I have always thought that former Prime Minister John Major was one of the 'good guys', a decent man who has been much maligned for no good reason. Until yesterday, that is.
Major appeared on the Andrew Marr programme on BBC 1 on Sunday morning as a spokesman for the 'Remain' campaign in order, presumably, to add gravitas to their appeal to voters. In the event, all that he did was to repeat the now very tired scaremongering which is all that the 'Remain' side seems to have in its locker, plus threw a substantial amount of abuse at the leaders of the 'Leave' campaign, most notably Boris Johnson. In typical style, Major's abuse was voiced in polite terms but was simply mud-throwing and not at all worthy of the man.
Major called the 'Leave' campaign dishonest and squalid; he accused them of using inaccurate and misleading figures, both on the economy and immigration, giving his own somewhat dubious and nebulous reasons why leaving the EU would harm us and why current economic and migratory issues would just fade away if we stayed in. He even set up a few 'Aunt Sallys', asking who the 'Leave' side would send back in order to meet their immigration targets, and suggested doctors and footballers might be affected - seriously ? He ended up by saying that David Cameron has reinstated 'subsidiarity', whatever that actually means, and that talk of the EU being run by an unelected elite was 'hogwash'. What he didn't do was give any real idea as to the future of the UK inside an ever expanding and more centrist, protectionist European Union, other than to tell viewers that we were effectively excluded from having to get involved in the difficulties that other member countries have, which really is hogwash.
It later became clear that he had been sent along at the behest of the Prime Minister and had not been particularly keen on the idea, even less so when he discovered that Boris Johnson was also going to appear on the programme and, worse still, was scheduled to appear after Major thus giving him an advantage in the war of words.
Boris duly made his appearance but refused to be drawn into any tit-for-tat mud slinging. Instead, gave viewers pretty straight answers to Marr's straight questions. He pointed out, quite rightly, that there are parts of our nations economic life over which we no longer have control. He cited the £350m which is paid over to Brussels every week; yes, some of this comes back but not for us to spend freely, instead, we have to spend it on things that EU bureaucrats determine. If we leave the Union, this money, around £10.6bn, would be available for investment in the NHS, for tax cuts or whatever else WE please.
Johnson referred to our lack of control over immigration and asked how the 'Remain' side could possibly think that migration for the EU could ever be controlled if we stayed in. He wondered what their vision of the future was, mentioning housing, the green belt, schools and other public services, in the event of continued uncontrolled immigration.
Johnson went on to confirm that the UK would not be in the 'single market' if we leave, but pointed out that many countries, he said 27, already had better trade with the EU than did the UK. He claimed that regulation costs British business some £600m per week, and said that Europe is the slowest growing continent on the planet, with the exception of Antarctica. Lord Rose, one of the leaders of the 'Remain' campaign has even said that claims of an economic shock if we leave are unfounded and that wages would rise, while many of those now prophesying disaster if we leave are the same 'experts' who told us that not joining the ERM and then the Euro would bring about catastrophe; they were wrong then and they are wrong now. Even David Cameron was on record as saying that, while people would scaremonger about the UK's prospects if we left the Union, we could in fact prosper outside the EU and we would be able to agree free trade deals; this he had said on the very same Andrew Marr show during his renegotiation phase.
Johnson was clear Cameron has failed to deliver on his manifesto pledges about reducing immigration and claimed that this was corrosive of public trust. He said that Cameron claimed to have gained reforms from his EU colleagues but had actually gained nothing. The Eurozone remains in chaos with huge unemployment in many countries, largely because of the way in which the centralised EU bureaucracy sees no differences across the whole Union and tries to impose the same rules and regulations on all. This has led to sever financial and migratory problems.
Johnson ended by reminding viewers that the EU is fundamentally antidemocratic and that its widening has led to increasing federalisation. 60% of our laws are affected by Brussels and we cannot control many of our own policies. While Turkey may not join the Union in the foreseeable future, it increased is Government and EU policy that it should join, and there will be cooperation over the years; Johnson sees no problem in Turkey joining, as long as the UK leaves first. Challenged on his apparent change of mind on the question of the UK's membership of the EU, Johnson made it clear that his view has changed because the EU has changed out of all recognition from what we joined in 1973.
In the end, it seemed to me that while John Major adopted the same scaremongering approach to which the 'Remain' campaign seems wedded, and added some personal invective and abuse for good measure, Boris Johnson was far more positive, voicing confidence in the UK's ability to grow once freed from the shackles of the EU. Major's argument was all about fear, there was no vision; in fact the 'Remain' campaign seems to have no vision of a future inside the EU, only their fears of a future outside it.
Do we really want to be governed by fear ? I don't. VOTE LEAVE.
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