Sorry for the boring post, but mummies do have brains too and I feel so strongly about politics and current affairs, so I feel the need for a more serious blog post! No cute photos here I'm afraid. Feel free to ignore.
Recently, my newsfeed on Facebook and Twitter timeline have been full of opinions about the recent elections, UKIP's success and the EU in general. My initial reaction to UKIP's success was absolute horror and embarrassment that we would be represented in Europe by such fools. But with further thought I don't think it's all bad...
The EU has divided opinion since it was 'formed' in 1957 with the Treaty of Rome. Economically, in terms of trade, I think it's brilliant. Financially, and for British business, I think it'd be a disaster if we left. Huge multinational companies, such as Nissan here in the north east, have warned that they wouldn't be able to continue to operate in a totally independent UK. Who could blame them? Mainland Europe with its common currency, ease of travel and flexible labour force would make much more financial sense than an independent island off the coast of France. There are 6000 people that work at the Sunderland Nissan plant alone. Leaving the EU would be catastrophic to the already struggling UK employment market.
Other things that I love about the EU include the fact that I can go abroad in Europe and not worry about health insurance as long as I have my EHIC with me, I'm happy for any other EU residents to do the same when travelling to Britain. I love that there is freedom to travel around Europe with a British passport and protection from the EU, as well as Britain if I were to ever need it. I love that we can live, work, study and retire to any country we choose. The EU is a wonderful union, but ultimately I think it's become too big in recent years. The recent election results suggest that many agree.
In terms of social integration, I'm not so fond of the EU. The countries in it are vastly different, they have different cultures and I like that, I don't think they need to be homogenised. I don't like that the UK courts don't have supremacy and I don't like that our democratically elected parliament has to answer to Brussels, it seems wrong somehow and totallly unnecessary.
Financial union, through the Euro, was always going to be a disaster. Again, countries that are worlds apart financially and socially, sharing the same currency and more importantly the same interest rates, was never going to work in harmony in the long run. The UK is so lucky that the Conservative and Labour governments of the nineties saw the potential problems and kept us out. Being able to set our own interest rates has helped us hugely during this financial crisis.
So really, in summary I'm a huge fan of the EU, but I think it's become too big, too powerful and it's taken too much sovereignty away from its nations.
I therefore don't think it's such a bad thing that UKIP did so well in the recent council and EU elections. Yes, I think the majority of UKIP MEPs and councillors are absolute idiots (insert your own swear word/insult here...I cant, my mum reads this!), many of them racist and sexist, with many bizarre and offensive personal manifestos that belong in the 1900s. Nigel Farage, although he likes to sell himself as 'just a normal guy down the pub' is actually an ex-public school boy and ex-city trader. Remind me how that makes him a 'normal' guy down the pub?! Doesn't sound different to the other politicians in this country to me. The party are a joke, I'm embarrassed that we now have 24 of their 'idiots' sitting in the European Parliament representing our country. But it's not necessarily a bad thing. The party's massive success sends a very strong and clear message to the other 3 parties and they now have to do something about it in order to guarantee their survival as a party.
David Cameron tweeted (my friends will know I feel about this twitter account!) just the other day:
This is what a lot of people, myself included, have felt all along. This is why so many people in this country felt like their only option was to vote UKIP (just to be clear, I absolutely did not vote UKIP, but I understand why people felt that was their only option).
Looking at the recent election, it's not even just this country which feels this way. Germany elected a neo-Nazi (!?!?) for the first time since WW2 and Marine Le Pen's Front National party in France gained 24 seats in Brussels, an 8 fold increase on the last parliament. Greece also elected a neo-nazi to Brussels, the anti-EU party M5S in Italy came very close to coming first place in their vote, settling with 2nd and 28% of the vote. Far-right democrats more than doubled their share of the vote since the last election in Sweden and Flemish separatists performed well in parliamentary elections held in Belgium. Euroscepticism really seems to have taken hold across Europe and it seems that many of the founding and early members of the EU are also fed up with recent changes in Brussels. People have started voting in protest, much like we've seen here.
I really hope that our Prime Minister and the other main parties in this country start listening to the electorate. I don't believe for a second that so many people in this country believe wholeheartedly in the ideologies and manifesto of UKIP, but they've used their vote as a protest to send a very clear and strong message to the government. That's why democracies are so brilliant and why no vote is ever wasted.
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