Britain needs to lead in the EU – not leave it

The European Union is one of the most remarkable post-war successes: it has united 507 million citizens; brought together 28 nation states; created the largest and most successful single market; inspired legislation on social, employment and environmental issues; turned war into peace, prosperity, security and stability.

We should be celebrating its achievements. Instead, we are immersed in a divisive and dangerous referendum designed to tackle imaginary grievances, mythical concerns and politically fabricated arguments about how bad the EU is for the UK. David Cameron does have a problem; but it is not Europe. 

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A growing number of Conservative MPs on the party’s extreme fringe, the UKIP leadership and an intense anti-European press are seeking to exit from Europe, not reform it. The Conservative Party, yet again, fragmenting over Europe serves to illustrate how far Britain, and in particular the Tory right wing, and UKIP, has lost its way in any serious navigation of world affairs, national interests and political honesty.

Why are the other 27 EU nation states, while having understandable concerns about it, not behaving in this way?

They are not demanding treaty changes, demonising immigrants, disliking foreigners, and arguing that powers need to be repatriated to their national parliaments. Nor are they complaining about the social, employment and environmental protections afforded to their citizens.

Germany doesn’t seem to be held back by the idea of parliamentary sovereignty undermining its global and European leadership roles.

Our European colleagues are not demanding more powers for national parliaments to intervene. So why is the UK behaving like this? Is it just because we are British; the Conservative Party despises the environmental, social and employment regulations from Europe that interfere with the market and protect people; or is it just that we have a Conservative Government? 

History partly helps to explain this behaviour: the decline of the Union and our ambivalence to Europe going back to 1952 when Labour PM Clem Atlee declined to join the European Coal and Steel Community, but the Conservative Party, more than any other, until the rise of UKIP, seems incapable of accepting that Britain no longer rules the waves, controls an empire or has any unique or special transatlantic relationship with the US.

This delusional behaviour is costing the UK dear as Europe and the world moves on and we are left behind. There is no case for substantial change.

David Cameron may be simply attempting to do what Harold Wilson achieved in 1975. Faced with similar anti-European views within the Labour Party, he held a referendum in which the people of Britain were used to solve a party political problem. It was cynical and opportunistic – but it worked.

If David Cameron is deploying a similar ruse, good luck to him.

But now, there is a real danger of a well financed and organised campaign of xenophobes and zealots determined to pursue cheap patriotism and undermine any lingering credibility we still have with our European colleagues. The 2017 referendum has more at stake than merely the outcome of the vote.

A Yes vote, which seems the more likely outcome, will still have to face EU countries, increasingly disillusioned and frustrated with a UK diminishing in status and stature, and not politically or psychologically able to deal with the challenges that other countries like Germany, France and the Nordic countries take in their stride.

Sadly, a large number of Conservative MPs and the UKIP leadership despise the EU, the European Court of Human Rights and the European Convention. For the populists and the right of British politics, this campaign is being sold as a struggle to protect national interests and defend the sovereignty of the Westminster Parliament. But this is far from the truth.

What we have instead is a party political farce that will dominate politics and business to 2017 to the exclusion of more important issues, divide the four nations, when some constitutional cohesion is required, distract the public from the real issues and see the UK, apparently, reject interdependence and seek further isolation in the world. The right of the Tory party is consumed with a sense of elitism and arrogance, a mistrust of the rest of the world and an insidious nationalism. 

The lack of any serious or informed public debate in Britain over four decades of membership has contributed to this sorry state. For those who value the EU and its record of achievement, speak up now and campaign for a Yes vote.

We have allowed the Conservative Party to peddle myths, lies and hate about all things European. Consequently, the public have absorbed much of this nonsense and now feel significantly alienated from and unaware of the positive benefits of EU membership and its contribution to our postwar peace, prosperity, internationalism, solidarity and stability.
Labour in Scotland must make a positive case for the EU and our continuing membership.

The populist leaders, of UKIP and the Conservative right, are cheap patriots. 

Europe matters. Those political parties who wish to isolate Britain will succeed if there is no alternative narrative and a narrow form of cheap patriotism remains uncontested. Britain needs to lead in the EU – not leave it.