This wonderful piece by Helena Morrissey is potentially a national debate-shifter. It says more or less everything I think about why the European Union is a fading force (my emphasis):
My personal experiences of dealing with the EU on issues I am involved with have served to reinforce my view that the best decisions are those taken closer to where the real asset, person or community, actually is.
The higher up or further away the decision-making or legislation, the less likelihood of a fitting, nuanced and “true” outcome. Irrespective of history, local conditions and competencies, when something goes wrong there is a much greater risk that a mistake will be multiplied. Solutions prove elusive if attempted from a distance...
The power of the European Commission is such that it is relatively easy for it to create new regulations, often extending beyond either its expertise or the activities it ostensibly aims to regulate.
Countries and industry bodies – as well as national regulators – then expend vast amounts of time, energy and intellectual capital trying to adapt the scope of the regulations to make them more workable and achieve real improvements in the financial system. The qualified majority voting system also means we need to work on gathering support from others to push back about anything unpalatable. This debilitating process is repeated, wasting valuable effort that could be put to more productive uses.
The EU approach in these areas has highlighted something that has long been a focus for me. I am convinced that the tide of influence is moving away from the top down, command-and-control, one-size-fits-all approach to business and politics...
Smart people of all political persuasions are starting to recognize that smaller scale, more collaborative environments with space for difference and discussion are more relevant. Where people have real responsibility and accountability for outcomes – when they feel they have a real part to play, not just carrying out orders – the results are better.
The engagement that results draws out the best. The obvious lack of flexibility and accountability within the eurozone is the opposite of this productive way of working and a whole generation of young people is paying a very painful price for this imperial, large-scale, flawed political agenda...
One of the most important things I have learned from my work with the 30% Club is that collaboration, flexibility and operating at a personal and human level are the best ways to effect real sustainable change. The current EU for me is a model for the past. It is the old world.
I am certainly not a backward-looking “little Englander”. On the contrary, I have great confidence that Britain and the British people could thrive outside the EU.
I am not afraid that all will be lost. Indeed, I am confident we have much more to gain from the outward-looking, entrepreneurial spirit that has long defined us, than if we stay bickering, fighting and losing within a passé political structure that is wholly unnatural to us.
This article hits the nail on the head with unerring precision and power.
The whole problem is that the EU now adds complexity in many of the wrong areas, and through its over-cumbersome structures and murky manoeuvres to assemble 'qualified majorities' disarms us from tackling complexity in those difficult areas where flexibility and agility are the essence.
The EU is going to disappear sooner or later. The only issue is what will replace it.
Read the whole thing. Magnificent.
