The EU: Too Big to Bail

I haven't written here for a very long time. This is for a number of reasons: the blog had become largely about Electra's health and keeping people informed. When she passed, it was harder to write. Then it had been a long time. Then I was just, like, super lazy and thus didn't post for several years. But I'm writing today, because it's a momentous day: the day of the "Brexit" vote in the UK. I'm not going to expand on what that is, as I'm sure you know, or can easily find out, but I want to talk about why I voted to Remain, and why I think that's the only sensible choice.

Overall, my decision was made long ago. The main reason I'm currently awaiting the granting of my British citizenship (which I will maintain in addition to my Canadian citizenship) is for access to the EU. I'd love to be able to live and to work in Germany one day, if I so choose. Or Sweden. Or France. But even were that not true, the factual arguments are too great: our trade is heavily dependent on the EU, international trading partners including China and the US trade with big blocks like the EU, not a newly-independent UK. The UK does not have the clout it once did, and would rapidly cease to be the economic centre of Europe (and the world), causing knock-on effects in terms of job losses, a likely recession, increased cost of goods and more. Like it or not, the EU is too big to bail out of without it really hurting us.

In addition, there are social implications. The risk of Scottish (or Northern Irish) independence is too great if we leave. Travel to the continent would be more difficult and far more expensive. I would lose many friends and colleagues who are EU citizens and whose futures would now be insecure.

So, I was never really going to vote to leave. Too many experts in too many fields, be they political, scientific or economic, are resoundingly clear in their advice that remaining part of the EU is the best path for Britain (and Michael Gove is not exactly persuasive enough to convince me not to listen to experts). But I was challenged a few weeks ago as to a positive reason to stay. There has been a lot of fear, doom and gloom in the run-up to the referendum (on both side), and it's a valid question to ask: "what do we get by staying?", rather than "what do we risk losing by leaving?" And I can tell you why.

For the past decades, we have become more fractious as a people. We have started to focus less on "us" and more on "us vs. them". We talk about what makes us different: history, culture, language. In 1945, there were 86 recognised countries in the world; today there are 196. We have divided and sub-divided. We have seen independence movements from Quebec to Scotland; Catalonia to South Sudan. Some of these divisions are great (few people outside of Putin's inner circle lament the breakup of the Soviet Union and the dropping of the iron curtain). And I don't want to disparage the individuals who are passionate about their local ethnic cultures and identity, even those who seek to achieve independence to highlight this.

But I do lament our loss of a collective dream. That shining idea that there truly is more that unites us than divides us. That first and foremost, we are all people. And we are at our best when we work together. In the face of increasing globalisation and interconnectivity, we have counter-intuitively segmented ourselves further. In 1989, we famously tore down a wall that divided a people; today we seem far more intent to build them and keep "them" out (and sometimes try to charge "them" for the privilege) so we can be insular and separate.

The EU has been one of the few truly successful exceptions to this rule. Formed as a way to trade freely and to try and make it impossible for the horrors of two world wars to occur again, it has become so much more. It spawned one of the largest and most influential currencies in the world. It tore down border markers and travel restrictions, allowed mobility and equality of work for all those who called it home. It came together with all its members to stand up for workers' rights and environmental protections, for consumer protections and easy travel. And it said that we were all part of something bigger; a community of people who differed, but shared common values, identities and history that brought us together.

And the result? A community that grew. A beacon that drew in others eager for its light to shine on them and help them grow. And in exchange, it became a force for good, helping drive the core beliefs around human rights and protections of people and the environment to those who needed a bit more of a carrot to lure them over that humane line. The club grew and expanded, and those values formed a strong core around which the club could gather.

Much of what the Leave campaign says is true. the EU is huge, bulky, slow and overly bureaucratic. It is a lumbering beast that is hard to herd sometimes. There are some incredibly wasteful practices and rules, from the CAP to the rotating capital. There are some things that need fixing. And if we stay, I hope we use our considerable muscle to help reform it. I hope we don't quit. I hope we don't walk away and go it on our own, as an isolationist island with little more than a shadow of its former power.

What do we get by voting to remain? We get to say that we are part of something bigger. We get to say that sharing and working in a community is more important than going it alone and hoping for the best. We get to validate one of the greatest experiments of a generation: a generation that has seen less war, more prosperity, more rights, more freedoms, more travel and more protections than any before it. And it saddens me that we might throw that away because we can't stop focusing on what makes us different; on our personal story and history.

You should absolutely be proud of where you came from, who you are, and what makes you special. But you absolutely also be proud to be a part of something bigger. Especially if that something bigger is a community of peers working to improve the lives of its peoples.