EU debate: JD weighs in

Here is something to think about. On local TV the other day the UKIP candidate for one of the seats up here (can't remember his name) said "Nissan threatened to pull out of the UK if we didn't join the Euro. We didn't join and they didn't leave."

Correct and shows the propaganda machine in action on behalf of the CBI and other business leaders. (*see note below)

The same propaganda is in full swing again about how disastrous it will be if we leave the EU. Are they crying wolf again?

Probably, but there again I started wondering after I read this in last night's paper -
http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/nissan-could-face-battle-investment-9175512

The interesting thing is that Nissan is 43% owned by Renault and Renault is 20% owned by the French State, recently increased from 15%. Apart from the obvious question of why state ownership works in Europe and not in the UK and why we allow foreign state ownership/participation in our railways and power generation etc., my thoughts were that the French government would put pressure on Nissan via Renault to ensure that the cars were built in France should the UK decide to leave the EU. I wonder how many other businesses that might apply to?

Anyway, I think this comment to the article sums up our cynical attitude to politics and politicians-

Dave R • a day ago

Yes lets scrap the EU and go back to having wars instead. they are more fun and cost less, mind we have just finished paying for the last one, so maybe I'm wrong and its cheaper being in the EU.
My thoughts above are based on my personal observations; working for a French construction company in Spain I noticed that the hire cars we were using were all French makes. And specialist subcontractors were brought in from France even though I knew that the Spanish subcontractors were better. The German companies I have worked for do the same sort of thing - they source from their own first before looking elsewhere. (British companies never do that, they will always go for the cheapest option rather than the best option.)
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* Note: I saw Digby Jones on telly a while ago complaining that British people don't speak foreign languages and so British companies lose out because of it. The interviewer didn't ask the obvious question - "How many languages do you speak Digby?"

And it isn't true. The vast majority of British people working abroad can speak the local language. I have even met a few in the Middle east who were learning Arabic not because they needed it for work but because they wanted to learn it.

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Small is beautiful

J R Nyquist argues that internationalism is used as a cover for expansion by aggressive states, and the nation-state is our stoutest defence.

I think this links in with our domestic EU in-or-out debate, on which the allegedly Conservative British MP David Cameron has recently been making flirty noises. I say "flirty" because although the headline talks boldly of tearing up the un-referendum-ed Constitution, the leader of the Opposition says "We think the treaty is wrong because it passes too much power from Westminster to Brussels." How much is enough?

Perhaps some will say mine is a typical reaction from a little Englander, but originally that term meant an opponent of imperialism. Well, I'm used to ignorant brickbats. It was Philip Toynbee who - his son told me - called me a Colonel Blimp while I was still at school, I think because I had dared to ask him about the significance of colour in Lorca's poetry. What I gathered from this experience was: never ask a posh leftie for an explanation, he'll only look down his egalitarian nose at you. (I haven't met his daughter Polly, though.) Intriguingly, though the term "little Englander" is said to date from the 1899-1901 Second Boer War, there is an 1833 German dictionary-cum-phrasebook (published in Grunsberg) called "Der kleine Englander ober Sammlung". I do hope the title wasn't intended to have a pejorative tinge, but you can never be sure with the Germans - they do have a wry sense of humour.

The relevance of all this, aside from the asides? I think the themes of diversity, dispersion and disconnection will grow in importance over the coming years, in politics and economics. As with some mutually dependent Amazonian flowers and insects, efficiency and specialisation will have to be balanced against flexibility and long-term survival.