Telegraph commentator, Harry de
Quetteville, posed a very good question in his newspaper column today (Tue 11th
March 2014), asking "should Britain just accept that it is no longer a
major power?", which seemed to link in very well with the recent remarks
made by the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, when he suggested that too many
people in Britain today are backward looking, insular and seemingly desperate
to revive a Britain that no longer exists. According to Mr Clegg and many of
his fellow European Union supporters, casting a glimpse back to the former days
of Empire, of international influence, industrial power, military security,
economic independence and political statemanship would be a hollow exercise, when
compared to looking forward to their own vision of a federally absorbed
Britain, with minimal international influence, limited industrial capacity,
shared defensive capabilities, a highly dependant economic future and people
like themselves leading the way. Rather than wanting a Britain that is global,
that is enterprising, independent, confident, principled and forthright, they
would much rather have a Britain that is parochial, that is safe, malleable,
dependent, reserved, unprincipled and timid.
All three major party leaders,
Nick Clegg, Ed Miliband, David Cameron, along with most of their parliamentary
colleagues would have us believe that Britain is now so diminished as a nation,
as a significant world power, that we have little choice but to rely on the
succour and security of the European Union, in order to add value, to add
strength, to the British voice on the international stage. They choose to
overlook the fact that the UK still remains a member of G7, G8, G20, IMF, NATO,
OECD, WTO, Commonwealth of Nations, is a recognised nuclear power, remains a
permanent member of the UN Security Council, has the 4th largest defence
spending in the world, was the world's first industrialised nation, is the 6th
largest economy in the world and is the world's 8th largest economy in terms of
purchasing power. In addition to belonging to dozens of internationally
recognised bodies, the UK still retains sovereignty over 17 territories outside
of mainland Britain, which exist as British Overseas Territories and/or Crown
Dependencies.
Despite being a founding member
of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), in 2013 and in response to
suggestions that Britain might reconsider its membership of the European Union,
the German defence minister at the time, Thomas de Maiziere, publicly stated
that he believed that a British withdrawal from the EU would almost inevitably
harm the UK's standing in the world and have a highly negative effect on
Britain's membership of NATO, even though the defence alliance and the EU are
two entirely separate entities. As things stand the biggest single contributor
to NATO remains the United States, while the likes of Britain, France, Germany,
etc. are also significant contributors in terms of finance and manpower,
although are inevitably restricted by various national budgetary constraints.
However, for any German defence minister to suggest that Britain would, or
could not meet her responsibilities to the alliance in any future military or humanitarian
emergency is completely dishonest, a threat that one can only conclude is
designed to influence future public discussions regarding the UK's future
relationship with the EU, rather than with NATO itself. It is also worth
pointing out of course that on occasion Britain has initiated military and
humanitarian missions outside of the NATO alliance, with absolutely no recourse
to its European and North American partners, so the prospect of "standing
alone" in any future armed conflict would hardly be a cause of major concern
for the UK. With some of the best trained, equipped and battle-hardened
frontline troops in the world, despite their recent downsizing by Mr Cameron
and Mr Clegg's coalition government, Britain's armed forces still present one
of the most formidable military forces in the world today, with or without our
NATO allies alongside.
In case anybody remains in any
doubt about the innate entrepreneurialism, inventiveness, or competitiveness of
the British people, it's worth pointing out that throughout our nation's history,
Britons (including our ethnic Scottish, English, Irish and Welsh inventors),
sometimes acting in partnership with other nationalities, sometimes acting
alone, have been responsible for inventing or discovering a whole range of
everyday things that the entire world now just take for granted. These include;
the telephone, television, stereo, photography, DNA, hip replacements, radio
telescope, vertical take-off aircraft, jet engines, jet aircraft, birth control
pill, beta-blockers, hovercraft, hypodermic syringe, tranquilliser gun, silent
burglar alarm, childproof bottle caps, collapsible baby buggy, wind-up radio,
CT scanner, MRI scanner, DNA fingerprinting, DNA sequencing, stem cell uses,
world wide web, Concorde aircraft, thermos flask, lawnmower, flat glass
process, chocolate bars, electric telegraph, modern fire extinguisher, light
bulb, pneumatic tyre, cats-eye road marking, carbon fibre, disc brakes, steam
engine, steam turbine, soda water, reflecting telescope, marine chronometer,
synthetic dye, passenger railways, linoleum, toothbrush, automatic kettle,
glider, military tank, modern torpedo, safety bicycle, tension spoked wheel,
cement, seed drill, spinning frame, Bessemer steel making, electric motor,
hydraulic press, modern sewage system, programmable computer (Colossus),
stainless steel, ATM bank machine, tin can, electric vacuum cleaner, waterproof
material, penicillin, cloning, IVF, radar, cordite, corkscrews, depth charges,
electro-magnets, fax machine, power loom, periscope, polyester, rubber bands,
submarine, umbrella, and the universal joint.
