The case for Europe
It seems extraordinary to me that the UK is even considering leaving the EU.
I live in London. I’m not from here, I still travel on an Australian passport, but I live here. London is my home.
On 23rd June 2016, UK voters will make a decision on whether or not the UK should leave the UK. I’m a UK voter and I’ll be voting to remain.
There’s a lot of big numbers being thrown around by both sides of the debate, and expert opinions being wheeled out to try and convince the UK voters which way to lean.
Things get a bit clearer though when you look at who is behind each of the campaigns. The Remain campaign is led by the Tory government, with the support of all of the opposition parties. The Leave campaign is being led by a few disgruntled Tories, with the support of UKIP.
I can’t imagine why anyone would think that it is sensible to align themselves with Nigel Farage.
Of course, English tensions with mainland Europe are not a new thing. Probably dating back to the Bell-Beaker people who landed in England around 2,500 BC, there has been a constant flow of migration from Europe to England, and regular struggles for control of this small island.
The emergence of the House of Plantagenet (who originated from the lands of Anjou in France) transformed England into a nation state. From the time that Henry II took the throne in 1154, developments such as the Magna Carta, the codification of the judicial system, and the establishment of English as the primary language all helped to build a distinct sense of national identity for the people ruled by the English crown — an identity that was further consolidated under the rise of the Tudor dynasty and the evolution of modern Britain.
But the affairs of the powers on the mainland of Europe were always intrinsic to day-to-day life in England. From the famines and plagues of the middle ages, to the Hundred Years War, to the Renaissance, and the Age of Discovery — England has never been isolated from European affairs but always intrinsically enmeshed within them.
The aftermath of the World Wars of the 20th century inevitably influences the world view of today’s UK voters. It was in 1923 when a Pan-Europa manifesto was first written, and the concept gathered momentum through the League of Nations in the late-20s, with France becoming the first to formally adopt the concept in 1930. In 1946, Winston Churchill gave a speech in favour of a United States of Europe (although Churchill didn’t see Great Britain as being part of that grouping).
One of the driving considerations for a more unified Europe was the question of how to avoid wars between nation-states. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the 1948 Hague Congress began to lay the foundations for the European Union as we know it today. In 1957, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany signed the Treaty of Rome — creating the European Economic Community. The UK joined the EEC in 1973. In 1992, the Maastricht Treaty continued the evolution, transforming the EEC into the European Union that as it stands today.
Of course the European Union is far from perfect. But to imagine that somehow the UK could exist in isolation from Europe seems contrary to the lessons of the past.
The UK’s history is defined by its connection with the peoples of mainland Europe. In my mind, it is its connection with Europe that will also define the UK’s future.
