I've been agonising over the EU vote and have already written a blog post saying I'm going to vote out.
For these reasons;
Anyone really pessimistic about the future finds the apparent complete uncontrolled chaos at the borders is pretty terrifying and I'm not just talking about refugees. I hear European anger at Britain's lack of enthusiasm for taking in Syrian refugees but thanks to a history of being a destination of migrants this island is already one of the most densely populated in Europe.
Do I want to take in 50,000 refugees from Syria - absolutely YES
Do I want to take in 50,000 refugees from Syria + the annual influx of 330,000 economic migrants (and climbing) - NO
Those British people who don't care on this issue I would guess are either in comparatively depopulated Scotland, or spend most of their time in their second homes in France (or cycling around leafy bits of London).
They obviously don't spend much time on English motorways, NHS hospitals or comprehensive schools which are all creaking under the strain.
I also don't trust EU political structures, as they are incapable of dealing with a crisis. Just look at 2008 collapse, Greece, Migrants etc. God knows they would handle something really serious.
There need to be more decisiveness, perhaps from Germany and France, and Britain just seems to get in the way and be a distraction.
But despite all that, I've decided to vote IN
because I'm British and, like many of my countrymen going back centuries, I know the problems of Europe aren't solved by ignoring them. And Europe's problems more often than not quickly become the worlds problems.
This is all a bit dry so let me illustrate this.
Think of the movie 1994 movie SPEED.
- The EU government is a mad Dennis Hopper, probably schizoid, who has rigged a bus/European project to hurtle on and be destroyed with massive disaster and loss of life it ever slows down
- Sandra Bullock is the European population which now finds itself on the bus
- and Britain is Keanu Reeves
What we should do is at least stay aboard and steer everyone to safety before the bus/project meets it's probably inevitable demise (in its current form anyway).
Most importantly we need to be aware of jumping off the EU bus would not be any actual escape, we would just find ourselves (to follow the analogy) leaping off the EU bus onto the harsh class divisions of the American nuclear train ....
Think of the 2015 movie SNOWPIERCER
I'll quickly summarise the benefits of that for you
- world records for wealth disparity
- minimal health care
- minimal holidays and work place rights
- minimal government health standards- would you like some lead with that drinking water?
- politics courtesy of Fox news
We've actually all forgotten, avoiding becoming the 51st State is why Britain joined the EU in the first place. British politicians in the 1960s were so worried at being economically blackmailed into joining the Vietnam War they saw a close association with Europe as the only alternative.
And don't kid yourselves that the whole immigration debate will go away when we align ourselves West rather than East and South after Brexit. I'm sure the British nationalist dream of a new Anglo zone Big Business project will continue to get it's cheap labour from somewhere. How would we support the all important housing market without ever increasing demand?
So sadly though I don't trust the EU, I trust my own government even less.
In a wider sense, voting for Brexit might make sense if Britain were an island literally in the middle of the Atlantic. Since we can't move we need some form of EU or NATO and I think it is possible to lose both in the new world of Trump politics after Brexit.
After Brexit we in England may also find ourselves with an undefended land border to the European Schengen Area, when the Scots subsequently give themselves up to their own self serving nationalists.
“Nationalism is an infantile sickness. It is the measles of the human race.”
Albert Einstein
Just for amusement I posted a Post Brexit Timeline.
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