2016-06-13 ADD Letter to Stuart Cook who voted Brexit + BREXIT-cartoons.
Transcription
A.D. Dirkzwager
Keizersgracht 702,
1017 EV Amsterdam
Mr J.W.S, Cook,
"Lower Farm House"
HAMBLEDON GU8 4HE
Engeland.
Amsterdam, 13th june 2016.
Dear Stuart,
Thank you for your views on the EU expressed in the email of 27 May 2016.
I agree with you that the vote on June 23 will hopefully be in favor of leaving the EU, for the simple reason that the United Kingdom does not wish to surrender its sovereignty to an EU federation *in statu nascendi*.
However, I strongly object to a number of rhetorical arguments advocating Great Britain's departure!!
.Comparing the EU to the old COMECON bloc is mere rhetoric. All countries that are part of the EU—with the exception of the six signatories to the Treaty of Rome—requested EU membership themselves. To become a member state, they had to agree to the EU's legal regulations.
The EU's highest authority is the Council of Heads of State. Each head of state holds a right of veto. Whatever laws have been adopted, they have also been approved by British prime ministers.
I also take issue with Mr Montgomerie’s rhetoric. "The EU", according to Montgomerie "the continent with the slowest growth in the world (after Antarctica)," possesses sufficient purchasing power, according to the IMF, to absorb more than 50% of British exports. In the hypothetical event that the EU stops purchasing British exports for the mainland, my advice would be: "Try Antarctica!!" It’s all nothing but shouting slogans!
I enclose an article from the International New York Times with the heading: "Myth versus reality before Brexit vote." I thought it may have your interest before you cast your vote together with one more article: EU chides Poland over shortcoming in rule of law.
Poland is gradually turning into an undemocratic state. It is a significant achievement that we have a body in Europe capable of monitoring adherence to the rule of law in EU countries. Imagine that, at some point in the future, Germany introduces a system in which constitutional provisions are suspended by government decree. The EU has contributed to stability on the continent and will continue to do so after Brexit becomes a reality.
I’m getting a bit tired of reading about Brexit every day. Once I finish this letter, I’m hitting the delete button when it comes to Brexit. Lots of love to Ursula and you, from both of us, Adriaan.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Transcription
to: Adriaan Dirkzwager([email protected])
subject: EU
date: 27 may 2016
from: Stuart Cook <[email protected]>
Dear Adriaan,
The contents of your mail of 20th May are a reflection of your better understanding than mine of various important,historical steps in the development of the EU story since the whole process started. I have kept broadly abreast of this process but with the knowledge that I lived in the Americas from 1960 to 1987- as a young man not that interested in the European scene - I have to admit that I did not pay any attention to this whole saga. My life revolved around my work (learning all about domestic banking and trade finance in Peru and Brazil followed by corporate and international finance in the USA) plus, of course, enjoying a fairly active social life during that whole period of 27 years. 1976 to 1981 were spent in the UK prior to the family's transfer in January 1981 to The Netherlands. Once again I have no recollection of thinking at all about the European question presumably because it had no impact on my business life, and even if it had done so my general disinterest in politics would have resulted in my not attempting to follow this topic in the press, specifically matters relating to ongoing developments connected to the final objectives of the Treaty of Rome. It was only when we reached Spain - whose entry into the EU along with Portugal in January of 1986-that I began to inform myself, at least enough to make me sufficiently knowledgeable on the subject in my position as Country Manager for Lloyds Bank.
This is the background to my having to admit to you that it is only since we returned to live in the UK at the end of 1987 that I began to take a mild interest in what was happening in Europe to include, of course, prospects for the future of the EU. Things have obviously become much more tense of late and we now face the unenviable task of dealing with the Cameron-inspired referendum and attempting to filter out from all the barrage of "in or out" media coverage, plus a very uncertain world geopolitical situation, should the UK stay or leave. Unlike you, I do not believe that the Europe's interests will be best served by the EU progressing to the last step foreseen in the Treaty of Rome, namely the creation of a federation of all the current member states, controlled by a central government with uniform laws, taxation and judiciary. This objective quite simply looks far too much like the old Comecon bloc (i .e.: the USSR but just covering a different set of countries, several of which were ironically part of the old USSR), and this is something that, for me, is beyond contemplation. Recent experience suggests that the UK alone will be wholly unable to initiate any changes to the way the European Commission manages the affairs of the EU,- whilst there is certainly a group of member countries which sympathise with some if not all of the changes that the UK government see as essential to the development of a sensible and less centralised group of European nations, but seemingly there is no sign of this group being sufficiently motivated or realistic enough to join the UK in seeking those changes.
Given these considerations, and because I have absolutely no confidence in the European Commission or, for that matter, in the role of the European Parliament - plus the fact that I do not believe in the concept of an ultimate Euro-superstate - then there is no option but to vote BREXIT in next month's referendum.
I am actually going to post this to you, as I have attached a copy of an article from today's Times that gives a very good summary of why he UK should not stay in the The writer, Tim Montgomerie, is a regular contributor to Yhe Times and used tp work in the Conservative Party headquarters some years ago.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here after cartoons re. Brexit.
