The current enigma: “if you cannot beat them, (do not) join them”. Are we the fifth largest economy in the world? Not in terms of per capita purchasing power parity income compared to 338 million Europeans in the 17 Eurozone countries: $30,000 yearly in UK compared to $33,000 in EU-17.
In Human Development Index terms (per capita income, number of years in school and life expectancy combined), we come 14th. In inequality, we rank 21st. In productivity, we come 23rd. Europe’s all public services, institutions, ethos of stronger countries supporting weaker ones, manufacturing capacity, taxation system, governance, etc. must be better as they fare better on all above criteria.
We paid membership for 43 years at say £10 billion per year, that is, £430 billion, to incorporate thousands of rules and regulations into our laws. Do we now want to rewrite these by passing UK legislation? At what cost? History is repeating itself. EU started in 1951, Britain believed ‘common market’ would not work. It actively promoted ‘Free Trade Association’. British economy lost ground. It applied to join EEC in 1963: admitted after third application in 1973. 2016: Britain actively promotes free trade on its own as the modern Hercules.
Nagin Khajuria
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