Lies, fears and deceptions dominating the debate on EU referendum
EU referendum is just one week away. The voters will decide the future of Britain in EU. The older people with more than 50 years of age are solidly behind the Leave campaign. But young people are most receptive to the Remain campaign but many still undecided. Both sides are giving scary picture to the voters. Both sides are making conflicting claims. Leave campaign is leading in the latest surveys and Remain campaign is trailing. But the contest is too close to call at this stage. But it seems that the momentum is going with the Leave campaign at the moment.
Both camps are led by capitalist ruling class. The Prime minister David Cameron put his political future at stake. His party is bitterly divided. If the Remain campaign lost than his future will be at risk. The Labour Party is siding with Remain Campaign and so are the largest trade unions in Britain. It is interesting to note that both the far right and far left ( with the exception of few left groups) is behind the Leave campaign. Some trade unions also supporting the leave campaign in EU referendum.
Both sides have resorted to the crudest propaganda to lure supporters.
The treasury has released figures to suggest that each household will be worse off by 4300 pounds by 2020 if the UK leaves EU. The house prices will fall and unemployment will soar as the result of Leave. The Remain campaign relying heavily on the dire predictions and warnings of economic wreckage that follow Brexit, from British Treasury, IMF, the Organisation for economic Cooperation and Development(OECD), EU Commission and German finance minister.
They all fail to predict the 2008 financial crisis and recession in the world economy. They are trying to frighten the Leave campaign and all those who are willing to vote Leave. These capitalist institutions have poor record of predictions. They are worried that Brexit will encourage other member states to go for such option. The very existence of the EU will be in danger.
IMF chief Christine Lagarde issued warning,
that the impact of Leaving would range from “pretty bad to very, very bad”. She said “the country risks falling into a spiral of weaker economic growth, lower housing prices and diminished foreign investment”. The CEOs of the big banks and big corporations are issuing the similar warnings. British voters have been bombarded with Brexit warnings. They are creating fears that British economy would slow down sharply and possibly even enter a brief recession. New taxes will be imposed.
The president of the EU Commission Jean Claude Juncker did not hide his frustration and issued naked warning to the Brexit. Leave EU and we’ll make your lives a misery: Juncker’s warning to Britain. Britain would be shut out by the rest of the European Union and treated like deserters if the country voted to leave next month in EU referendum. The president of the European Commission broke his promise to David Cameron not to intervene in the EU referendum and told Le Monde that Britain after Brexit would not “be handled gently”. “Deserters will not be welcomed with open arms,” he told the French newspaper.
On the other hand, the Brexiteers insist that actually, the economy will expand without the red tape from EU that currently hobbles innovation and investment. The most controversial claim made by Leave campaign is that Britain pays 350 million pounds per week to the EU for its membership to EU club. However, they fail to note that around half of this money comes back in the form of rebate, and as farm subsidies.
There are advantages and disadvantages to Remain or to leave.
So on both sides, there is a lot of scaremongering going on. Both sides giving statistics to prove their point, most of these figures are based on speculation and not certain. Almost certainly, there will be a short term jolt to the economy. While UK will save 19 billion pounds or more it pays annually into the EU, the pound will probably fall, making imports more expensive. The prices of imported items will rise. But much more remains uncertain.
It will be wrong to say that Remain in the EU will solve all the problems faced by the british people or to leave will solve everything. Under capitalism, Remain or Leave is not going to make a big difference as far as working class people are concerned. To Leave or to Remain, the cuts, austerity, attacks on the welfare state and benefits, shortage of the houses, privatisation of the services and public sector will continue until the working class defeat right wing ruling class which promote the neoliberalism and free market economy and austerity.
Immigration is a big issue in this debate
There is strong mood in older people against the increased immigration. This sentiment is not necessarily based on racism or xenophobia. The problem is that both Tories and Labour governments did not spend enough money to improve the services and continued cuts and austerity made these services overburdened. The right wing parties like UKIP and other openly racist parties are using this situation to blame immigration from Eastern European EU member states. They are hiding the fact that it is not just the immigration that overwhelmed the basic services but the decades old cuts and austerity is responsible for this situation.
EU and British ruling class, both forcefully pushing neo liberal economic policies and free market economy. EU has become the club of the bosses in Europe. EU has become an institution to impose austerity, privatisation, further liberalisation of economy and neoliberalism. EU’s anti working class policies have developed anger and hatred among the layers of population and working class against the EU institutions.