Wrong. Are Russia, North Korea, Qatar, Turkey, and South Africa missing out on sovereignty and infuence because they’re not EU members? China, India, Brazil and South Africa all joined President Obama round a small table to decide the outcome of the infamous Copenhagen Climate Change summit. Copenhagen is in Europe. The EU organised and paid for the whole event, and was not invited to that meeting.
Instead of focusing on how best to use British weight to shape world events in ways we want, UK diplomats at the United Nations and elsewhere around the planet sit in useless EU working groups. Even the European Council on Foreign Relations has bemoaned the results:
Instead of focusing on how best to use British weight to shape world events in ways we want, UK diplomats at the United Nations and elsewhere around the planet sit in useless EU working groups. Even the European Council on Foreign Relations has bemoaned the results:
The European Union (EU) is suffering a slow-motion crisis at the United Nations… Europe has lost ground because of a tendency to look inwards – with 1,000 coordination meetings in New York alone each year – rather than talk to others.There are only two campaigning positions in democratic politics: "Steady as she goes" and "It’s time for a change".
Remain proclaim "steady as she goes" as the wise and safe course. Don’t rock the boat, and especially don’t let nasty nutty anti-internationalist xenophobes (mainly Right but some Left too) rock it. We Brits are now so entwined with EU processes that breaking away must cause huge uncertainty. Does anyone need all that risk, given instability in the Middle East and even in Europe’s own Ukraine?
Leave reply that it makes sense both to rock the boat and jump out of it when the boat is heading to disaster. EU Europe and especially the Eurozone is no longer a "safe space" but a complacent, declining and badly run area. Yes, there will be disruption and uncertainty. But not even the most pessimistic predictions expect anything like as ghastly a fate for the UK as various eurozone countries have suffered for years.
Much better (add Leave) to take back confident control of our own destiny, and thereby give the EU the swift kick up the pants it needs to start seriously discussing deep reforms. Let’s look at doing Europe differently: Europe 2.0. One Europe for eurozone sovereignty poolers; another for intergovernmental free traders. Remainers are pessimists – we Leavers are optimists!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/22/this-referendum-is-about-who-we-are-and-we-are-not-the-servants/
- It’s been a good bet for the last thousand years or so to find out what Vladimir Putin wants you to do, then not do that. He’ll be delighted to see the EU fragmenting – does the UK really want to risk that?
- Just say you win this referendum. What’s your plan for managing the ensuing turmoil? How to negotiate a sensible new relationship with the EU when every EU leader hates us for creating an omnishambles?
But both questions assume formidable EU irrationality. Is the EU so fragile that it can’t muster a new formula for 27 member states plus the UK joining forces with Washington and others to stand firm against Russia in Ukraine and elsewhere? Will EU leaders react to a Brexit vote by acting against their own interests and "punishing" London and themselves?Those assumptions may not be wrong. Maybe the EU now can’t act wisely in the face of so many simultaneous crises. But is that a reason for forlornly staying in it, or for backing politely out of the madhouse?
The Leave camp prod Remain in the ribs:
To which answers come there none.
In 1845 James Russell Lowell wrote the hymn Once to Every Man and Nation to protest America’s war with Mexico. He later became US ambassador in London, much impressing Queen Victoria. His words sums up the choice facing British voters:
As for Americans up to President Obama urging us to stay where we are, they of all people ought to know that political legitimacy comes only from the consent of the governed.
The idea of "the consent of the governed" is the biggest moral idea in politics and life. It’s all about Tony Blair’s aesthetic choice: what you and your country are, and what each wants to be and do.
Me? I have been asked to express through a vote whether I consent to the European Commission, the European Court of Justice and the European Parliament governing large parts of my life. I don’t. I plan to vote accordingly.
Charles Crawford was British Ambassador in Sarajevo, Belgrade and Warsaw before leaving the Foreign Office in 2007 to become an international relations consultant and speechwriter