Sunday 26 June 2016

The Brits have voted to leave the EU there is nothing to fear other than fear itself. By Wilbert Mukori

The British people have voted to leave the EU. Those campaigned for remain on basis of fear of the unknown are scratching the bottom of the barrel for the doom’s day economic collapse they had predicted and feared. The “proof” of the doom’s day of the morning after has raged from the fall in value of British Pound which suffered a dip in value but has since recovered, to the other EU leaders now demanding the UK “must leave with further delay” (because they are fearful other countries will follow UK example), to the threat of another referendum on Scottish Independence (will the Scottish people still want to join the EU if a few more nations join UK to take the high road?)
 
What the REMAIN lost the argument and thus the vote because they could not deny that the EU was not working because it is expected to do what it was never envisaged to do. The EU started as an economic common market to facilitate the trade of goods and services and along the way was added the monetary union. In order to deliver the economic and monetary union the EU has added on the political arm in the form of the European parliament, commission and courts making laws and regulations over riding these coming from the individual nations’ parliament
 
For the EU to work it is necessary that there is free movement of people and with free movement of people other things follow such as welfare and health care. Britain’s National Health Service, for example, was to be accessible to all EU nationals regardless where they came from.
 
Whilst it is true that for the EU to work national government have had to concede more and more power to the EU political arm in Brussels and individuals have had to give up national identity in favour of the common European identity the fact of the matter is that this was not what the people envisaged when the joined the EU 43 years ago, for the British people.
 
Over the years the politicians have resisted calls for a referendum on continued membership of the EU under the pretext that there have been any significant material changes to the EU of people joined in 1973. This is a lie the remain-camp could not sustain in the face of the call for Britain to get back its independence.
 
However for the EU to function fully it is necessary for Brussels to get even more political powers and for greater integration, something national governments and citizens have resisted for years hence lies EU’s Achilles heel. There is no doubt that the financial crisis that has bedevilled Greece for years now, for example, would have never happened if Brussels was not pulling in one direction and the Greek government was overriding it and pulling in the opposite directions.
 
Instead of the remain camp admitting the EU will needs to be given more power they tried to give the impression national governments can demand more power back from Brussels. Whatever PM David Cameron demanded from the EU “favourable terms” as he called them, were not written into law so EU would have taken them back in the future.
 
The hamstrung EU was bound to stumble from one crisis to the next and it was not just the British people who had notice this but other nations too and it was just a matter of time before they demanded an IN/OUT vote.
 
Of course, everyone likes to be seen as team players and having been a member of a team it is hard to leave and go it alone. But the need to be a member is hardly a reason for one to join; one must look objective at whether one’s economic needs, in this case, are best served by being in or out of the EU. A dysfunctional EU stumble from one crisis to the next will never serve the best interests of those who know they can do better on their own.
 
The British knew the EU was not serving their best interests and vote to leave. I believe many other nations will follow the British’ example and leave the EU. It is not the British who fear the future but the EU now facing the real possibility of the domino effect of more nations tumbling out of the EU.
 
Britain has strong and robust democratic institutions and a well-informed and focused electorate; these have served the nation very well in the past and will do so again now. They have nothing to fear.
 
Those who wanted to remain in the EU used “project fear” before the referendum and they are still banging the same drum because they will not accept they lost the vote. There is nothing to be feared but fear itself. Beside, now that the people have made the democratic decision to leave the EU the nation must look forward, where it is going, and not risk a trip and fall because it was looking back or failed to see the many opportunities because it was paralysed by fear.

4 comments:

  1. “Although some of his points might be correct I am afraid to say most of his analysis is misin-formed on this matter. At times it is not wise to comment about something you do not understand very well,” you said.
    Well that is typical wishy-washy nonsense because as the reader, I have learnt nothing. What use is it to me to know some of the analysis is correct and some is not? Tell me what is correct and what is not and why.
    What is happening in Europe and UK is of great interest to all Zimbabweans given the political and economic influence of these nations in world affairs; when Europe sneeze Africa catches a life threatening flue! There many political and economic lesson for us to learn from what has happened here. If you are not competent to say anything then do not but do not be so presumptuous as to instruct others to do the same!

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  2. It is sad that some people are now trying to ignore the democratic wishes of the people even some political leaders are leading from the front on this. Nicola Sturgeon has warned that the Scottish Parliament will try and block the UK leaving the EU using an obscure legal mechanism even if it infuriates the English
    Even respectable leaders like Lord Heseltine has pointed to the practicalities of an overwhelming majority in the House of Commons against leaving the EU. “There is a majority of something like 350 in the House of Commons broadly in favour of the European relationship,” he said.
    “There is no way you are going to get those people to say black is white and change their minds unless a) they know what the deal is and b) it has been supported either by an election or by another referendum,” Heseltine told Sky News. “So there’s a dramatic urgency to get on with the negotiations.”
    These people are talking the nation into an economic and political crisis. Indeed if leaders like Lord Heseltine had bothered to ask the electorate to express their views on the direction the EU had taken over the years.

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    Replies
    1. The greatest danger with power is that it gets to you head and so one easily becomes big headed and start to think because they are in power they know better than everyone else. Those who rig elections enjoy absolute power and if you have rigged elections as often as Mugabe has done and got away with it your head swells up so much you think yourself a demigod!

      Only a demigod would think of rigging elections!

      As much as these people may dislike the result of the referendum or even be frightened by it; none of them can say with certainty that the EU was working and therefore the UK should have stayed. It is down right stupid to insist people must be so frightened of change they must not seek change even when they accept the present system is not working!

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  3. What you are really arguing here is the PM David Cameron should have fought hard to find ways of ignoring the democratic wishes of the majority. Why don’t just come out and say he should have gone to Mugabe for expert advice on how to rig the vote and the Zimbabwe tyrant would have even pay NIKUV to tamper with the voters roll is the British wished. PM Cameron would have been absolutely certain of no regime change then!

    Where is the commitment to granting the people their right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country if you are going to ignore or worse still rig their say?

    When Mugabe rigged the 2013 elections there was an avalanche of articles from Zimbabwe’s intellectuals all arguing the same thing – that we should just accept the rigged result as fait accompli and move on. Here we have a case where there was free, fair and credible referendum and there is yet another avalanche of article all arguing one thing – do everything possible to reverse the democratic wishes of the populous. For all their pretences to love democracy none of these intellectuals real care about democracy except if it serves their selfish interests. Their democratic credentials are potato skin thick; it does take much to rub off, to reveal the brute tyrant in his multi-colours like Joseph’s coat!

    “The question in most people's minds is whether the referendum result "to leave" is legally binding on the United Kingdom,” you say. The UK is a democracy where the democratic right of the people to a meaningful say in the governance of the nation is sacrosanct and therefore there is no question of parliament trying to ignore the result. It is only a question in those sick minds of tyrants whose potato skin democratic coat has rubbed off already!

    PM David Cameron has done the right thing by resigning because he is surely not the right person to cap-tain the ship now given he never believed in leaving the EU. Now that the decision to leave has been made; he should let someone who believes in where the nation is going lead. He, unlike some tyrants we know, has the humility to know he is not the only person capable of leading the nation!

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