Letters - 06 May 2016
From the EU referendum to Equipping for Ministry
EU referendum
I feel myself more European than British. My dear wife, who died two-and-a-half years ago, was German. My elder son has a Portuguese wife and has taken Portuguese nationality. My brother, with an English wife, lives permanently in Greece. I worked in Paris for six-and-a-half years and, after early retirement, I was the representative at the Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA) in Brussels.
There are things wrong with the EU, which we can change by remaining, just as there are things wrong with this country, but I am not going to resign from it. I hope all Friends will vote to stay in the EU.
Tim Brown
It seems that Friends, by and large, favour remaining in the EU, mainly on the grounds that it has kept the peace in Europe. Its recent interference in Ukraine rather belies this idealism.
Other matters to consider include the loss of sovereignty and consequent democratic deficit; the destructive and protectionist agriculture and fisheries policies; the possibility of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) being approved (which could lead to the UK having to accept GM products) and the creation of an EU army, to name but a few.
Britain has little influence at the so-called ‘top table’: about seventy times (forty since David Cameron has been prime minister) it has objected to measures in the Council of Ministers and all to no avail. Far from our voice being heard, it will decline as the EU expands. The choice before the electorate is not Brexit versus the status quo. Both options involve uncertainty. The recent Treasury report detailing the dire consequences that leaving would have on the economy are based entirely on worst-case scenarios (a typical aspect of computer modelling). The claim that three million jobs are dependent on our membership of the EU, mentioned in the publicly-funded government booklet, is a deliberate misunderstanding of the study in 2000, whose author repudiates its misuse.
I urge Friends to look beyond the BBC (15 April) for information about these issues and to consider whether we wouldn’t, in fact, be better off out.
Rosemary O’Dea
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