The EU is in the news and is likely to stay there for many months to come.
My relationship with Europe as a political issue started way back when I was 11 years old. It was 1975 and my school organised a debate on the referendum to decide the future of Britain’s membership of what was then called the Common Market. I spoke for the NO campaign.
After reading my carefully prepared speech, my Father said he would turn me into a politician. I supposed he succeeded.
More than 40 years later we approach another referendum and I have to say I am undecided. It’s been a bit of a journey though!
As a left wing Labour activist in the early 80’s, I supported the then party policy of immediate withdrawal of what was by then called the EEC. As time passed I came to accept the inevitability of our membership and as a trade union official I saw some of the benefits of the social chapter first hand. Then I witnessed the failed experiment with the single currency and the terrible effects on southern Europe.
As an internationalist I am in favour of the principle of European cooperation, but on the other hand I don’t like the sprawling bureaucracy that the EU has become. Reform is clearly needed but where is the progressive case for it?
The contemporary NO campaign has shades of the Little Englander about it, but the YES campaigns launched by both Labour and the Lib Dems appear to be saying we stay in at all costs. Why didn’t they wait to see the results of the government’s renegotiation first?
A part of me wants to sign up to the party campaign because those whom I greatly respect politically are enthusiastically getting behind it. However, at the moment I don’t feel able to commit.
So for now I will remain on the fence and continue to follow the ongoing debate closely, waiting to be convinced.
* David Warren is a lifetime political activist for progressive causes and a liberal.