The shockingly disingenuous nature of the Government's efforts to persuade us to vote to remain in the European Union becomes ever more apparent. Today, we are being confronted with a supposedly independent analysis and report from the Treasury which sets out the latest horror scenario; following the publication of this report, Cameron and Osborne, in an obviously orchestrated move, are appearing at the headquarters of the DIY company B & Q in order to emphasise the potential disaster of a vote to leave. Apparently the choice of venue is some sort of ham-fisted attempt to say something, though exactly what isn't obvious.
All of this has the very nasty taste of a Government stitch up, not to say a serious attempt to feed a load of unprovable 'facts' to the British people. The Treasury is, after all, an organ of the Government and does its bidding; is it surprising, therefore, that its report comes out solidly in support of its masters' view of the world ? Their analysis is based on a large number of assumptions, all, some or none of which may be accurate or true, but they have undoubtedly cherry picked the scenarios which best suit the picture which their bosses want to paint.
It is claimed that the pound will collapse, house prices will fall, prices will rise, thousands of jobs will be lost and we'll have a terrible recession. In truth, this is all economic forecasting which is historically fraught with difficulties and frequently wrong. Years ago, we were told that not joining the European Union's exchange rate would prove disastrous, so we joined; it turned out that joining was actually what was disastrous and we withdrew on the infamous black Wednesday in 1992, along with Italy which had also had enough.(Sadly for them, they later decided to adopt the Euro).
Undaunted, the same people who had advocated joining the ERM went on to tell us that we had to adopt the Euro, or else all hell would break lose - we'd lose, jobs, the pound would collapse, our economy would 'tank'; in the event, it has been those countries which did adopt the Euro which have suffered, some of them very badly indeed. While the British economy has grown and been reasonably healthy in the face of worldwide economic difficulties, the Euro-zone has gone through, and is still going through, an appalling period of turmoil which shows little sign of coming to an end after many years.
Let no one be in any doubt, David Cameron never had any intention of allowing the UK to leave the European Union. His claimed renegotiation was a sham and its outcome was meaningless. He is now engaged on a campaign of disinformation and outright lies aimed at frightening the British population into voting to stay in a corrupt, undemocratic, protectionist, outdated and moribund organisation. In so doing, he is following in the well worn path taken by so many politicians, that of avoiding political change at all cost in order to maintain control and safeguard their own positions.
The EU has become a home for politicians who cannot find a job in their own countries but who fancy a well paid role with lots of expenses and no accountability. It's become a home for bureaucrats who are rarely if ever seen or heard of but who love to tell others what to do. It's become a talking shop in which everything is discussed, often over expensive dinners in the best hotels, but in which nothing positive is ever done. It's an organisation which spends its time working out what next to interfere in, what it can next tell us to do or not to do, always for our own good, of course. It prevents real competition by imposing a 'one rule fits all' policy across an entire continent, an approach which only some countries bother to follow but which the Union 'top brass' turn a blind eye towards.
The EU is a disaster. Voting to leave is the only sensible option but it does not mean we are anti-European, racist, xenophobic or any of the other words which are thrown about. It means that we are anti-EU which is an entirely different thing. There is nothing wrong with European countries working together and they do so in many ways outside of the EU; there is no reason that a withdrawal by the UK would change this. What it would change is the perception that a political union is the only way forward for the disparate countries of Europe and that would be to the benefit of all.
VOTE LEAVE.
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