Who said politicians can’t persuade you to change your mind on a vital issue?
Having heard Nigel Farage, all hale and hearty, on the radio this morning, with his usual combination of anti-immigrant, borderline racism and raw xenophobia, I am edging back to the “yes” camp for the coming EU referendum.
I am still keeping my options open given what David Cameron might achieve in his negotiations with the EU – it would be handy if he was to tell the EU just what he wanted to negotiate on sometime soon – but I am, generally speaking, minded to support staying in. Not at any cost, mind you, and I still remain very angry at the way the EU treated Greece, but provided Cameron does not secure changes to the social chapter that are detrimental for the rights of ordinary workers, I am wandering back into an onside position.
The arguments of the writer and broadcaster Owen Jones have certainly made me think about my position. There are certainly compelling reasons to consider a Brexit. The undemocratic and bureaucratic nature of the EU, as well as the move towards “ever closer union”, is not something I particularly welcome, but I am beginning to rediscover that the positives massively outweigh the negatives. I like the freedom of movement, not just to work but to travel. I like the idea of open borders to trade. I like the partnerships such as those with Airbus which might otherwise be difficult to happen. And I like the fact that I am a European citizen, as well as a Brit and an Englishman.
It is not just the populist rhetoric of Nigel Farage’s party whom David Cameron once accurately described as “fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists” (I am not sure if the term closet is actually needed) that is swaying my view, it is the suggestion from Labour’s ultra left wing leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn that he too might adopt an anti-EU position, as his fellow traveller Tony Benn once did, in his case sharing a platform with among others Enoch “rivers of blood” Powell.
It seems to me that the default EU position of those of us ranging from a centre left to a centre right position is generally pro-European and it is at the extreme fringes where you find opposition. As ever, when the far left and far right disappear to the margins, they somehow meet on common ground, even if their motives are radically different.
Yet again, Farage was given a huge amount of air time by the BBC whereas no one else from the opposition was allowed a single word in which to state an alternative view. The only other person to give a view was David Cameron. So much for the “left wing BBC”. What a joke that was.
I could not possibly vote for something which was supported by Ukip on one side and the far left on the other and that, as much as anything, will shape how I vote in 2016.
