Trade and economics have been the tools used to underpin what voters everywhere want: fairness and a decent standard of living. In the 1950s and 1960s, waning public trust in capricious national governments led political leaders to choose to give responsibility for equitable, sharing of scarce energy resources to an independent supranational, technocratic body (later the EU Commission). It was designed to be above party politics and the vagaries of election changes. The aim was to secure those resources from grabs by the most vocal or militarily strong country in the group.
That highly political step was and still is impelled by geopolitical challenges. Then, as now, Europe (including the UK) faced huge security threats and chose cooperation over power politics and force; and crucially, ‘woke’ redistributive economics over the kind of mercantilist corporate asset-stripping favoured by some across the Atlantic.
Political realism impels working together
Too few MPs understand that saying we share common values demands actions that match the words. Unless politicians are honest with us about our past successes in shaping the EU, the EU won’t trust us to commit to working together: and so we subvert our own call for ‘closer alignment’. We must try to see how the EU and its members see us and see Europe.
The UK once punched well above its weight as an EU member. Now, going on about trade and economics misses the point on which the EU27 agree: there is a political, and not just an economic, imperative for working together on defence, peace-building, deterrence, AI and combating disinformation, Russia, the USA, China, climate, health and economic crises.
Money does not trump politics
Arguing about the economic cost of joining the club detracts from addressing the mis-diagnosis of the problems we face and, crucially, from the real political cost of not joining. The Brexit omertà didn’t work well for ordinary people or for Labour. Fashioning policies to woo short-term poorly-informed electorates will deliver more of the same economic and political decline.
Are we in denial about what is happening on our doorstep, or too blinded by Russian antics in the Channel to understand the implications for us and the EU of Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and states from Albania to Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia seeking EU membership as soon as possible? Iceland and Canada’s deepened strategic and trade relations with the EU are driven by political realism about less-than-subtle threats to Greenland, and understanding that security requires long-term commitment to work democratically to sustain it.
For Europe, that entails strengthening democratic governance; giving citizens opportunities anywhere in the EU to be heard; to roam across the EU, abiding by local rules like the locals do. It means taking freedom of movement for granted; looking forward – not back – and engaging children across the EU in shaping the political priorities of tomorrow.
Still getting it wrong
Banning freedom of movement didn’t work well either for us, or for the big parties. The EU is right to see our commitment to restoring it as key to them trusting us in future. The red lines are nonsense.
Freedom of movement and migration are not and never were identical. UK tourists now know what it’s like to be treated as an ‘alien’ when flying to Europe. They know what it’s like not to be able to get jobs formerly open to us in the EU, no matter how well-qualified we may be because, in order to live there, we now have to meet immigration and residence requirements and conditions that Europeans generally do not when crossing internal EU borders.
An even bigger mistake
Local elections showed Labour that appeasing those opposed to freedom of movement not only did not win them votes but will not do so in future, no matter how they dress it up.
It is hardly credible to claim that the priority is boosting the economy (simultaneously ignoring how previous governments knowingly shrank it via Brexit) while offering no more than mealy-mouthed links to the EU.
Yes, everyone wants a decent standard of living. Britons and Europeans share that goal. Unlike us, Europeans accept that improvement requires taking the politically necessary steps, working together, and combating domestic division.
They, and we, may scapegoat the EU as well as our neighbours but, as Hungary’s election of Péter Magyar showed, there is a pride in being part of an imperfect but cooperatively-minded EU; one that tries together to cooperate better and resist tyrants, as well as risky foreign investors.
No EU state wants to leave the EU having seen Brexit’s continuing disastrous impact on our standard of living. Public support for and identification with the EU is higher than in the past. The EU is seen as vital to wellbeing, citizens’ democratic freedoms, and as the security guarantor of human rights, including the European Convention on Human Rights.
Love it or hate it, Europeans appreciate what being in the EU means for them personally.
Solidarity and respect
The EU’s members have always squabbled but there is solidarity of purpose and a degree of mutual respect. By disowning how the UK shaped Europe, our politicians obstruct public understanding of the EU, and of how crucial and influential we have been on many fronts, including freedom of movement. People-to-people contacts and our shared colourful instruments of culture (like Eurovision) transcend contemporary political posturing in Europe and invoke mutual acceptance.
If our politicians choose to portray EU membership in purely transactional monetary terms, they will compromise UK access to defence contracts, risk forfeiting the chance to influence the direction of European defence strategy and decisions on invoking the EU’s mutual defence clause to assist each other against military aggression (under Article 42.7 of the Lisbon Treaty), regardless of NATO.
It’s not the economy: it’s personal
So, no, Keir Starmer, it’s not the economy. And it’s not them. It is you. It is about politics, security and our emotional attachment to what matters to us, as individuals and as families.
It is up to you, prime minister, to show that you understand the UK to be an integral, dependable, political part of Europe and that you will enable Britons to show up and enjoy being part of it.
Understanding political reality means no less. Britain needs Europe and Europe needs Britain. ‘Twas ever thus.
Bylines Network Gazette is out!
The latest Bylines Network Gazette is out now. Become a Friend of Bylines Network or upgrade to a paid Substack subscription, and you will get access to a vital collection of citizen articles and stories.
Journalism by the people, for the people.
