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Why Pro-Europeans Should Sign The People's Pledge

Peter Watt argues it is high time that pro-Europeans started making the case for the EU and a referendum.

By Peter Watt

30 Jan 2012, 10:30

If you are pro our continuing membership of the European Union, as I am, then you need to accept something uncomfortable.  You have lost the debate.  In fact right about now you are not even at the races.  The truth is that for the last twenty years pro-Europeans have barely bothered to engage with the in/out debate.  They haven’t felt that they have to. 

The argument against our membership has, on the whole, been punted by people that the pro-brigade have felt to be on the political fringe.   In Labour it was the hard left that still argued for withdrawal, they were tiny in number and had few allies.  John Major called his ‘bastards’.  We all remember with amusement the picture of the Redwood supporters as he launched his failed bid for the Tory Leadership in 1995.  The loony Euro-sceptic fringe of the Tory Party there for all to see. 

And anyway, opinion poll after opinion poll showed that whilst people were irritated by what they saw as the excesses of the European Union, it was very low down in their list of priorities.  Few decisions on where to cast a vote were ultimately affected by EU edicts on straight bananas or fish quotas.

The result has been that us ‘pros’ have had it easy.  The public didn’t really care that much and the ‘antis’ were in many ways their own worst enemies.  So easy in fact that the pro argument has not really been made at all.  Of course there has been plenty of dry and dull looking Euro propaganda produced over the years, generally paid for with euro-money.  Most of it has been speaking to the converted or has sat in boxes without an audience to distribute to.  Plenty of pro-European members of the main parties have visited Brussels and Strasbourg and have no doubt enjoyed themselves. European elections have come and gone and turnouts have been poor.  But no one except candidates and Euro sceptics really cared.  And any debate about Europe has been intermittent and relegated to the fringe.

The pro-Europe camp have convinced themselves that at the end of the day, there is just no way that people will vote to leave the EU.  Why would they when they ‘know’ that to do so would cause economic meltdown for the country, their area and indeed their family?  They have done this and have gone further in our thinking.  They have decided that whilst the risk that people might vote to leave the EU is low, the risk to the Country if they did is intolerably high.  So those that call for an in/out referendum are not only wrong to want to leave but are risking the economic health of the Country.  No, the people need protecting from themselves.

So, all in all life has been good for us Europhiles over the last few years.  But the problem is that quietly and unnoticed by us self-satisfied ‘pro’ lot, something has changed.  Public opinion has hardened and John Redwood no longer sounds like an extremist on Europe to many.  The issue is higher up the list of people’s concerns and the meltdown of the Eurozone is hardening attitudes further.  It is not quite so simple to argue that our continuing membership is good for all of us when we have had to stump up billions-of-pounds to shore up our profligate European cousins.  Suddenly our membership of the European Union seems even less and less attractive to many.  Family budgets are being squeezed and still the demands for Euro money keep rolling.  Everyone is cutting back but the Eurocrats certainly aren’t.  And just look at the popularity bounce that the PM got when he appeared to give the French and Germans a bloody nose recently.

The Europhile response has been pathetic.  Label the antis as ‘on the fringe’, repeat how good for all of us our membership is and quietly reiterate that we can’t risk letting the people have their say.  But the fact that the argument has been lost is not a good enough reason to keep resisting calls for a referendum on the issue.  The simple fact is that the nature of our relationship with the EU has changed since the last referendum.  We pay more to be members.  More of our laws are determined in Europe.  More of the decisions of our Courts are scrutinised by European Courts.  And of course there are some downsides to this which sceptics talk up.  But we also have had a period of unprecedented peace and security.  We have greater consumer and employee protection.  We have a greater say in the World because we are prominent members of a huge trading bloc.  And of course we have benefitted in terms of trade and jobs. 

But we have forgotten how to make the argument.  And so those opposed to our membership are winning this hands down.  They are demanding a referendum to decide the issue.  They point to the resistance to a referendum by the pro-camp as a sign of their weakness.  If we have lost the argument on something so fundamental as our membership of the EU and all that that implies we cannot simply pretend that it isn’t happening.  On the contrary, we should join the debate and fight our corner.  Let’s not rely on our MEP’s to make the argument –people would expect them to be in favour.  Let’s put up some of our big guns and make them make the argument.  Let’s start arguing the case street by street, constituency by constituency.  We need a dramatic and resonant campaign that engages with people’s real concerns about the EU.  We can’t just claim that the economic sky will come down if we leave, it’s not true and they won’t believe it.  Instead, let’s talk up the patriotic pro-British reasons for being members. 

Europhiles have lost the argument right now.  So the pro-Euro camp should accept this and respond by campaigning for a referendum on our continued membership of the EU.  And then let’s show the courage of our convictions and campaign to stay in.

Go to www.peoplespledge.org to sign up to support a referendum.