A Need for an Honest Open EU Debate

Politicians are trusted less than Estate Agents, in fact in a recent Ipsos-Mori Poll just 21% of Britons trust politicians to tell the truth.

(https://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/3685/Politicians-are-still-trusted-less-than-estate-agents-journalists-and-bankers.aspx)

People see politicians as self-serving people who are more interested in their own well-being, or that of their party, rather than the well-being of the constituents they are elected to serve. Yet whatever the inherent character flaws of those who seek elected office and while sometimes they lack common sense and a grasp of the reality facing their constituents, their overall level of education and intelligence is undoubtedly good.

Given that why is there such a divide amongst politicians over whether the UK should remain in or leave the EU?

The answer must be that the difference between remaining or leaving is a fine one.

After all if there were a really strong argument for one or the other the vast majority of Conservative Politicians (the Labour Party has yet to truly show its splits!) would be firmly in the one camp. Yet we have heard tales of Cabinet members soul-searching in deciding which side of the line to support, something that would be unnecessary if there were a truly clear argument for in or out.

If the benefits of being in or out of the EU is such a fine line then the debate needs to reflect the reality of that fine difference, the people of the UK need to be informed accurately and given real facts.

However, politicians have quickly reverted to type, pumping out spin and scare-mongering.

For example, the IN camp, “If we leave the EU we will be heading into the unknown” not quite true, we know how the EFTA countries operate with the EU, we know how countries outside the Economic Free Trade Area operate with the EU, studies have been conducted to see how the UK can operate outside the EU. It is no more a leap into the unknown than staying within the EU where changes by other members can impact on the UK. “UK security will be threatened” again scare-mongering, all Nations benefit from cooperating whether or not they are members of the EU, as a nation we cooperate with others outside the EU and even if the people choose to leave the EU we will still be members of NATO where much of the security cooperation takes place.

On the other hand the OUT camp will tell us “leaving the EU will help us control our borders”, the problem there is that any free trade agreement with the EU will inevitably include a requirement to accept the free movement of people and it does not address the issue of illegal immigration. The “jungle” outside Calais will not disappear because Britain has left the EU. Or “Britain will save “£55 million a day by leaving the EU” now while that may be the amount of the UK’s contribution claiming that would be the saving is pure bunkum, firstly there would need to be an army of bureaucrats employed to negotiate/re-negotiate and maintain the number of global trade agreements that the UK would need to operate outside the EU, then there are the subsidies by the EU which Britain will need to continue independently in order to ensure the competitiveness of British businesses.

As a nation we need to make an informed decision which means we need those campaigning on both sides to drop the spin, the scare-mongering and the self-serving desire to be on the winning side. The choice between IN or OUT is a fine one and it is those fine details that need to be debated, openly and honestly, those elected to serve us need to start winning back our trust and that can only be achieved by making this debate one which truly informs the electorate who will be making this decision.

Immigration: Heads Buried in Westminster Sand

Cast your minds back to late April 2010, the day Gordon Brown’s microphone was left on following his encounter with Gillian Duffy and, after her reference to Eastern European immigrants, the word he used to describe her.

Fast forward back to today and we discover that nearly a third of people in Britain admit to being race prejudice (compulsory survey warning – the survey only sampled 2,000 people) and this is a significant rise since the all-time low in 2001.

Add to that the somewhat stunning success of UKIP in the recent elections, especially their ‘win’ in the European elections which, frankly, the Labour Party should have won hands down at this point in the electoral cycle and we can see that there is a large portion of the British people who are concerned about immigration in Britain.

An interesting, somewhat ironic, counterpoint to the survey news this morning were the images of immigrant camps and around 800 immigrants being cleared out in Calais, hardly images that will alter the views of those concerned with immigration.

Yet despite this obvious national concern with immigration the Westminster parties seem to treat those concerns somewhat contemptuously or, perhaps more accurately, simply failed to recognise the concerns of a sizable number of the electorate despite the endless warning signs of what is happening.

The Conservatives have been banging on about what they have achieved in terms of immigration yet are totally failing to convince many people of this. Obviously the images of the camps of people waiting to flood into Britain from just across the Channel do not exactly back up their narrative.

The Labour Party appear to have failed to learn the lesson from Gordon Brown’s experience and while they have been focusing on the cost of living issue they have failed to address the reason why many people feel there is a cost of living crisis, which is that to many immigrants have taken British jobs and are pushing down wages in the process. While not inherently true it is a popularly held belief and, as such, needs to be addressed by a party that wants the electorate to put them into Government next year.

Obviously the Liberal Democrats have suffered a killer blow because of this issue. Having been staunchly pro EU the implication is they are pro EU immigration and therefore quite happy with EU immigrants taking British jobs and, unless they take a stance that recognises the concerns of many of the electorate 2015 could be an even worse year for them.

Immigration is a potentially toxic issue which the politicians in Westminster would prefer to go rather than tackle it head on but by burying their heads in the sand they further increase the disillusion with politics in this country. They appear to seek power simply for powers sake rather than power to answer then concerns of the ordinary people who give them power in the first place.

The warning signs of increasing voter concern about immigration have been there since 2010 yet failure to truly address those concerns has resulted in the rise of UKIP which,  in turn, could give the three main parties in Westminster a real headache over the next 12 months.