Socrates and Brexit

It's a little bit like when small children keep on asking "why?". It is perhaps a little bit more sophisticated. I'm currently posing a series of questions on my Twitter feed which also send them over to Facebook. Look out for them. Get involved.

I asked the other day about how exactly leaving the EU would benefit our children and grandchildren. I received no convincing answer. Soon there was quite an argument between Brexit supporters and Remainers. Both sides were talking with emotions and few used verifiable facts.

There were some opinions, and these are fine, either way. Many of the claims on both sides, however, were not backed up with critical evidence. 

I still feel duty-bound to persuade people Brexit is wrong. I find the Socrative method useful.

It's a matter of using open questions:

Why is Brexit good for our children and grandchildren?

How is trading with bigger countries better that trading with those close by?

What do you understand by Brexit?

What is it you dislike about the EU?

How have we lost our sovereignty to the EU?

So, what is the role of the Euro MP?     

How could the EU be reformed to make it work better?

How does leaving the EU make our borders safer?

How does leaving the EU help us to avoid food banks and homelessness?

What are the advantages of Brexit?

Of course, you must be able to answer the same questions about Remain. How confident are you about giving a well-reasoned, critically informed response to the following?

Why is remaining in the EU good for our children and grandchildren?

How is trading with bigger countries better that trading with those close by?

What do you understand by the EU?

What is it you dislike about Brexit?

How can we retain sovereignty and remain in the EU?

So, what is the role of the Euro MP?     

How could the EU be reformed to make it work better?

How does remaining in the EU impact on our borders?  

How does remaining in the EU help us to avoid food banks and homelessness?

What are the advantages of staying in the EU?

Now the kiddies' version.

Why is Brexit good for me?

Because we can make trade arrangements with bigger countries.

Why is it better to trade with bigger countries?

Because they have more to offer.

What do they have to offer that we can't get here?

Gas, oil, cheaper clothes.

Why are the clothes cheaper in bigger countries?

Because they can make them cheaper.

How do they make them cheaper?

EU Funded projects

How will we do this in the future?

 

Arts

3D and 4D constructions on historical sites

Funded small press

Scottish poetry

Indie film Companies

International outreach  

Support for major gallery

Playwriting at a university

Animation companies

 

Education

PERFORM – science learning

Wales

Lido refurbished

Railway stations revamped

Waterfront museum  

Marina transformed

Town centres improved

Sailing academy established

A465 improved

University estate restructured

Historic house restored

Welsh language centre restored

High-tech research backed at a university

Flagship employment programme backed

Marin energy backed

Funds for under-20s rugby

Welsh food centre supported

Youth apprenticeships backed

Long-term sick helped into work

Masters in Finance backed

Welsh-Irish partnership backed

Towns

NEC Birmingham

John Lennon airport

Manchester Museum

Birmingham: International Conference Centre, Symphony Hall, Think Tank Museum,  City University,   

= tip of iceberg – Google  "EU funded projects in UK" for many, many more and the details about these.      

  

How the whole becomes bigger than the parts

There's a lot of angst about this £350,000,000 a week. Those who lied to us forgot to mention that £300,000,000 of it comes back to our regions. Post Brexit that will have to come from our own pockets. But we'll still be in the black, won't we, because there's £50,000,000 left over?  Oh but what about the farmer's subsidies and the big projects – new transport systems, new roads?  Sure, we can do that all ourselves (maybe) but isn't it better to get more brains and more brawn behind it all? And have a few internationally applied laws to keep us all safe? 

I'm a fan of the potluck supper / lunch. Everybody is asked to bring enough food for a certain number of people. An example: a choir I belong to recently hosted a visiting choir. We held a joint workshop and everybody was asked to bring enough food for two people. I brought along enough for four as one of our members had to rush off and do a translation. I provided a litre of flavoured water, a big pack of grapes, some elegant biscuits and two broccoli and cheese quiches. All for just a little more than I normally spend on a lunch in the canteen at the university where I used to work. I also had some spare cherry tomatoes in the fridge. 

What a spread! There were elegant trays of mixed fruits, all sorts of cakes, some specialty breads, crudités and dips, fresh pizza, salads, cheese, cold meat and much, much more. It looked lovely. It tasted lovely. There was more than enough for everyone to have several helpings.

We have long rehearsals in the same building sometimes. We all sit and eat our own packed lunches.  Not nearly as much fun. 

And should I add, perhaps, that the visiting choir was Danish? We sang and they sang and we sang together. We kept each other on our toes. When we sang together we made a new and interesting sound. 

Will such international co-operation be as easy post-Brexit?  

I've decided to collect signs that tell of EU-funded projects. I may make a collage of them for a future post. 

      

               

Is Brexit lose / lose?

So what were people actually choosing on 23 June 2016?

 

Soft Brexit?

