Dear World,
I fear a lot of you do not fully understand what we did last week.
If you want to know what happened, I will tell you.
I am writing this to hopefully provide some perspective for those living outside the UK and to show that, despite many reports, we are a peaceful and hopeful nation.
Last Thursday, my country voted by a simple majority in a national referendum to leave the central governing body of Europe named the European Union.
The European Union began — in a very different form from today and under a different name — about sixty years ago, to encourage peace and companionship across a war torn continent through the trade of industrial materials. A few countries tied their economies together, which would discourage them from continuing their long histories of bloody war.
A few years later, more countries joined, and formed a shifting block of free trade. Sometimes it was an economic area, sometimes an economic community…
Roll on another few years, and the union began to shift through the signing of more treaties. Many were controversial. Many member states took referendums on the development of the new union, and many voted against it. When these countries voted negatively, they were either ignored by the leaders of the union, or the public were given more referenda until their leaders received the answer needed to further the country’s (and the union’s) economic interests.
These treaties went so far as to dictate a set of laws that each trading country must abide by, superseding national parliaments. The pan-European laws embodied noble ideals, like free movement of goods, services, and people, and an overarching regulatory framework that meant everybody would peacefully abide by the same rules and would protect the citizens from poor working conditions and more viperous forms of consumerism.
Basically, from the old idea of peace through trade, came a super-national governing body intent on the furthering of its own peaceful and cooperative vision of Europe. This shift took place mainly through treaties of 1993 and 2009.
This governing body, as part of its interest in prosperity throughout Europe, also introduced a new cross-border currency, the Euro, and central bank, the European Central Bank — again in order to facilitate better trade and friendship between countries who used to slaughter each other for fun. The UK did not enter this currency, despite warnings that we would suffer.
Which brings us to where we are today.
It sounds like the dawning of a wonderful new world, doesn’t it? A central body, dedicated to peace and prosperity across an entire continent, gladly sharing its money and ideas, and where all citizens are accepted, everywhere.
Why would the UK vote to leave this wonderful organisation — especially when it is against our economic interest?
We must be mad, surely. Or stupid.
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Citizen’s dislike for the European Union is labelled ‘Euro-scepticism’. Across the main body of Europe, Euro-scepticism has been polled on average at around 50–60%.
Why?
Let’s keep it light.
One of the laws in one of the treaties was to facilitate the free movement of people. I quite like this. Many people love this. Some people do not like this. OK. People who dislike ‘foreigners’ exist in every society, but in a democracy the electorate will usually outvote those whose hold racist or xenophobic views. I am no apologist for the darker elements of the human experience.
Remember that the UK did not sign up to the Euro, the European currency.
This has led to our Pound (GBP) being stronger than the continental Euro, meaning it is has more value across the world, making it more attractive.
We also speak English.
Most of the continent, if not the entire world, is taught the English language, for its cultural and monetary benefits. The English speaking world has, for better or worse, been the centre of finance for as long as anyone has been alive. There are competitors, but it is the anglosphere’s dominance for so long that has brought us here.
This puts us at a unique position within Europe. We are an attractive destination because we are ‘richer’ than Europe, many already speak our language, and — believe it or not — the vast majority of us are welcoming to those who wish to come to our country.
However, as usual, those who do not welcome our current level of immigration are the vocal ones. It is always those who want change that will shout the loudest, and rightly so. That’s how democracy is done. You make your voice heard, and a discussion can be had.
They were getting louder, and louder.
So one day our Prime Minister, David Cameron, having promised a referendum on our membership of the European Union, went to the European Union to explain our unique problem. He had to, because our immigration laws are set by the EU, and not by our parliament.
It must be noted here, that the free movement of people is causing rising and considerable tension in other countries, particularly France, Germany, Sweden, Austria and, regrettably, Greece. Anti-immigrant tension across the continent is reaching dangerous levels. Far-right and even neo-Nazi parties are growing in popularity at an alarming rate, and have infiltrated most governments across the continent.
The European Union, being a beacon of progress, will surely act to calm and protect its people.
In its wisdom, it will surely act for the better.
No, it will not, for its laws are enshrined in treaty. Its laws are immovable. Its laws are doctrine. Its laws are above those of its individual member states.
