Just over a week ago, on the Saturday, we had the news that it’s on 23 June. The following Sunday’s papers seemed to say that “it” is a Tory leadership challenge: depending on the paper, Cameron was “declaring war on the rebels”, others painted it as Gove versus Cameron, and then Boris Johnson joined the fray.
The problem with referenda is the danger of people voting on a question other than the one on the ballot paper, but this seemed particularly extreme. It left a sense of the referendum being primarily about the internal mechanics of the Conservative party.
Also on that Saturday, I heard Graham Watson say that the referendum is not in the bag, and we might be on the verge of a Brexit which would be “the biggest foreign policy blunder since George III lost America over tea”. He has a point.
Putting the positive case for EU membership suddenly seemed difficult. It is hard to produce arguments based on reality when reality is being ignored. It suddenly seemed wise to focus the LibDem campaign on getting out our supporters and leave the undecided voters to StrongerIn.
To complete the tale of doom, I have yet to hear any anti-EU arguments that hold water, so it feels as if people are responding to something which is hard to handle with the easier task of attacking leadership. The term “anarchy” seems spot on — a chaotic attack on the possibility of authority, whether that is in Brussels or Downing St. It feels more like a primitive flight from reality — perhaps I should call it a fight/flight response.
My Lib Dem instincts want to assert themselves in saying lots of eminently sensible things about the value of being part of the EU. But I fear that won’t be heard.
At a Cambridge Lib Dem event recently we were invited to say something about why the EU matters. As I spoke, something hit a nerve. I thought of my great uncle talking of a friendship with a German boy which grew out of a school exchange in the 1930s. I thought of a close friend who is half French and half Austrian and was born in the UK. I thought of wise Eurocrats I have known. I had more than half an ear on the rich musical heritage of Europe. I celebrated the struggle and the complexity of the rich tapestry of European history.
My instinctive reaction is to hide and brace myself for the worst — both a “no” vote and what it would lead to. Perhaps I need to take the courageous path of recognising the fear that the eruption over the last week has surfaced in me, and choose to engage emotions rather than hide in my capacity for logic.
But whether we are reeling after an electoral bruising last May, or recoiling in horror at the last week’s headlines, another sentence that draws strong reaction from me is the start of the preamble to our constitution:
The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity.
Right now it feels as if the Europe debate desperately needs the heart that can hold that sentiment and the courage to give it voice.
* Mark Argent was the Liberal Democrat candidate for Huntingdon in the 2019 and 2024 General Elections.
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14 Comments
The Mail on Sunday has Boris Johnson as conflicted and not ambitious, his sister knows him. The Daily Telegraph on Monday has the usual regular article by Boris, taking the Leave campaign straight down the line.
He makes the usual mistakes, deliberately confusing the origins of the EU and its predecessors’ aim of preventing war between its member states, particularly France and Germany by integrating their weapons making capabilities, compared with external problems such as the disintegration of the former Socialist Federation of Yugoslavia.
He confuses the euro, which he surely must have heard of and which John Major opted out of, with the previous ambition of a single currency, which therefore cannot happen and which the UK government is not seeking.
This is an absurd Project Fear by the Out campaign.
Those who might be influenced by Boris should try watching Mayor’s Question Time, broadcast by the BBC and other media, not answering questions.
The result of the referendum may very well be based on fear, unless the Remainers wake up, namely the ‘fear’ of immigration. Somehow, we have got to disentangle that issue from the overall case for staying in. Mind you, a great deal can happen between now and 23 June.
Remain really have a challenge as the number one polling issue for some time has been immigration, many more TV pictures from to-day & last summer will only increase this awareness.Again as polling shows jobs, economy etc. are lower priorities.
Arguments about who did what, when,federalism,security are not going to cut it, voters see immigration and feel it in their wages.
It would be almost certain that “net immigration”, which the Govt has rather stupidly chosen to use as some kind of measure will either go up, or stay about the same, because of the effect of returning EU resident UK citizens in the case of Brexit. Will that renew the case for regarding many of the antis as r*cist b*gots?
Tim13
You really think Spain for example will ask the UK retirement brigade to go home ?
You did know that people could buy property and retire in Spain long before we joined the EU ?
I suppose with a recently crashed property market and 25 % unemployment the Spanish government might want to make things worse for their own citizens, who knows ?
Focusing the Lib Dem EU campaign on turning out the party’s own supporters is fine as long as people also support Stronger In. From the first communication (public) that I read from Tim on the matter recently there was no mention of Stronger In and it worried me that if people who are pro EU mainly focus on finding like-minded people then it could leave the undecides to the outers.
John
I would find that just as likely as our lot are to find thing’s so appalling about the EU that we call a referendum about it! If their people are likely to be badly affected by a British exit (which they are – huge numbers of Spanish immigrants have sought work here in recent years particularly), the the final outcome of any exit negotiation is likely to result in significant disadvantage to British expat populations. This would not necessarily involve expulsion as such, of course.
