Sunday 4 December 2016

For the Record

As my blog has shown, I have constantly grappled with using my vote to Remain.

The EU has a flawed agenda. It makes bad decisions. There is a democratic deficit and no means of providing a system of checks and balances to help it navigate along a path that respects the needs of the general population for which it must serve. 

The Euro is failing huge swathes of the younger generations with high unemployment. I was made redundant at the time when John Major was trying to remain in the ERM, the precursor to the Euro. So I relate to the plight of the younger generations.

The Euro is flawed because you cannot have the German and southern European economies  operating with the same currency. There is just a straight mismatch. Perhaps the best solution is for Germany to leave the Euro, rather than the others such as Greece.

And Schengen, so flawed too, in fact it is nolonger really in existence for Austria and Hungary.

The EU has to reform, and perhaps the pending German and French General Elections might just shake the 5 Presidents into change.

However, I have come to recognise that leaving the EU is also not necessarily the correct thing to do. It is perhaps best encapsulated by a French commentator on the British Referendum who said he did not understand why the British wanted to leave the EU. Why, when we benefit from the best of the EU, and have successfully kept away from the worst of the EU.

This is rather an interesting perspective.

I have decided to vote to remain.

The renegade in me still wants to vote to leave. However, whether we are in or out of the EU, we will always be inextricably linked to Europe, and our well-being, both economic and political, will always be affected by the EU. So why not stick at it and try to effect change for the better.

Perhaps this whole Referendum will give the UK a means to shift the agenda onto issues that are the  right ones. 

So although I am not a huge advocate of the EU, I have moved towards being a Reformist.

Back soon.....

......your decided Reformist.





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