Toby on Tuesday

'Ideals and Ideologies'

As the years pass, the labels “left” and “right” seem to matter less and less.   Instead, the world appears to be divided between the ideologues and the empiricists – those who believe in an ideology, to which facts need to be bent, and those who believe in studying the evidence before forming a judgment.   European fascism and communism were once ideologies, just as the EU is now.   Britain was spared the twin evils of fascism and communism and, by a miracle and thanks to the Eurosceptic movement in the past generation, is now being spared the ideology of the EU.   Joseph Stiglitz, Professor of Economics at America’s Columbia Business School, chairman of President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers from 1995-1997, chief economist at the World Bank from 1997-2000 and winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001, has traditionally been seen as a figure of the left.   He has advised the Scottish government on independence, the Syriza government in Greece and briefly even sat on Jeremy Corbyn’s economic advisory panel.   But in his new book “The Euro and its Threat to the Future of Europe” he endorses everything that UKIP members have been saying about the EU for a generation now.   In his own words:

“There have been other things that Europe got wrong, but monetary union was the overarching macroeconomic mistake.   We can see this most clearly in the fact that some countries not in the euro but with the same regulatory framework, such as the UK and Sweden, did much better”...”The way the club was politically organised gave all the power to Germany and the way that Germany was exercising that power was economically wrong and politically insensitive”...”Money moves from weak countries to strong countries.   You make it easier for money to move out of Greece, out of Spain and out of Italy.   And where are they going to move?   They move to Germany.   So you create a system where when you get the shock, the weak grow weaker and the strong grow stronger”...”Germany takes the view that we are not a transfer union and we won’t even take the risk of a banking union”...”They have rewritten their history.   It wasn’t hyperinflation that led to Hitler, it was unemployment.   And if they’d listened to their own story they would not have allowed what they forced in Greece, which is 25pc unemployment and 50pc youth joblessness”...”Juncker’s response after the Brexit vote was this very hostile one, we’re going to punish anyone who leaves.   And to me that was a shocking statement.   It was saying the reason people are going to stay in the EU is not because they believe in the benefits but because of fear of leaving.   That’s a strange statement from the President.”   In short, Joseph Stiglitz says that the EU project in its current form has no future.

Now compare this with EFTA (European Free Trade Association) about which I have written so often in the past.   Based in Geneva and formed by inspired British civil servants in 1960 as an alternative to the EU’s predecessors, it now has just four members, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.   Each one has its own particular trading relationship with the EU but, and this is so remarkable, EFTA has established preferential trade relations with 24 non-EU countries, including Canada, Hong Kong and Mexico.   And negotiations are underway with eight more countries including India and Russia.   When Britain’s so-called “Establishment” simply caved in under Ted Heath and left EFTA for what is now the EU, we turned our backs on a unique organisation based on democracy and open trade for a flawed and anti-democratic ideology based on a great deception.    But post-Brexit this can be put right.   The President of Switzerland, Johann Schneider-Amman, has already told reporters that Britain’s return to EFTA after nearly 45 years would “strengthen the Association.”   Alongside the renewal of our UN and WTO roles, the restoration of our EFTA ties is one more step in the recovery of our country.   In fact, thinking about it and in the light of Joseph Stiglitz’ new book, the best thing that the member states of the EU could all do now would be to leave that toxic institution and apply individually for EFTA membership!    EUexit for the whole of Europe, with the restoration of national currencies and the end of Schengen could just be the best way to save a once-great Continent!

Until next Tuesday!

Toby