There's been a lot of hand wringing in the media of late, bemoaning the British vote to leave the EU. We've heard that they were suffering from buyer's remorse and they didn't really know what they voted for. Economic, stock market and monetary collapse were an imminent certainty and the people were facing decades of grinding poverty.
How could such an outcome have happened? According to a trio of intellectuals on CBC Radio, that's the danger of allowing the unwashed masses a vote in a referendum. They can't understand all the complexities of the big picture, such decisions should be left to their moral and intellectual betters who know what's best for them.
During the campaign, the "leave" voters were described as ignorant, racist, sexist, idiotic, backward-looking bumpkins, foolish, uneducated, anti-immigrant, chauvinist ignoramuses. Did I mention racist? That there might be legitimate reasons for leaving the EU was never considered.
Why vote to leave? The European Parliament is virtually powerless, but there are 28 faceless, unelected, omnipotent Kommissars who exercise the supreme lawmaking power under the Treaty of Maastricht, who can meet behind closed doors to override in secret, any decision of that Parliament at will, and even to issue Commission Regulations that bypass it altogether.
Worse, the treaty that established the European Stability Pact gives its governing body of absolute bankers the power, at will and without consultation, to demand any sum of money, however large, from any member state. Every member of that governing body, personally as well as collectively, is held entirely immune not only from any civil suit but also from any criminal prosecution.
That sounds like dictatorship. What was originally a super-sized free trade agreement has been stealthily transformed into a political union. EU rules override laws that were decided by the various member parliaments, such as external trade, fisheries, agriculture, environment and budget policy. Two thirds of new laws in Britain come from Brussels.
Most people, most of the time, are perfectly happy to let elites run things and as long as they're reasonably competent at it, and do it reasonably unobtrusively, no one much seems to care. But when elite competence is compromised by faulty ideology and smothering, intrusive regulation, people become unhappy.
Britain's fishery was divided up amongst EU members. Traditional recipes for sausages and jams, handed down for generations, were no longer allowed. Bureaucrats in Brussels regulate just how much curvature a cucumber can have in order to be sold in the EU. They dictate what hair dryers, kettles, lawn mowers and vacuum cleaners they're allowed to use. There are regulations concerning the height of swing sets and rotational speed limits determined and enforced on playground roundabouts.
Imagine if NAFTA had an unelected Commission in Mexico City that could impose such laws on the United States and Canada, would we be happy? And that's only a fraction of the problems of EU membership. It's not surprising that they'd vote to leave.
So what has happened in the aftermath? News reports said that the London stock exchange was plunging, as was the pound, and Britain would soon find itself without any trading partners. Well, the market did drop initially but a week later it was trading higher than pre-vote. The drop in the pound was miniscule compared to the depths where it landed after the crash of 2008. Britain is the EU's biggest market so it's highly likely that trade won't change and countries around the world are lining up to enter trade talks with Britain. It's been reported that American politicians are clamoring for an agreement, while talks could soon begin with Australia, South Korea and India.
The exit vote was the best thing that could have happened to Britain.
Art Betke
Prince George
