What chance a mature debate about the EU?
Jonathan Lindsell, 5 September 2014
If you’re looking at the potential benefits of exiting the EU, as Civitas has done in a number of publications in recent years, it’s only fair and responsible to look at the potential downsides too. What is needed more than anything in the EU debate is a mature discussion. Judging by some of today’s response to Softening the Blow, which was written and published in the spirit of open and honest debate, it appears that there isn’t as much appetite for that as some of us would hope.
Reasonable people can see that there are risks as well as advantages to leaving Europe. Softening the Blow seeks to demonstrate how the risks might be overcome. It examines the ways they can and should be avoided. These strategies contribute to robust, long-term plans for an independent future.
In an effort to take pro-Europeans’ legitimate concerns seriously, I spoke to representatives of groups like farmers, fishermen, manufacturers and the Welsh government. We talked about what their specific fears were, yes, which means parts of Softening the Blow represent the negative version of Brexit. But that is not the conclusion – the conclusion is that there are policies that would help ensure the vulnerable sectors do not lose out.
No government will aim for the worst version of Brexit. In any realistic version of Brexit, with whatever party in power, it‘s difficult to imagine parliament rejecting free trade with Europe, making no effort to boost trade with the rest of the world, or allowing farming and regional funding to abruptly stop. It simply won’t happen.
A moderate vision of Britain outside Europe is the result of a study shaped by groups identified specifically because they want to keep Europe. This model emphasises European free trade, a more dynamic Foreign Office championing Britain around the globe, sensible funding allocation and mutually beneficial cooperation with EU countries.
This can only be construed as a demonstrating that ‘Brexit is bad for Britain’ if you think all obstacles are insurmountable, and that there are no other considerations to bear in mind. But a government that listens to its businesses, its regions, its people, can certainly overcome them. Overcoming them means an independence that would help the country, even the more cautious groups within it, thrive.