There is now a growing appetite, caused by the euro crisis, for reform of both governance and the operations of the EU. This is just as well, because something needs to be done urgently to head off the little-Englanders from their idiotic determination to quit the EU. The US has its Tea Party, the UK it’s “leave the EU ” gang. Much of the angst is caused by legitimate immigration of EU citizens, seeking better jobs in the UK. The trouble is that they take jobs away from school leavers and the less educated people, especially the older manual labourers (some of whom have forgotten, if they ever knew, how to work hard). This is a reasonable complaint. I would feel frustrated if I lost my job to someone whose main interest was improving his English rather than maintaining a family. But stories about the inefficiency and nannyism of the EU are highly exaggerated, and even Eurosceptic economists conclude that it is in the commercial and financial interest of Britain to stay in the EU.
What has this to do with Epicureanism? Because Epicurus was against war and the sort of disagreeable politics you get in a bitterly divided country (guess which). Europe has seen enough wars and divisions. Imperfect it might be, but it stands as a guarantee against yet another European war. My economist wife long ago forecast that the Euro could survive with the Euro, as designed; I countered that that might prove so, but the important thing was to prevent any more wars – you can fix the finances.
Roughly half of British exports go to the EU, including the four-fifths of cars made in the UK. The biggest sector, the City of London, is heavily dependent on EU business. Potential in the BRIC countries for the UK outside the EU is small because they don’t need the financial and business services that the UK is strongest in, and the UK benefits hugely from the free trade arrangements made by the EU. The biggest of all is the upcoming free trade agreement between the EU and the US. Threats to leave the EU can only damage inward investment and leave Britain a diminished offshore island. Or even more of a diminished offshore island.
It’s so true, eh? The KEY is to identify the necessary prerequisite for other desirable policies. From that perspective, it seems to me that preventing wars must must trump all the other concerns and the much-needed reforms in other areas –economics, politics, bureaucratic updating etc. must all be crafted accordingly.
That the E.U. has prevented WAR is sometimes mentioned as a given, or relegated to a mere by-product. In fact, it is the most necessary prerequisite because without peace economic and other policy goals are almost impossible.