F R Chowdhury
There is a public referendum on 23rd June 2016 for the people of the United Kingdom to decide whether to continue to remain within the European Union (EU) or to come out of it. This has nothing to do with political parties. It is the direct decision of the citizens irrespective of political affiliation.
Regional groups and associations are nothing new in this world. They are normally formed to facilitate trade, commerce and travel. They are regional associations for cooperation. We know about NAFTA (North American Free Trade Association), GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council), ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) and even SAARC (South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation). There is no doubt that EU is the largest and the most successful.
Surprisingly there is no successful grouping within the East European block. EU remains the envy of East European block. They also remain jealous of all activities dominated by the western world. NATO remains a concern for them. But the US-UK military alliance is a big headache for them. They managed to form a group named BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). Recently they succeeded in setting up an international development bank in line with that of World Bank.
Since the Second World War Britain lost most of its overseas empire. It tried to keep its dominance through the Commonwealth world. But most of the former colonies gradually became republics. Commonwealth became only symbolic. Britain needed to join a grouping for its own economic interest. When UK joined EU in 1973, it was considered a sick member of the Union. Over the years UK’s economy grew from strength to strength. It is now a bigger economy than that of France.
Those who want UK to leave EU have three main points: a) too many immigrants entering UK from poorer EU countries; b) UK is paying too much contribution to EU and the immigrants from other EU states enjoying our health and education benefits; and c) that UK sovereignty is affected by EU. These points have already been addressed by the Prime Minister during his visit to EU states and he has successfully achieved UK’s right to impose certain limitations and conditions to those points in such a way that we will enjoy all the benefits without sacrificing our economic freedom.
Now we shall briefly discuss as to what will happen if the UK decides to leave the EU.
Gibraltar: It is a self-governed overseas territory of the United Kingdom. Gibraltar is within the EU through a Member State United Kingdom. If UK comes out of EU, Gibraltar will be automatically out of EU. Spain will immediately impose border control/ blockade and virtually put the people of Gibraltar under sort of house arrest. Gibraltar will not be able to overcome the situation and UK will no more be in a position to feed Gibraltar. It may eventually become a part of Spain. That will be a betrayal by the UK to the 32,000 loyal people of Gibraltar.
Scotland: It has already known its decision that it would demand another referendum if the UK comes out of EU. There is no reason for Scotland to leave whole of EU only to remain a part of the UK. The result of any such referendum will be perhaps different. We will be cut in size.
Northern Ireland: The peace process is holding well because there is no border control. If the UK leaves EU, the Republic of Ireland will have to impose border control and the people in the North will not like it. We will get back to the lingering war making life unbearable in Northern Ireland.
There are many who will be happy to see the dismemberment of the United Kingdom. Russia has not forgotten the pain of losing Soviet Union. They will be the happiest. China will be happy to increase its economic influence. The Latin America has not forgotten the Falkland matter. There are many more countries that will be happy that there can be no powerful military alliance like UK-US as it is now. India will be eyeing for a permanent seat in the Security Council. Above all the process of dismemberment will take away our pride of being a British citizen.
I hope the good senses will prevail. People will look at reasons and justifications. We will remain stronger as United Kingdom and our position will be still stronger within EU.
London, 15-June-2016 <fazlu.chowdhury@btinternet.com>
