Me, EU and a Drive in the Park

I expected both sides in the EU Referendum campaign to spout gushers of obfuscation and inaccuracy. I have not been disappointed.

So far the winner has been the Leave campaign. They rely on optimistic rhetoric. It started with Boris Johnson saying: “this is like the jailer has accidentally left the door of the jail open and people can see the sunlit lands beyond”. Although this evokes the last Act of Fidelio, in the context of our relationship with the EU it is meaningless.

Michael Gove continued the theme when he said a UK exit would lead to the “democratic liberation of a whole continent”. The only interpretation of  this is that he expects an exit to lead to the break-up of the EU into nation states with individual sovereignty. One can only wonder at the trade barriers that would spring up, the marginalisation of Europe on the world stage, and the threat to security such a disintegration would pose. Here they are, both looking more than a bit mad.

Another great canard is that widespread American support for the UK staying in the EU is unjustified as they would never abrogate their own sovereignty. In fact every State has been integrated into the US with a common currency and, mainly, common laws. This integration did not come quickly or without a struggle. The EU and the US are analogous in terms of diversity of colour, creed, social and economic inequality. They see secession of the UK from the EU being like New Hampshire voting to withdraw from the US.
Thirdly, the Leavers always say that the UK will be able to negotiate good trading terms with the EU and the rest of the world. It is inconceivable that the EU will give a favourable deal to a country that has just left their club. No matter how much some individual member states may want to cut a deal with the UK, the bloc as a whole has to agree these terms and it won’t. President Obama said yesterday that the US would be in no hurry to cut a trade deal either. It is difficult to envisage China doing a trade deal with the UK that is better than the existing one with the EU.
If we leave, our economic prosperity will be dealt a blow from which it will probably never recover. If we leave, our influence over our European neighbours and our voice in the wider world will be diminished. If we stay, we can have our shout and continue to be cheer leaders for the awkward squad in Brussels and Strasbourg; we can restrain the supranational ambitions of EU bureaucrats; we can build on our economic renaissance that has been to a large extent a result of EU membership.

Yesterday President Obama and his wife were driven to luncheon at Windsor Castle by the Duke of Edinburgh. Nothing wrong with a nonagerian doing the driving but I have read that it is rather common for the gents to sit in the front seats while their wives are in the back gossiping. It is another instance of the upper class having more in common with the lower class than the middle class, who apparently configure their seating differently. I can imagine the Queen chatting easily to Mrs Obama. I can also imagine Prince Philip’s gambit to the President – enquiring about the Saudis in salty language.

I wonder what the Obamas made of the Queen’s headscarf? It was something that used to be worn by women of every class to protect their expensively permed hair.  Now nobody except Muslims and the Queen wears a headsquare, as my mother called it.

Finally, to cheer up the Leavers here is a Brexit anthem so they can have a shout.