Dr. Sean Gabb:
“…Considered in itself, the European Union is a customs and regulatory union with a mild taste for political union. A customs union with our European neighbours is probably less in our economic interest than a set of free trade arrangement with the rest of the world. Many of the regulations are a nuisance, and we could make do very well with fewer of them, or with regulations more suited to our individual circumstances. The political union, so far, has been more spoken about than delivered. Why anyone should go white with anger on either side of these matters is a mystery in itself. If England has been ruined in the past half century, the ruin has been the work of our own ruling class, not of foreigners. The greatest threat to our freedom and our general ways of life is located not in Brussels, but in London.
This being said, the Brexit debate that only began with the counting of the Referendum votes has been a valuable education. So far as it blurs the lines of accountability, membership of the European Union has been a useful entrenchment of our ruling class. It has also helped provide a mildly liberal and cosmopolitan gloss to a domestic project that has been anything but liberal. Its refusal to honour the Referendum has torn aside what remained of the democratic veil behind which power is exercised. These people are not our servants. They are a hostile elite. Their interests are not ours. They despise us. They fear us. They are determined not to give us even the shadow of what we were – perhaps unwisely – promised...”
