Well, today’s the day. The first Nick v Nigel debate takes place on LBC tonight. I’ve already been on the station this morning batting for Team Nick against a UKIP MEP who suggested that Nick using facts might be a problem and that Nick had agreed to the debate. Everyone knows it was Nick who actually issued the challenge.
Nick has been writing for the Mirror on the reasons why he believes Britain needs to stay in the EU.
He knows it’s not perfect but who’s going to invest here if we are not part of that much larger market:
Europe isn’t perfect. Far from it. But if we pull up the drawbridge, break our ties with our European allies, and turn our back on the continent, we will be putting our country at risk.
An exit now, or even threatening exit, could damage our fragile economic recovery, destabilise our country and threaten jobs.
The reason big employers like Nissan and Siemens are investing here is because we are a gateway to 500 million European customers – but we won’t be if we leave the EU. So if our future in Europe is thrown into doubt, so is our ability to keep people in work.
And then there’s the fight against crime and climate change:
Being in Europe means our police can work with their counterparts abroad to go after criminal gangs and make our streets safer. In a globalised world, criminal gangs, terrorists and paedophiles cross borders – our police must be able to too.
And it’s only by working with our European neighbours that we can protect our environment for the future.
Climate change doesn’t stop at the White Cliffs of Dover, and criminal gangs don’t just hand themselves in at border control.
And there’s real, practical relevance for people:
Easyjet recently said that it owes its existence to the EU’s common trading rules. That happened because we’re in, not out. When new changes come in this summer, we will have slashed mobile phone roaming costs by 90%, because we’re in, not out. And British families have access to free healthcare if they fall ill on holiday, because we’re in, not out.
You can read the whole article here.
And watch out for more pre and post match analysis and news on how the party is preparing for the Great Debate.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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6 Comments
Caron. There is a problem with the link to the article.
Interesting to see that Andrew Grice of the Independent thinks Clegg is “staking his future” on the debates:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nick-clegg-stakes-his-future-on-trialbydebate-with-ukip-leader-nigel-farage-9215354.html
“The Lib Dems fear their group of 12 MEPs could be cut to two or even none. If that happens, Mr Clegg’s decision to break with tradition and talk about Europe in a Euro election will be seen as a disastrous mistake that raises big questions about his judgment.”
Trouble is that I’m sure if the eurosceptics could choose their opponent in this debate to represent the Europhile view they would pick Nick Clegg. Sorry but he embodies the principle free elite that Ukip and eurosceptics generally hate. Not every view of him may be entirely fair but the Clegg brand is beyond repair.
On the other hand, we need to recognise that some EU economies ARE more attractive to migrate to than others, instead of allowing a complete EU free-for-all. There ARE lots of people from much poorer economies coming here and undercutting domestic workers. This needs addressing, perhaps by some internal mechanism (say, free movement only between countries with GDP within say, 10% of each other?) if we are to continue with the European project at all.
It would be a tragedy if the spreading of law, human rights and liberal values were to be killed off by a dogmatic insistence that immediate free movement right across the EU is a prerequisite for citizens every country which joins. That is simply unacceptable to most voters (including me).
An outsider bet for tonight’s buzzword bingo might be “fresh milk”. The troika’s demand that the Greek government change the definition of “fresh milk” from “milk less than 5 days old” to “milk less than 11 days old” is (according to Tyler Durden over on Zerohedge) in danger of causing the collapse of the Greek government.
Paul in Twickenham
Should that be a definition of “yoghurt” ?