So What has the EU ever done for us?
Absolutely nothing.
A bureaucratic nightmare overseen by a bunch of unelected plutocrats!
A bunch of foreigners taking away our sovereignty.
Well it has kept the peace in Europe for the last seventy years – the longest period in European history without a major conflict (putting aside Bosnia and the Ukraine).
It has provided greater cooperation in fighting crime, terrorism, cybercrime, and trafficking.
It has provided Britons with the right to live, work, retire and study anywhere in Europe without hindrance.
It has provided laws and enforcement to conserve nature, prevent pollution and protect wildlife.
It has produced legislation to protect workers’ rights.
It has produced legislation to protect our human rights.
It enables us to go abroad safely on holiday without visas, passports and other expensive constraints, making holidays a lot safer and cheaper.
It has given us a bigger voice on the world stage when dealing with trade, war, threats, terrorism …..
It has made us prosperous, increased trade and business and provided millions of jobs.
It has put money into conservation projects, regeneration of deprived areas and inner cities, and business projects that have had enormous impact on regenerating run-down areas and providing work as well, as subsidizing people in areas that otherwise would not be economically viable.
It has protected our consumer rights. All goods bought and sold have to comply with standards of safety and quality.
It is good for business and has brought huge benefits to this country. Many companies, banks and trading partners work through Britain as an entry point into Europe. We gain all that extra wealth.
It has produced millions of jobs and made us wealthier.
But we could do all that ourselves!
No we couldn’t.
We want our sovereignty back!
So that our corrupt bunch of politicians can have more power for themselves? What makes them better than the other politicians in Europe?
We want to make our own laws!
In truth much of the legislation in the Human Rights and Employment etc. was put together by Britain. We have a big say in what goes on in Europe. We play a major role in directing it.
We want to control our borders. We have too much immigration and don’t want terrorists coming here!
Then why didn’t we sign up to the European legislation to prevent people coming here for longer than three months if they don’t have work?
We will defeat terrorism through our intelligence work, through cooperation rather than building walls.
What has Europe done for us? Well you don’t miss your water until your well runs dry.
https://www.last.fm/music/Monty+Python/_/What+Have+The+Romans+Ever+Done+For+Us%253F
It hasn’t really been that peaceful and neither has the EU been operating for 70 years.
I would suggest that upon the unification of the above listed as example countries, this happened many decades ago and the population sizes were very much less than what they are today.
However, in Europe there was very viable reason for the concept of nationalism to prevail – that of the threat of Soviet domination after 1948.
Post WW2 – Democratic governments in exile planned the rationalisation of Czech and Polish territories to exclude the ethnic German minority, which was met with little objection by western democratic states; albeit later thwarted by Soviet invasions.
There also have been further Euro conflicts apart from the Balkans.
1956 – The Suez crisis
1956 – Russia invades Hungary
1959 – The Basque conflict starts
1961 – The Berlin Wall
1968 – Russia invades Czechoslovakia
1971 – IRA terrorism for some 30 odd years
1974 – Turkish invasion and capture of northern Cyprus
1989 – The start of widespread ethnic violence in former Soviet eastern European territories, due to ethnic intolerance and disputes over border rationalisation.
2001 – Russian / Georgia war
The presumption by liberal democrats that EU citizenship overrode ethnic identity was eroded by the dynamic of war and violence. Hence, if there was no historical inevitability there was a kind of logic to the explosion of ethnic violence and reordering of boundaries that occurred once Communism fell and the external menace was removed.
Basically, it’s still a tad too early yet for such transitions.
Then there’s the basic issue of language?
Regarding your theory of European travel.
Have you tried to leave UK without a passport?
Have you tried to check into any European hotel without a passport?
Both the above are prerequisites simply because we did not opt for the Identity Card facility, which is available to some Euro countries. However, it is also law in some countries that they must be carried at all times otherwise summary fines are administered. We in UK are not privy to any of that abject authoritarianism.
The fact that holidays are cheap has nothing whatsoever to do with the EU. They are cheap (in comparison) because of the advent of airline competition and these airlines being able to compete due to the global availability of sufficient aviation fuel supplies that are price guaranteed for management of financial budget periods, which in turn spearheaded the development of hotel chains where properties were budget built. There would be no such thing as a cheap holiday otherwise. Unless of course there’s an EU run airline, hotel chain, and centralised travel agency, but I can’t think of one off hand.
I would also suggest that the fact we don’t need Visa’s to travel in Europe, we were hit by Air Passenger Duty, which is very much higher in cost than a visitor’s visa. Call it what you like, but we DO in fact pay to travel within Europe. We are also subject to visitor taxes that are hidden within hotel room rates packages. The public doesn’t see this additional charge as an entity on their bills as it’s dealt with internally between business and governments directly and randomly checked upon by tourist police divisions that scrutinise hotel registers for numbers of etc.
I know this having worked in the industry as senior management for 30 years.
Reblogged this on Opher's World and commented:
You don’t know what you’ve got til its gone.
I agree, Opher, there has not been a major war in Europe since WWII.The European Union is also valuable because it is an important stepping stone to a world government. Personally, I’m happy Canada has a free-trade deal with the EU. I think the Brexit decision was terribly short-sighted.
Myopic nationalists, fear of terrorism, too much immigration too quickly, and lies.
What a combination!
A rich soup for the gullible.