Leaving the EU doesn’t mean leaving Europe
Over the years, our President, George West, has not found it easy to get his letters published in his loval newspaper, the Leicester Mercury. However, he has had more success in recent weeks and a second letter appeared recently.
I was delighted to read Dr Franco Bianchini’s letter in Thursday’s Mailbox if only to learn that as a Professor of Cultural Policy and Planning that he is alive and active. We met during the time I was a member of the Cultural Strategy Partnership Executive that was part of Leicester City’s departmental empire building. We moved mountains of paper but achieved little. It was a productive time when I was more productively involved in organising successful Jazz Festivals and organising St George’s Day celebrations in the city with little support.
I fear that Dr.Bianchini is not as well renowned for his knowledge of life before we were all inveigled into the European Community. He wrote “Many British people are benefitting from EU membership to learn languages like French, Spanish and Portuguese and to familiarise themselves with countries with different histories, legal systems and cultural traditions”. Do you know what? Before we entered the European Community I was taught French and German whilst at school. I also travelled to Holland, Belgium and Spain with a UK passport, still later in use, and enjoyed those cultural changes.
As for learning about the history of other countries, our children should first be taught the history of Great Britain and our own Common Law legal system. Because of the present inadequate history curriculum we have published a booklet “Generations Betrayed”. Over the years we have produced and circulated masses of leaflets exposing the EU whether related, for example, to the closure of our Post Offices, privatisation of the NHS, the Common Agricultural policy madness of paying farmers not to produce any food crops and so many other topics.
I am unsure why he cannot see any connection with Nye Bevan’s comment about fish whilst the EU has been responsible for the biggest man-made disaster in the North Sea by its policy of throwing thousands and thousands of tons of dead fish back into the sea year upon year on the pretext that it conserves fish stocks whilst many people go hungry. Yes it did take an EU genius to inflict that policy. As for Margaret Thatcher, she was ill advised by her Ministers over the EU. Once she realised and made her Bruges speech, her eurofanatic ministers felt compelled to have her removed.
We can continue to have access to the Single Market when we leave so employers have nothing to fear on that score. We will all certainly benefit by removing the political control over us all and restore the supremacy of our own Parliament.