Apart from a brief dalliance with the ‘No to Europe’ brigade last year, I have resumed my natural place within the ‘Yes’ tent. The EU is not perfect, of course, and it never will be, but the pluses enormously outweigh the minuses. And as someone with more ‘foreign’ blood than British, it would be odd indeed if I turned into a little Englander. David Cameron has launched a renegotiation of Britain’s terms which, to a layman like myself seems to be nothing, or very little, of the kind. In fact, given the complexities of EU membership, the shopping list is strangely small. Look at what he wants:
Protection of the single market for Britain and other non-euro countries.
Well, yes. Was anyone seriously suggesting otherwise?
Boosting competitiveness by setting a target for the reduction of the “burden” of red tape.
What does this mean? Less rights for workers? Haven’t they got few enough already?
Exempting Britain from “ever-closer union” and bolstering national parliaments
Did we really need to renegotiate about this? We just say no, don’t we? No one can tell us to get even closer to our European partners (or enemies, as they are known to some).
Restricting EU migrants’ access to in-work benefits such as tax credits.
Ah – now we’re getting somewhere: stop these bleeding foreigners claiming the benefits we were going to slash anyway, before George found a few billion quid down the back of the sofa, called the Universal Credit.
A cynic, or rather a realist, might suggest that the whole process is a sham; that Cameron, who is under huge pressure from the majority of his MPs and the overwhelming majority of Tory members who want out of Europe at any cost, has thrown them a few small scraps. Nothing will really change under Cameron’s minor tinkering, like the free movement of workers, for example, but he hopes to kick the whole thing into touch once and for all. Europe, that increasingly swollen itchy boil, that now festers out of control, that tore apart the governments of Thatcher and Major and now threaten to undermine Cameron’s.
Even the immigration argument falls apart under even the most limited scrutiny. Leave the EU and we have to negotiate a way to still trade with the EU, but without the ability to influence decisions. There is no way on earth the EU would allow the UK an opt out on the free movement of labour, as Norway has discovered, so what changes?
Cameron will come back with next to nothing from his negotiations because they are all about next to nothing but it will be sold as a major triumph. The things that weren’t going to happen anyway still won’t happen and he will cobble together some sort of deal on in work benefits to Johnny Foreigner.
Yes, I’m firmly in favour of staying in the EU because it makes far more sense than leaving. I’ve waited years for Cameron to outline these fundamental changes in our relationship with Europe, but I have waited in vain. In the end it was mere window-dressing and that’s the gamble the PM has taken with our future prosperity, where his internal politics were more important than the interests of the country. At least it’s not just Jeremy Corbyn who has been guilty of that. Now let’s enjoy watching the Tories tell themselves apart.