And herein lies the problem. This is the problem that has been at the heart of peaceful and democratic Euro-scepticism for fifty years. This is just a particularly pernicious example, and I regret that our opposition to the EU has unfolded as it has. It could so easily have been avoided.
David Cameron returned from days of negotiation with nothing to quell the social unrest in the UK. This is the point. It is not about appeasing the suspect motives of anti-immigration activists — it is about the fact that the law that is causing them to lash out cannot be changed by any means.
It is the same with competition law. It is the same with government funding of industry.
But surely, these laws are decided democratically, and for the good of a peaceful and prosperous Europe?
The European Parliament is a group of elected representatives from each of the twenty-eight member states, and they have the right to approve, reject, and/or amend laws as they are proposed by the commission.
Can the elected parliament propose laws?
No.
A citizen can petition — but only if a citizen petitions to a far greater degree than any citizen is capable can any motion be considered for discussion by a governing body bound by treaties signed before the information revolution, implementing a single vision dreamed of in a world alien to ours.
Here, let’s take a break.
Phew.
Aren’t these laws for the best? Don’t they benefit everyone?
Greece has been decimated. The EU’s enthusiasm to expand meant it ignored ‘financial irregularities’ when Greece joined the common currency. The 2008 crash and the ECB’s inflexible rules have led the country to ruin. It now has 50% youth unemployment, and has been stripped of state assets. Without immense charity, the country will fall into the hands of despots.
This charity is not forthcoming from its European brothers.
Why can no-one fix Greece?
Because both Greece and the ECB are bound by the treaties of the EU, which were implemented undemocratically, and which, as it turns out, are simply no good.
The same is happening in Spain, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Sweden…
The euro is failing and is in a debt crisis. The public are losing faith in the European project at an alarming rate, and the EU is too detached, undemocratic, and blindly faithful to the effectiveness of its treaties to change, adapt, and improve the lot of its citizens.
It is breeding hatred and poverty.
It has missed all of its goals, and it is exactly its rigid approach to achieving these goals that is leading to its downfall. But it will not listen to the people.
As a governing body, they are almost mad with power. Unelected and unaccountable, they continue with their vision.
Our referendum, then?
It was fought on bogus grounds, on both sides. Ignore them both. If people warmed to the destructive elements of the ‘Leave’ camp, it is because their voice was being echoed. The ‘Remain’ camp didn’t only fail to address these concerns, but it simply could not, because it had no argument, because the only organisation that could address these people’s concerns was miles away, in a big glass building, talking to banks and corporations about how to improve the lives of the people even further — perhaps by a free trade deal with America, TTIP, which would allow American corporations to sue EU member states’ governments if those governments did not act in the corporations’ interests.
The EU is government conducted in secret, with no mandate from the people, where the will of the people is only advisory, and with no accountability to the people.
And it is destroying people’s lives. Right now.
Yet the treaties and the directives and the agreements and the vision continue to bulldoze our continent.
My country was warned of economic hardship, though exaggeratedly so. The claims of the Remain campaign were as outlandish as the Leave campaign.
My fellow countrymen decided that we would rather have democracy than money. That we would rather disobey than submit. That we would rather have freedom than comfort. That we would rather rule ourselves than be ruled by a pseudo-Soviet pan-continental and expansionist organisation.
The main failing of the European Union is that it has failed to show us a better Europe.
Instead, it will go down its own road. For the European Union, the answer to too much EU is: more EU.
They are witch doctors. They are political quacks.
I have seen much media portraying the UK as a racist or backwards country.
We are not.
We wanted the chance to show the world that we can be tolerant and prosperous and giving and internationalist on our own. And we can do it better. We can do it so, so much better than we are being instructed to.
The EU is falling apart. You must see this. And it is the EU itself that is causing it. 52% of our population saw this, or something like this, when we voted last Thursday. It has been in our culture for years. It is not a new rise of hate or isolationism. It is the rise of a spirited internationalism. We want to lead the European continent out of its current quagmire.
If our democracy has hurt our banks, then our banks are not fit for purpose.
So please, view us kindly, world. We love you. We are reaching out, not cutting off. Do not believe entirely the mainstream perspectives you are hearing. They are not a half of the truth.
Yours faithfully,
A UK Citizen.
