With 2017 drawing to a close here’s a couple of final thoughts for the year about BREXIT & the EU;
- The first suggestion is that Referendums built around a slim majority to make decisions that have profound impact on a nation is a flawed concept; whether it be BREXIT or Catalunya or any other for that matter. Issues of such long term national/strategic importance should only be changed through an “inclusive” process that guarantees a sufficient level of consensus. This compounded with the fact that making decision that involve complex/confusing issues should be dealt with through the default democratic process which in our case is the Parliament. The sloppy politics of passing the buck to the public in making such decisions though politically convenient is irresponsible to say the very least.
- The second point I would like to make is that for the EU project to be successful it needs clearly committed members otherwise members can become a liability rather than a strength. So following this line of thought if we assume that a 2nd Referendum in the UK may help sway the BREXIT vote towards Remain without a clear majority (say 75%+) in my view it would still NOT be sufficient for the UK to continue it’s membership in the EU. Same applies for countries where politics of the day are leaning towards a Euro Sceptic vision and were national policies are becoming in complete conflict with European values like are the cases with Hungary & Poland; there should be a serious threat of a Red Card.
So my suggestion is that the EU needs to set the tone/standards and have the confidence in project and it’s future to the extent that they may assist in ejecting non-committed members whether it be due to slim majority of support and/or a conflict of values. In my view a slimmer EU with committed members is far better than a large EU that becomes vulnerable due to internal conflict. This obviously notwithstanding important/overdue reforms that need to take place of the EU – with visible actions/debates – so that the process of evolution for the project is encouraged NOT suppressed.
Finally, a brief comment on Poland; The current Polish government really need to get their priorities straight particularly when considering recent Russian actions in the region as demonstrated here among many other indicators. We also in Britain need to take notice rather than our fascination on social media – particularly by politicians – about the colour of the British passport post BREXIT; absolutely ridiculous/insane.
Merry Christmas & Happy 2018 (I think with the closing of 2017 things can only get better…..no? oh well tell me NOT! 🙂)