Even today and despite the often
widely held opinion that Britain is a much less important place in the world,
in terms of the things that we produce and the services we provide, the UK
still remains a world leader in areas like the creative industries
(architecture, film, media, the arts, literature, etc.), aerospace, military
shipbuilding, motor sport, music, technology, agriculture, financial services,
sport, tourism, petro-chemicals, research and development, food manufacturing,
engine technology, brewing, automotive (Landrover, etc), insurance services,
medical research, hotels and catering, pharmaceuticals and information
technology.
The top earning exports from the
UK include; machinery and mechanical equipment, fuels, oils and substances,
road vehicles and parts, electrical equipment and components, pharmaceuticals,
precious stones and jewellery, optical equipment and apparatus, organic
chemicals, aircraft and space vehicles, plastics and plastic products, as well
as engineering products (valves, etc.)
Where Britain falls down, fails
if you will, is when it comes to defending our own national interests, our
historic industries, our traditional trading partners, thereby forcing us to
rely on other non-traditional countries for supplies of basic resources, or
finished manufactured products. Agriculture, fishing, steel-making, coal mining
and ship-building, are just some of the historically important heavy industries
that have largely been lost to the British economy; and to those hundreds of
thousands of British workers who might have expected to find viable full-time
employment within them.
Even though in 1973 our
politicians promised us much, in reality, membership of the EEC, now the EU,
has delivered very little in terms of real long term benefits to our country.
Rather than taking full advantage of our own pre-existing imperial friendships
to access historic overseas marketplaces with their 2.3 billion citizens in the
Commonwealth of Nations, we have somehow managed to anchor ourselves to a
continental corpse that is only a fraction of the Commonwealth's size; and that
is becoming less important to overall global trade by the very day. At the same
time, with the European Union increasingly being dominated and driven forward
by a smaller and smaller number of powerful northern nations, so it becomes
less and less democratic for the 500 million citizens who entirely rely on the
corrupt and bloated corpse. Surely any British politician who would willingly
advocate our continued membership of this fetid organisation, or even greater
involvement, cannot be said to be acting in the best interests of our nation,
if they would argue for "more Europe", rather than "much less
Europe".
Despite how diminished Britain
might be thought to have become over the course of the past 40 years, beneath
the thin veneer of dilapidation, destitution and dog-earedness that our
political elite have brought about through their own personal vanity and
political ideologies, there still remains the Britain that forged and built an
empire, because the people remain fundamentally the same. Our generous nature,
our tolerance towards others, our stoicism in the face of adversity, our quirky
traditional humour, our pride in our unique culture and traditions, all of
these things are the result of our shared 2000 years of history; that have
helped to make us the people that we are. It would be beyond belief if we were
to simply settle for being part of a second rate economic, social and political
experiment like the EU, when we could do so much better on our own.
It's a complete fallacy for the
likes of Nick Clegg, David Cameron, or Ed Miliband to claim that we couldn't
manage on our own, if we were to withdraw from the European Union. Our world
beating industries, would still be world beating industries; and people would
still want to buy their ideas, their products, whether we're in the EU or not.
Our Aerospace industries would still design, build and sell fast jets to the
world's air forces, whether we're in the EU or not. Our Petro-chemical
industries would still continue to develop new products, new processes that
other countries want to buy and export. Why? Because Britain is absolutely
bleeding brilliant at producing high-end products that people around the world
want to buy, that's why!
Consider also that out of the
European Union, our own farmers will be released from the bureaucratic
nightmare that originates from Brussels. Out of the EU, our traditional fishing
grounds would be restored allowing British fisherman to carefully exploit our
natural resources; and maybe help rebuild some of those communities that were
blighted by the EU imposed fish quotas. Rather than rely on foreign fuel
sources, outside of the EU, maybe we could look at using our own native
resources of coal, shale gas, renewables, etc. that the British householder and
business owner can actually afford. Outside of the European Union we can
develop some of those long lost trading links with our Commonwealth cousins
that we should never have surrendered in the first place. Outside of the EU,
Britain can re-take its proper place at the high table of the various
international bodies, rather than having to defer our position and our historic
rank to the EU's entirely invented diplomatic corp. Outside of the EU, British
representatives would speak exclusively for the British people. And who knows,
outside of the European Union, the British people might just start to find that
they like being in charge of their own national destiny again; and who knows
just where that might lead, to the past way of doing things perhaps?
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