View all newsletters
Have the short, sharp Spear's newsletter delivered to your inbox each week
  1. Wealth
January 14, 2013

Britain Has Little to Lose from Leaving the EU

By Spear's

Ignore the scaremongers, Britain has little to lose from leaving the EU.

It’s amazing how, whenever the euro-debate erupts like an Australian bushfire, just about everybody loses command of their mother tongue! So, Merkel says the ‘euro has prevented war in Europe’ — what, since 1999?

But what prevented European war from 1945-1999? Answer: NATO! And the fact that the US, France and the UK have nuclear strike capability perhaps had something to do with it. And they still exist … don’t they?

Now a Mr. Philip Gordon, the US assistant secretary for Europe, has warned the UK not to leave Europe, as he wants ‘to see (sic.) a strong British voice in Europe’.

Perhaps he should use his ears instead, and hear the voice of the British people, in Britain. The idea that Britain’s voice in the EU is listened to by anyone ignores what really goes on in the qualified majority voting-driven Germanification of the courts of the EU.

Gordon also assumes that Britain outside of that manic process will somehow lose its voice and not have a voice at all. Britain has always had a stronger voice on her own, Mr. Gordon — so it’s back to Iowa, with you, my friend, where you clearly belong.

Then the business-leaders — all six of them! — warn of the dangers of leaving the EU, without ever counting the cost of staying in, or the dangers and threats to our job-creation, banking system, our pensions, our laws and our parliament, during the Euro-federalisation process.

The chairman of BT — aptly-named Michael Rake — was one such business leader, but he’s forgotten that his predecessor, Sir Iain Vallance, was one of those who loudly — but not valiantly — proclaimed that Britain would not survive outside the Eurozone. Of course, the exact opposite has been proven to be the case. Perhaps Rake should go for a walk instead, and stand on one of his own namesakes, in the long grass.

Content from our partners
HSBC Global Private Banking: Revisiting your wealth plan as uncertainty abounds
Proposed non-dom changes put HNW global mobility in the spotlight
Meet the females leading in the FTSE

Then out of the jungle comes a muffled roar from that great Welsh windbag, Hezza, who also thought like that former BT chairman, but has had nothing to say since about the self-inflicted and ongoing euro-crisis.

And now Heseltine sees fit to warn the PM that a referendum on the EU is a dangerous step. Why? I thought politicians were there to reflect the voice of the people, aren’t they?

It’s called democracy, Hezza, and there’s not a lot of it about right now in the EU, where referenda results are habitually ignored by the unelected bureaucrats that run the EU.

Does Hezza think that a German-led EU, with the UK locked inside, is such a good thing that there’s no point in asking the great British people what they think about it?

And could Hezza answer this question, please, before he sacrifices our 1000-year old constitution: as the average length of the five republics of France and Germany are approximately 25 years each, how long does he expect the EU to last?

And then the CBI – not so much the Confederation of British Industry as the Confederacy of British Idiots – have to add their tuppence worth too, about the dangers to our exports to Europe, as Honda lays off 25 per cent of its Swindon workforce, because sales in Europe are down – but up 7 per cent in the UK. Did it ever occur to the CBI to think about that, and that the EU’s exports to Britain are twice our exports to the EU?

In business, that’s a no-brainer of a bargaining position, not the precursor to a weak surrender.

Select and enter your email address The short, sharp email newsletter from Spear’s
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network