Taxation and Representation

"No taxation without representation," they say. This rarely applies. EU citizens not living in their home state seem particularly badly done by here. Millions live in other EU states, paying tax there, and can only vote in local elections. They can vote in national elections neither in the state where they reside nor the in the state from which they come. An exception appears to be the French presidential elections. 

How different might the results of the June 2016 referendum have been if British nationals living in other EU states and citizens from other EU states living here had been able to vote.

We have many reciprocal tax agreements not only with other EU states but also with other countries including the US. For instance, I'm taxed in the UK on my earnings from Amazon.com. This is fair on me as I have no representation in the US. There is a slight oddity here, though, as Amazon.com is serviced by the US yet I pay nothing towards this. Perhaps it's partly made up for, though, by the Americans who earn from Amazon.co.uk but pay no tax here.

More worrying are the number of people living and paying tax in a state who have no representation in that state nor indeed in their home state.

Could we not have some sort of system where the resident chooses whether to have election rights in their home state or in the state where they live and pay taxes? This would be rather like university students electing to vote either at their term time or holiday address.

There is an argument that you actually need representation in both places: you need to have your say about where you live and about what your home state is doing – after all, they may be about to make some big changes about your rights e.g. Brexit. Might is be an idea to let you have a split vote? Perhaps your vote could count as just 50% in both places. Or you could even choose to split it as you see fit – say 10% / 90% in favour of either place? Surely we have the technology to make this easy enough? 

There is an alternative. We get rid of all national barriers and national leaders become regional ones. Brexit and its associated confusion would disappear overnight. Come on United Nations – take the lead on this.      

On being relatively European

"If …. every citizen realizes that the only guarantee for security and peace in this atomic age is the constant development of a supra-national government, then he will do everything in his power to strengthen the United Nations. It seems to me that every reasonable and responsible citizen in the world must know where his choice lies."

From Albert Einstein's open letter to the General Assembly of the United Nations.

I've recently watched the National Geographic Bio-serial about Einstein. Yes there was quite a bit of poetic license but it was enjoyable and informative all the same. Einstein appears as a background character in one of my novels and I've been researching him quite a bit. 

He was used to being a stranger. He left his native Germany to study in Switzerland. His first wife was Serbian. Sometime after he returned to Berlin when he had become an eminent scientist he was persecuted for being Jewish. He gained asylum in the USA but was constantly monitored and was even spied on by the Russian mistress he took after his second wife died.

As a scientist he had grave concerns about the use of nuclear energy for war and encouraged the idea of a supra–national government. The United Nations goes some way to providing that, but they can't solve every problem. For me the most sickening about Blair and Bush's foray into Iraq was the division it caused within the United Nations.    

A few years earlier I'd felt very uncomfortable when we were at war over the Falklands. We seemed alone in the world. We lived near a lot of naval families at the time. War is not trivial and should be avoided.

Let's not dismiss the years of peace in Europe that the Common Market, EEC, EC, EU has brought us.

If I can be in favour of Brexit at all it is to be like Einstein. Let's get rid of borders altogether. Let's just have one world. But this would mean disbanding the whole of the EU and I'm not sure getting rid of all borders is quite what the Brexiteers mean. In the meantime, the EU remains a strong and stable force, even with all its faults, and it represents baby steps towards peace on the planet. Why would we want to go in the other direction?

So whatever happens, I'll remain relatively European. I've been through a process four times now that has involved gradually understanding why others do things which seem a little strange to us, and then understanding so well that those routines and habits become my own at least some of the time. I'm now ready for that process to happen anywhere. Thus I remain relatively European not because I'm more British than European but because I'm even more a global citizen of nowhere.        

   

What do we mean by Brexit, actually?

I recently argued with a Remain friend. 

“The problem is,” I said, “it’s all too black and white, not like a general election.” 

“I don’t agree,” she said. “It’s all very complex.”

She’s right, of course. It is all very complex. There is no agreement on what Brexit actually means. This is partly because, I suspect, that no one was expecting it. There is probably as much difference between any two versions of Brexit as there is between any one and Remain.

     

However, I was right as well and perhaps I should have said “cut and dried”. Unlike with an election a decision like this made at a referendum can’t be reversed in five years’ time or toned down during the five years. In an election we may vote for one party even though we don’t agree with everything but we’ll go with them if we agree on most things. Even if our chosen party doesn’t get in there is still an MP we can talk to and there will be other MPs in parliament representing the party we really wanted. There is something more final about the decision made on 23 June 2016. 

A ray of hope: the EU has said we can change our minds. Maybe in five years’ time the younger electorate will be negotiating to get back in.       

