A documentary series, Royal Marine Commando School is currently being shown on Monday evenings. It follows the progress of a group of raw recruits through the gruelling training process. It also features interviews with some of the parents of the recruits. One lady, the mother of a cheerful and plucky lad of 18 is not at all happy with her son’s choice of career. She would have preferred he go to university and read Mathematics. We as viewers do not know what this lad’s “A” level results were of course, but working on the assumption that reading Mathematics at university was an option for this lad, the Editor well understands this lady’s misgivings.
This lady has two particular concerns:
1. She does not feel her son is best cut out for the role of an infantry soldier.
2. She fears for her son’s life should he complete the training course and receive green beret and become a RM Commando.
After two episodes, the Editor shares this lady’s opinions about this particular recruit. The Editor will be surprised if this particular recruit has completed the course successfully and is serving as a Royal Marine.
This lady may well have noted the proclivity British politicians such as Cameron, Brown and Blair have for getting this country involved in other people’s wars. She may also have noticed how these politicians also have a proclivity for getting involved in any particular crisis that crops up. This proclivity reveals the truth about how these politicians feel about the Uk being a member of the EU.
The fact of the matter is this: Cameron, Brown and Blair support the UK’s membership of the EU. Not because it enhances the UK’s economy – it does not. They support EU membership because by clubbing together they feel they have more influence on the world stage. This influence is of course an indirect influence not a direct influence. By indirect influence we mean that Cameron as the UK’s Prime Minister can exercise a real influence and shape how the EU responds to the current crisis in Ukraine. Of course, every other Prime Minister of every other member state has an influence.
The other unsettling fact of the matter is this: Most of the British establishment including the judiciary, the civil service and major industry figures do not want the UK to leave the EU.
Then we have the unsettling prospect of the BBC. This all powerful state broadcaster is very much part of the pro EU establishment.
Not all is lost however. There is now a very real prospect of lawful government being restored to this United Kingdom and it does not require UKIP to win a single extra council seat!
The crisis in Ukraine is not going to go away. Neither is the fundamental structural problems within the Eurozone. It is clear that Mr Putin has as his objective reunification of those Russian parts of the Ukraine with Mother Russia. It is also clear that Western Ukraine seeks closer union with the EU.
What is clear is that the EU cannot survive much longer in it’s present form. Without comprehensive restructuring of the Eurozone resulting in an effectively centralised Euro state. The problem for them is that by 2020 all EU member states except Bulgaria, Denmark, Sweden and the UK will be in the Eurozone.
“So, how will the EU look in 2020?” we hear you ask Dear Reader.
Well, IF the EU exists in 2020 it will exist as a centralised federal state with most decisions taken at the federal [Brussels] level. This inevitably mean that those institutions such as the EU parliament will have to be used as a proper working Federal Parliament. This of course will throw up a huge question mark about those four countries still outside the Eurozone and not part of the centralised federal state.
The most likely scenario is this: that Bulgaria, Denmark, Sweden and the UK [if they are still outside the Eurozone in 2020] will find themselves placed by the EU the “European Economic Area” (Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) and therefore outside the EU.
Hurray or Hurrah (depending on whether you went to a state or public school) we hear you shout.
Does this mean that the UK will be a fully independent state?
Err………….. Not quite.
You see, being in the “European Economic Area” allows access to the so called “single market.” It also requires adoption of all EU rules in that area. This is not the same as having a trading relationship with the EU as a WTO member by a fully independent state such as Japan.
You will recall Dear Reader the Traitor Clegg going on about the UK’s trade with the EU. Whether membership of the “European Economic Area” is advantageous to a member depends upon which countries they trade with. If most of the trade is outside the “European Economic Area” them membership is not an advantage as such membership constrains their trade with non “European Economic Area” countries – which is most states on Planet Earth.
The other aspect is that one has to look to the future not the past. What is clear is that there are going to be two huge economic superpowers in the not too far distant future. One is China. But it is the other, India that holds particular relevance for the UK.
The fact of the matter is this: The UK is under-going a fundamental demographic change. There is going to be a far larger proportion of the UK’s population with routes in the Asian sub-Continent that previously. Leicester is a majority Asian city and has been for some time now. Furthermore, the preservation of the identities of these communities and most importantly the language and culture, will mean that the UK will have a huge advantage so far as trade with India is concerned.
Here then is the supreme irony: It can be said that the growth to world power status of the UK came after the UK government took control of India and the winding up of the East India Company. India was always the jewel in the Crown of Empire, and Imperial foreign policy was directed at retaining it.
It is this growing trade with the subcontinent that will be the factor in deciding whether the UK stays in the “European Economic Area” after being placed there by the EU.
To those who feel the UK should in those circumstances immediately leave the “European Economic Area” there is the not inconsiderable practical difficulties in re-establishing our status as a full WTO member. This will take much preparation and time and cannot be done over night.
Surely Gandhi is laughing in his grave.