If the UK is to emerge in the next few years as a strong, prosperous and independent nation, we need to embrace and nurture the core qualities of Resilience, Agility, Control and Unity, with a leadership dedicated to do so. Add a dose of chutzpah and global respect will follow. The amazing people of Ukraine continue to demonstrate how it is qualities such as these, which ordinary people exhibit daily, that can overcome even the most gruesome of hurdles presented by an evil Putin, a Goliath pulverising incessantly the Ukrainian David.
EMBRACING THE EU BUT NOT GLORIFYING IT
A desperate Keir Starmer and his hapless Ministers are on a campaign to use ever closer relations with the EU as a panacea for all ills. Without real evidence they constantly assert that doing so will be a booster for economic growth. They have run out of plans to fund their profligate public sector spending, especially on welfare, need a scapegoat to divert fault from themselves for causing unemployment and have now lighted on Brexit. They use the Iran war to justify further closeness to Europe. They see the EU as an answer to defence which they refuse to prioritise, despite universal expert knowledge and advice that Britain will be a dead duck if any nation seeks to destroy it. By portraying UK defence as a Europe wide project, Starmer deflects the public from his abject unwillingness to improve the UK’s military capability.
Of course, the UK should have good trading relations with the EU and mutual arrangements to maximise assistance to defend each other, all to mutual benefit as close allies. Still, the Prime Minister insists there will be no rejoining the EU or the Customs Union. However, the plan, if any, seems to be to bit by bit lock the UK into EU regulation and restrictions, such as on food and energy. What sectors will follow? And each time the EU exacts a price. And the price might not just be directly monetary, but it may be handcuffing UK success stories like genetic food science, as well as a loss of control. Current Labour murmurings about rejoining the EU could easily develop into a full-scale debate and once more the old divisions will tear the UK apart just when total unity and control are essential.
The EU has countless problems, such as reliance on imported oil and gas, the recalcitrant voices like Belgium which stopped the use of Russian assets to help Ukraine. Germany, the EU’s engine room economy, is stagnant with old industries, such as the motor industry seriously declining; and France, its other leader, is in worse economic shape than the UK according to some experts. The EU is slow to change and stifles inventiveness with its risk averse attitude, which has sadly infected the UK. It is inflexible. Growth prospects in many EU countries are poor. Countries such as Spain and Ireland make almost no defence contribution but sponge off others. And for every deal done with the EU there will be UK losers, such as is happening for fishermen and farmers. The list could get long.
Importantly, in a most misleading way, media and EU supporters talk as if rejoining the EU would be the same as if we had never left. Then we had opt outs, we were not part of the Euro. The world is now very different too. And the EU is desperately seeking to add other countries like Albania. Trump seeks, in his toy throwing tantrum, to threaten the UK special relationship, but maintaining it beyond Trump’s tenure is fundamental. The UK is locked into the USA in so many ways. A remarriage with the EU may damage that relationship.
Suggesting spuriously it will solve their problem to grow the economy, Labour seem determined to pin their hopes to the EU mast and divide the country again. Finally, is it democratic or is it shredding democracy to creep piecemeal into greater power being handed to the EU reducing UK independence without a clear mandate to do so? This is a time to take control of destiny not cede it. Perhaps they see that as their only path to winning over an electorate which is being mugged by Labour dogma, and worst of all deceit.
THE ALTERNATIVE TO THE EU FIXATION
When the UK left the EU, for better or worse, it is undeniable there was an opportunity to build a nation pointing in its own direction, able to make its own decisions but always under the influence of complex global relationships, good or bad. Unfortunately, factional squabbling has corroded unity. Now, as the global order, whether it be supply chains, dependencies, power struggles, the rule of laws and rules, is undergoing even more upheaval, that same one direction opportunity exists even more, learning the many lessons of recent events: when faced with adversity, whether it be Russian threats and sabotage or shortages on shop shelves, a look at Ukrainians and other front line Eastern nations, like Finland and Poland, should provide examples to emulate. It is time to take control.
Their resilience and unity of purpose are plain to see: with Russia determined to expand and resurrect its old Empire, realism creates urgency and a sense of what is important. In the UK, people who can influence need to talk plainly and realistically, not maintain myths such as the NHS is fit for purpose, not pretend we can afford all the unaffordable things people may want but leaders must tell the people that they have to earn what they want. Realism that, whether in defence or energy or food security, we all might have to contribute a level of sacrifice has to be accepted.
Agility and adaptability, and ability to change and flex quickly, are now prerequisites to prosperity. Artificial intelligence is an area the UK can thrive in, with agility, and the EU offers little agility but rather the opposite. To have to persuade some 28 nations to agree a major policy before one can act is a serious drawback, which independence is not burdened with: especially when members may be aligned with an enemy as Orban of Hungary was with Putin. The unanimity requirements of NATO are a serious fetter, and its constitution should change. To secure independence, any nation now requires a level of power militarily to deter an enemy: the UK needs to achieve that and cannot rely solely on a coalition always responding.
So, Resilience, Agility, Control and Unity of purpose are core keys to future UK success.
THE EU DIVERSION IS DANGEROUS
Having strong and mutually beneficial ties with the EU is important. but not at any price. A rejoining policy will condemn the UK to massive division, and unproven assertions as occurred before the Leave Referendum, taking the UK backwards. Unity is more important. Pretending that tying the UK in numerous different ways to the EU will be a panacea for growth is a cop out and misleading. The ties on the right terms are desirable, but this Government has already given the negotiating armoury away by telling the EU that more deals with them is their only path to growth! The people of the UK are being treated like lambs led by this sheepish government. It would be far more effective for Government to focus on what it can control, that is unifying the nation, controlling spending and establishing one direction for all. The EU fixation is a dangerous sideshow, and focussing there, rather than taking control over the realities of what needs to be done, will lead to grave failure.
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