To Brexit or not to Brexit? Thinking about the issue from the perspective of values

You may be someone who is not very interested in politics, but much more interested in society and the world from a humanitarian or spiritual perspective.  I have written this article to inspire you to think about the issues in the referendum on EU membership on 23 June starting from the perspective of values rather than policies.  This article will not tell you how to vote and I have tried to remain neutral.  

Relationships

Relationships are important.  We all need them. We all need each other.  No reasonable person would ever dispute that. Relationships are built on goodwill, trust, mutual respect and consideration for the needs of others.  We can see this in our families, workplaces, and local communities. 

The same is the case for nations.  Nations which attack, threaten, or disregard the needs of other nations are not popular, and are often feared, hated, and opposed.  On the other hand, most people admire people and nations who build strong relationships of trust, support, and understanding.   So we could try to work out how much, or how little, the EU helps the UK to have good relations with other countries in Europe and beyond.  We could also look into how Brexit alternatives will or could help the UK to have good relations with other countries in Europe and beyond.

Ideas versus actions

Two ideas which are dear to the hearts of the supporters of the two campaigns are “control” and being “stronger together”.  Vote Leave say that we in the UK should “take back control” from the EU, and “Stronger In” (the “In” campaign) say that the UK will be stronger if it stays connected with other countries in the EU. 

It might seem that “control” and “being stronger together” are both good things.  But like all ideas, they are just neutral concepts: it depends on what we do with them.  Actions speak louder than words.  Bad people and nations can exercise “control” over others in ways which damage or ignore their legitimate interests.  Many empires of the past, e.g. communist Russia, have been criticised for the control they exercised over neighbouring or far-off countries.  

Likewise, “being stronger together” can mean that countries do bad things together which they might not have done alone.  For example, the second Iraq war of 2003 was led by the USA but may not have happened without the involvement of the UK and other countries. 

Taking the debate back to EU membership, we can ask ourselves how much the EU controls us, fairly or unfairly.  What are the policy areas which the EU has most influence over, and is the EU unfairly stopping us in the UK from doing things which most of us want to do? Is a loss of control a good thing when we share power with other nations and so do things which we could not do alone? What has the EU achieved as a result of nations working together?  Are those things bad or good, and will they continue? What alternative policies or ideas does the Brexit campaign have for the UK and Europe and how realistic are they?

Social justice

People with goodwill care about helping those in need.  The UK is a wealthy country though many people still have many needs.  Many other countries across the world are on average a lot poorer than us.   To what extent does the UK and the EU try to help poor people?  What do they do now and what will (or could) be different or better in future, whichever way the vote goes? 

The politicians

EU membership is a huge political issue.  Our relations with the EU depend to some degree on the qualities of our politicians who, like us, are imperfect.  Have we considered what the politicians of each campaign and EU leaders are like, personally and professionally?  Do we trust them?  Are they competent and realistic?  Are they motivated by ambition, ideology, greed, ill-will, or a desire to be popular and make history? Are they angry, destructive and care only about the needs of a narrow group of people?  Or do they have goodwill towards others, and want to courageously and professionally build a positive future for everyone?

The generation gap

One of the worrying aspects of the EU referendum campaign is the huge gulf between the generations.  According to all the polls, the young overwhelmingly back IN and the older people overwhelmingly back OUT.  It is important that the generations communicate with each other so that they understand each other’s perspectives.

Brexit would mean a big change to the status quo, and would need to be implemented more by younger than older people.  Perhaps for this reason older people have a greater responsibility to understand the young, to communicate to them their reasons for wanting Brexit, and to share their vision for the UK’s future outside the EU.  For me, a very bad outcome would be a knife-edge victory for Brexit which the younger generation had to implement over the coming years while overwhelmingly disagreeing with it.

More information
Politics is about detail, and voting is about making an informed decision, as best as we can.  We would do well to investigate what the EU does, and the visions and policies of both referendum campaigns for the future.  It is worth investigating at least a few issues which we are especially interested in e.g. trade, international relations, immigration, and health.  Bear in mind that there are always trade-offs and compromises in politics – you can’t always get what you want. So it is important not to focus on just one pet issue.  Here are a number of resources:

The “Stay” campaign:     http://www.strongerin.co.uk/#2qz9JdCLWYVprGEt.97
The “Leave” campaign: http://www.voteleavetakecontrol.org/
BBC “Reality Check”        http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-eu-referendum-35603388  This part of the BBC website analyses the claims of both campaigns regarding the key issues.
Open Europe                     http://openeurope.org.uk/intelligence/britain-and-the-eu/what-if-there-were-a-brexit/                 This is an independent think tank respected by both sides, and provides more serious in-depth analysis.  I recommend subscribing to the daily updates.                    

Final thoughts

EU membership is such a big issue that it can be hard to really know what to do.  If you are really struggling to make sense of it all, then perhaps you could bring it down to two issues:

a)      which side do you instinctively feel is more trustworthy?

b)      it is better to vote on the basis of goodwill and positivity, not anger and negativity.

And by the way, please vote!