EU referendum, brexit and the aftermath

Not surprisingly, I'm in favour if 'in' (as mostly with political choices, it is of course not really binary). However, it is certainly true that there are two sides to the EU. You have to remember that Helmut Kohl was always strongly in favour of the common market, and you have to treat anything he ever said or did with the deepest suspicion. I imagine that Tony Benn's suspicion would have been rooted partly in that.

I think that increasing the size of markets is the wrong way to go--facilitating oligopolies and reducing economic independence and diversity. I'm not advocating protectionism but I think that the larger a marketplace, the more likely it is that a few operators in it will become dominant, and I don't think that's a good thing. Economic activity should be spread out more evenly and be less concentrated so that more people benefit more equally. I also think introducing the Euro was a big mistake before intra-European economic differences were addressed. I'm not talking about anything near complete equality, but just a more stable platform on which to launch this project--some European countries only came out of ruinous military dictatorships in the 1970s, and some were (and probably are) borderline kleptocracies.

All that said, while I certainly think that Juncker is at best an unsavoury character, the European centre-right is considerably less bad than what Tossporn is doing to this country, or what Johnson might do. (He isn't really 'shrewd', as Fox says, he's just an ethical vacuum so he doesn't have many boundaries of decency, and he is extremely well-protected by those interests who want to use him as a figurehead should he ever, heaven forbid, attain another position of leadership. He merely has good comic timing on occasion and became popular because he was funny on HIGNFY. He's not a strong leader but a pushover who's in the wrong job. He belongs in the arts where he would have a worthwhile talent if he had anything interesting to say rather than trying to make himself into something he is not.)

However, the heart of the European idea obviously doesn't have anything to do with all of that but was born out of the war experience, as others have said, and that part of it is noble and just and essential to protect over everything else. It is essential not only for European but for world peace.

Also, odd that Corbyn's view hasn't been posted here yet:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/20/jeremy-corbyn-comment-britain-eu-reform

I might add to this later, there's a lot to say.