Your comments imply you think that Spain “does better” than UK from membership of the EU – have you been reading the Mail too much? Sorry, possibly, the UK “does worse”.
John
Out means out. The rest of Europe won’t beg us to export to them. They won’t beg us to live there, just because we’re ‘expats’ the mythical super desirable (but largely not actually working) British people who are not at all migrants, oh no. They’ll be glad to see the weight taken off their health service.
Brexit would change the way we live completely.If you don’t want it to, don’t vote for it. But don’t pretend it won’t.
What is so difficult about promoting your ideas of the positives of remaining in he EU.
I know what I am campaigning for.
1. Returning the democratic decision making of our country to Westminster.
2. Controlling our borders to maintain the integrity of our civic society.
3. Spending British taxpayers money on services for British taxpayers especially those affected by the distortion of the labour market by the importation of unlimited amounts of cheap unskilled labour.
For God’s sake sing loud and proud for what you believe in. What these essay’s are really about, is discussing how you can continue to deceive the country into accepting what you want, even if they don’t want it.
Here are a few ideas.
1. Go heavy on promoting continued unlimited immigration through the EU, you believe in it, so why don’t you sing from the rafters for all it’s worth.
2. Brag about how you are proud of multi-culturism, and you have no problem if western christian culture and British identity is undermined by unreformed misogynistic medieval political creeds like Islam, tell the public you have no problems with their refusal to integrate, or how that they openly advocate their intention is to dominate and replace western liberal society, not to co-exist with it.
Those are a couple of biggies, if you want some more then just ask.
Of course you don’t want to brag about these issues, and that is your real dilemma, you know the reality of your ideaological position, the problem you are discussing at length, is how do you deceive the public.
The problem with referenda is the danger of people voting on a question other than the one on the ballot paper
Agree this does seem to apply here, although looking back it is obvious the question on the paper bears no real relationship to the fundamental issue that brought about the call for a referendum on our EU membership by the UK electorate.
Fundamentally, and this is something the Leave supporters especially have to come to terms with (but also the Remain supporters), the UK public wanted to make Westminster accountable to it!
Remember it was a ‘sovereign’ government took us into the EU and it was a ‘sovereign’ government that signed all the treaties that gave powers to the EU, without consulting the UK electorate…
So whilst with Remain we know that we will need to keep a watchful eye over Westminster and Brussels; the Leave supporters seem to think that somehow a newly ‘single’ Westminster will somehow be able to exercise power in a more responsible and consultative manner, when there is no evidence to show that this might be the case.
I have pasted below a contribution I made a short while ago to two other LDV articles yesterday; it seems relevant to the above wider debate on Brexit and the June Referendum:
If the Brexit folk want to take control of our borders why are they focused on net migration which is the difference between the immigrants and the emigrants? Surely the Brexit team should be focusing on controlling the numbers that come into the UK, namely the immigrants. If we check the historical flow of UK immigrants, at http://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/bulletins/migrationstatisticsquarterlyreport/february2016#immigration-to-the-uk , we can see that Non-EU immigrants have consistently exceeded EU immigrants since well before the UK joined the EU and its predecessor named organisations. Indeed, since the Theresa May (Con) took control of such matters in 2010 Non-EU immigration declined to Q2 2013 and has since steadily risen, along with EU immigration. The latest immigration figures for the year to Sept 2015 show Non-EU immigration at 273,000 while the EU immigration total is 257,000.
Now if the UK can’t or won’t reduce Non-EU immigration which they can control, why make a big deal out of EU immigration which they currently can’t control? The Brexit logic seems to undermine the Brexit case!
Further, if taking back control of our borders regarding EU immigrants represents a return of UK sovereignty, then how do the Brexit supporters defend that a Brexit seems highly likely to lead to a break-up of the UK, with Scotland pushing again for independence? They seem to be arguing that the best way to defend UK sovereignty is by encouraging or seriously risking the break-up of the UK!
@ Gerry M
“defend that a Brexit seems highly likely to lead to a break-up of the UK, with Scotland pushing again for independence? ”
You do know that the Scottish independence campaign by the SNP was factored on an oil price of $110 a barrel, the current oil price is in the region of $30 a barrel.
For all the waffle from the SNP, economically there is not a snowball’s chance in hell of another referendum, simply because they know they have no chance of winning it under the current economic conditions.
Hello Cambridge. Neither you nor I will get a hearing. It is not the university towns that need to be convinced. It is those who feel they are being left behind or ignored.
@ Raddiy “economically there is not a snowball’s chance in hell of another referendum, simply because they know they have no chance of winning it under the current economic conditions”.
I wouldn’t count on that. Those of us who voted ‘No’ last time could quite easily change our minds next time if England takes Scotland out of the EU. The thought of endless Tory Government based on English votes makes this Yorkshireman living in Scotland reflect a great deal.