I’m very clear that a lot of British people (not all of “The British People” by any means, so can we talk of the “will of the British people”?) - voted to leave the club and I don’t think we can dictate the terms of our continued relationship with that club. Yes, we can defend ourselves against unfair leaving penalties but actually we had all of that information before we decided to leave, and hmm, our democratically elected Euro MPs were involved in setting it up. We can also negotiate a good working relationship and certainly we all want that in terms of national and international security. 

Can we still live in harmony if not joined institutionally? I’m heartened by my experiences on a recent trip to North Cyprus. We managed to communicate well without a shared language and in a country scarred by partition. Many Britsh ex-pats enjoy living there. I smile when I remember that many Brexiteers were afraid that Turkey would join the EU. I make two points here:

·         It was never on the cards.

·         The Turkish people I met last week were lovely.

What does Brexit mean to me? It’s something I still don’t get, causes me a lot of sadness and worry and fills me with dread. Is this just an emotional reaction, though? It is emotional but not just emotional. I’ve looked as critically as I can at as many verifiable facts I can access and I remain Remain.

What will / can the EU do for the 48% and the ex-pats who live in other EU states? 

Not only do I remain Remain, I still see myself as more European that British. I suspect I'm not alone. 

    

       

            

“They need us more than we need them.”

Really? How arrogant.  

Yes, I also actually believe that the world is better off with the UK in Europe and that a UK – (i.e. United Kingodm – not one where two of the regions want to split off precisely because of Brexit and where a third wants to be independent as well anyway) in the EU has a lot to offer.  Ironically many of the big towns – Bristol, London, Liverpool and Manchester - might argue for independence precisely because of Brexit as well.  

    

The former British values of empathy and tolerance – where have they gone now? - and our proficiency in modern music, and theatre and literature, both modern and classical, add to an already delightful mix. We’re not superior, however, and in fact they’ll manage very well without us. It’s a lost opportunity. I think we lose more than “they” do.  That “they” is telling anyway. I continue to think more in terms of “we”. 

There you have it. The bottom line? I cannot be just British because France, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands have rubbed off on me as I’ve lived or spent a lot of time there and importantly I speak their languages. In addition I’m married to a person who is culturally half German Jew and according to the Nuremberg race laws and Jewish matriarchal progression is actually Jewish. Where does that leave us?

I like the single market. It’s handy. We get our Camembert, green peppers and VW Beetles without paying import tax and we only pay for a few food miles. 

“Oh we’ll be able to trade with other countries,” say the Brexiteers. 

Sweethearts, we always could and do. There’s just a little import and export tax involved.  Even if we get into free trade deals with places further away there’ll still be the food miles. The US is putting the EU ahead of us for trade deals. If Northern Ireland and Scotland go, will Little England and Wales be attractive to anyone? If Scotland goes there goes our North Sea oil.   

I’ve spluttered in disbelief anyway since 24 June 2017 as there has been a debate about “soft” or “hard” Brexits and then indignation that the EU says we must leave first before we can negotiate any sort of deal. If you ran a club and someone wanted to leave and no longer paid their dues would you expect to allow them any privileges? Exceptionally, perhaps, if it were a very old and gracious person who could really no longer use the club fully. Is that what we are?                                 

  

Made in China?

How often have you read that label on something you’ve bought? When I was a child in the 1950s that was found on many toys which were regarded with some suspicion. It meant the toys were made cheaply, possibly dangerously and as I grew older I came to realise that this may also have meant that the person who made them was probably not paid a lot. 

Things have moved on now. China produces some really good quality goods and it’s a rising economy over there.  Mind you, I still feel uncomfortable at the vast difference between the rich and the poor; it makes us look like a very equitable society. However, everything seems to be moving in the right direction. 

I’d like to pause just there: made in China. So, we’ve always imported from China. And from many other places in the world. I export books to Australia, Canada, US, India and Japan.  There is a constant exchange of goods. But where we’re not in a trade agreement, we have to pay import and export duty. There are also the “food” miles to think about.

So, de we really want to have to start paying to import and export duty on goods we get from  our nearest neighbour where food miles are less of a problem? How daft it that?

Look what happened with peppers recently. There had been a massive crop failure in the Mediterranean counties because of bad weather. They became scarce because we had to buy them from a market that supplied other places. They became expensive because of scarcity, import duty and food miles. Is that what we want? 

In my ideal world there would be no barriers at all. We would use the same currency.  Affordable healthcare, housing and education would be available to everybody. Homelessness and starvation would not exist. Indeed, anyone causing the latter two would be marked as a criminal.

I’m old enough and cynical enough, however, to realise that we’re some way as a human race from being able to achieve that. However, breaking up what could be a balancing super power, is a step backwards. In fact it looks as if that break up might cause the break-up of a smaller unit as well. What oh the Union Flag then? 

For the sake of something made in China that we can get relatively easily anyway?