God Save the Queen

With the UK about to decide if it wants to remain in the EU, the arguments for and against Brexit rage on. When the UK did not adopt the EU common currency it might be argued that it was never convinced anyway and this is just the next step.

 When the EU-China Chamber of Commerce was established in 1998 by combining 14 European Trade organisations into one support unit, they were easily sold on the idea. For bargaining purposed you just point out that in say chemicals, the USA had 14 separate large companies while no European country had more than 4, but combined they had 23. So similarly under the concept of a combined Europe, in regard to trade there is a bit of strength but it could be argued that some of the constraints against trade, or the liberalisation of the same in fact hurts the UK. Sure the EU as a “World Power” has some advantage but it is hard to see its head. America might have a president but what exactly has the EU?

The question of sovereignty is always an emotive issue and its loss can outweigh otherwise rational argument. “God save the Queen.”In reality, the EU has had to make laws and regulations on just about anything its members had already legalised. It then has had to put in place adjudication on what happens when there is conflict between the two. In most cases the EU attempts to enforce that it has the final word but it is apparent that when a member country does not wish to comply, the EU is a toothless tiger.

Meanwhile there is this monolithic apparatus which is difficult to understand and a system difficult to comprehend and even more difficult from which to evoke a response. Try and use the EU system and its laws to enforce member country laws and all one gets is a run around from the hundreds and thousands of EC workers who refer the problem back to the country where they came from. Very Keynesian for Europe, employ people to dig holes and then to fill them up again: not very good for the UK. And these are considerations beyond those of population control and unpopular migration in which European countries are now stuck. Meanwhile the UK still has its water barrier. It can still raise the drawbridge.

Opting out would seem attractive to many in the UK who see their allegiance to a Queen Elizabeth rather than to an elected head of state. Queen Merkel? Consequently the real question becomes whether economically a split would really hurt the country. In referendum postings it is argued “almost half British exports go to Europe” but does that mean this will all suddenly stop? Also it is argued “Some 3 million British jobs are linked to Europe” but again, why would all of these jobs disappear? Certainly there would be a cumbersome procedure for extricating the country out of the tentacles of the European octopus but in reality it would be simple to just say that in the meantime we go back to what we were doing before. Yes there might be pressure on the pound but these things equalise in the long run and it is still not known how many Greeces the EU can withstand?

The final vote will come down to how the average citizen of the UK sees themselves. They were prepared to suffer no matter what in the Second World War but then sacked Sir Winston immediately afterwards. Will they be prepared to suffer a bit more in the interest of national pride or would they prefer the elusive consolidated Europe with a few more carrots to hand out there at the end of the stick.