This must be what a salmon feels like.. A urge to swim against them stream in my case to support Brexit when it seems all of my family and friends are very much in the remain camp.
It’s very easy to understand why, in fact with a campaign hijacked by zeonophobic, lunatic rasists supporting the brexit campaign why would anybody not support remain. Well for me immigration has never really been an issue, I see mostly positives in controlled immigration from wherever, Britian has always been a great melting pot of cultures and has historically benefed from immigration.
Really how can anyone support a position supported by Nigel Farrage, with friends like that…
For me the arguement is perhaps a little more abstract and reflects personal experience working with the European Establishment in Brussels. I love Europe but I hate (and no that is not over using the term) the institution that is the European Union. You really need to spend a few hours walking around the “European District” of Brussels to understand the scope and aspiration of this purely political institution that is to its very core undemocratic.
To make the point clear I am voting tomorrow not against geography, the UK is and will always be part of the continent of Europe, I am voting against the institution. Unlike parliamentary democracies new laws are introduced within the European Union by the European Commision an unelected body of beurocrates unaccountable to the electorate of any European nation. The zeitgeist of the European Commision is clear to create a federal European Super State based on political and economic integration.
The Commision creates directives which are then largely rubber stamped by the other insisituions of the EU, the Council of ministers and the European Parliament who collectively seem to fulfill the role of the UK’s House of Lords. Crucially for the perspective of the democratic process there is no process or mechanism to repeal legislation, which brings me to cookies..
I admit this is a perhaps a trivial example, but it proves a point in May 2011 a directive developed by the European Commision was introduced (Do you remember the discussion or this anywhere.. No ?) which required website publishers to ask users permission to store limited data about their use of website in small files on their computers known as cookies. Now it seems every website you visit pops up an annoying dialogue box asking you if it’s OK with you to store a cookie on your computer. It’s open to arguement if this directive actually prospects users privacy or not, but what’s important is this..
If you wanted to repeal this directive as you believed it was a waste of time and resources, how could you do it ?
In the UK I could talk to my local MP who might begin a campaign is parliament to repeal the legislation, after all the Parliment is the elected legislative instrument of government, within the European Union there is no such mechanism.
At the most fundamental level democracy and national sovereignty is based on the principle that laws should not be made nor taxes raised except by our elected representatives – no taxation without representation. Being able to get rid of our lawmakers is a fundamental democratic right, but one not recognised by the European Union.
If you know me I hope you recognis that I am not a “little englander” and I am certainly not a racist, but I will as a matter or principle be voting to leave tomorrow as is my democratic right.