A soft Brexit is described as one where we keep the single market and with that we have to keep freedom of movement. Surely, though, a lot of people voted for Brexit because they didn't want any more immigrants and they didn't want to be tied to free trade only with the EU.

Free trade elsewhere?

Well, I note negotiations with Japan are going - well!  And even if they went brilliantly, dare I mention food miles?

Baby and bathwater

Why would we anyway want to keep these two restraints and not enjoy the other benefits of membership of the EU?      

Why give up:

·         The laws that are fair and keep your own state in check

·         The European Court of Justice – where do you go when your own country's judicial system lets you down?

·         Easy travel to other EU destinations.

·         Over 40 years of peace

·         Money, where the whole is greater than the parts

Myths challenged

The UK will not be £350,000,000 a week better off after Brexit. In fact, given that we will need to pay nearly that much to our regions, and goodness knows what to the farmers, that we will lose business, that the pound has weakened, that we lose access to magic money and that we have an exit debt to pay we'll be considerably worse off.  

We still have sovereignty. We always did and would still have even if we stayed. EU matters anyway are decided by the EU parliament. We all have an MEP who represents us. One, of course, had totally let us down and creates a bad press for the rest.

There always were controls on immigration even from the EU, as there are in each EU state.  However, we chose not to implement them. Now landlords, small businesses and universities are being asked to police this.

Our immigrants provide us with a net gain. They pay more in taxes than they cost in services. Particularly worrying is the effect of Brexit on the NHS. Much of the workforce is made up of citizens from other EU states. If they all go home and all the baby boomer ex-pats return to the UK – which the state of the pound may force them to do as their pensions rapidly lose value – we'll be in a heck of a pickle.       

 

The greatest loss?

Many of our friends from other EU states have returned home or are thinking about it. They feel unwanted here. In the eyes of the rest of Europe we look foolish and disorganised.     

What we're throwing away

I find it very difficult not to spit and swear when some people, including Brexiteers, say that perhaps we may no longer have this or that benefit of being in the EU after Brexit.

Let's be very clear.

We – or at least a few of us – have opted to leave the club. We cannot expect to retain any of its benefits. It's extreme arrogance to suppose that we could or should.

Here are a few things that we lose:

 

EHIC

We are currently entitled to be treated in a medical emergency when we are abroad in any EU state the same way as the citizens of that state. That should go. If we're not paying into the fund why should we get the benefits? Higher travel insurance then, and what with the pound compared with the euro, continental holidays may become a thing of the past except for the very well off. No doubt the xenophobia will grow.

Erasmus

Again, if we don't pay in, why should we benefit? I used to be the Erasmus officer at the university where I worked. I saw hundreds of students grow because of these exchanges. We did ones with non-EU countries as well so the principle of exchange may well carry on.  But oh boy, the added paperwork. Again, as well, restricted to the wealthy. Erasmus makes it possible for students of all backgrounds to study abroad. The incoming students brought some unfamiliar but welcome aspects of their culture to us. Outgoing students often went up a class or two on their return and also brought with them a new confidence and a new more open attitude to the world.

Justice

Where will you go when the British courts let yu down?

An adequate workforce

Workers from other EU states pay more in taxes than they cost us in services. Ex-pats are coming back. A lot of them are baby boomers.  A lot of people working here from other EU states are going back home because they fear what is coming and no longer feel welcome. So we shall not have an adequate work force.  

Magic money

The whole is greater that its parts.  Just take a look around you. Look for the star-spangled projects. What we give in comes back bigger. Yes, £350,000,000 a week is a lot of money. But we're going to have to find more than that to replace what the EU is doing for us. Not to mention the falling pound and the fee we'll have to pay to exit. Tax payers, get ready.  

Single market

We have no claim on it now some of you have decided we should leave. If we did by some miracle manage to retain it, we're obliged to allow free movement. Wasn't getting rid of that the point for most Brexiteers?

By the way, we always did have our sovereignty and our own and EU laws would have controlled immigration numbers if they'd been enforced properly.   

We are properly represented in the EU. We have MEPs. Most of them do a good job.         

Peace in Europe

We've had sixty years of it.

Nigel Farage recommended that we should all go and see Dunkirk. Oh, yes, Dunkirk was very significant in World War II. We've even coined a phrase from it. Dunkirk spirit. But Dunkirk spirit isn't exclusive to the British. And do you want a conflict like that again?  

I've been accused of hyperbole when I've mentioned war. 1'll point out here that the person who did this said it was actually all right back in 1999. Brexiteer, I have news for you. You voted to go back to 1972, not 1999. I can tell you from first-hand experience that it was quite difficult to work and live in mainland Europe back then.       

We'll be too busy worrying about what is going on on the other side of the Atlantic and in North Korea to quarrel too much but at the very least there'll be a few heated exchanges about Gibraltar and fishing rights.