I was a young child when the decision to become part of the Common Market took place, but the free trade my parents voted for then is a far cry to the political union we have now.
I believe it is now time to review our relationship with the EU and work towards returning Europe to a loose conglomeration of commercially co-operating nation states. A referendum will shape what our future should be.
14 Comments
July 22, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Kevin, do you really think this is wise? I agree, the single market is the cornerstone of the EU – but the fact is that we couldn’t get anything done on things that we profess to believe in, like climate change, energy security and cross-border terrorism, if we were not working as one bloc. The UK’s views are also better represented in fora such as the WTO when we speak as a multinational trading bloc. I share your concerns about a federal state, but there is very little to support this assertion – least of all our vetoes on key issues such as taxation, social security, defence and foreign policy. It seems to me your EU views are much close to those of Nigel Farage than those of David Cameron – whose pre-Christmas speech made clear the value of working with other European partners. I do hope you will reconsider your approach, for in all other ways you are an ideal candidate for Yeovil.
July 23, 2007 at 10:26 am
I have a great deal of time for the people of Europe and do not believe we should just unilaterally pull out of the EU, but we at least should be given the opportunity to have that debate.
The founding Father’s of the European ideal had as their guiding philosophy the desire to end wars in Europe and believed that the co-operation on economic matters was the way of achieving that aim.
What I think concerns me is that the growth of unaccountable Europe is progressing at a fast rate – the new treaty has in it the establishment of a permanent President – and I believe it is right that we take time to think about its future direction.
I am not arguing, necessarily, that withdrawal is the only answer. This is very different from the position of UKIP!
You mention the WTO, but also think about the UN security council where we do not sit as an EU bloc. I am all for, where it is in our national interest, negotiating as a bloc, but do we need Parliaments in both Brussels and Strasbourg to do that?
I agree that we should co-operate on the things that matter to us all in Europe (the environment being a very important issue), but that we should not need to create pan-European structures of state to do that. Kyoto was about individual states (169 of them) signing up to its protocols, it was not about Europe signing up as a single European bloc.
In summary my approach is pragmatic. There should be no more integration and co-operation should always be in the national interest with opt outs for those nation states who object.
I believe the British people are overdue a real debate on the future of Europe and we should see a referendum about how the future develops – accepting that a referendum is a difficult thing to phrase. For my views on referendums I suggest you see this post here.
http://kevindavis.wordpress.com/2006/07/07/does-localism-make-you-happy/
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