There are many things wrong with the EU: To leave or not to leave that is the question

I have much experience of the European Union (EU) having been involved in European Commission research programmes since the 1980s. There is much that needs to change, as the saga of the former chief scientific advisor and the contempt that she demonstrated for those elected to the European Parliament, well demonstrates. One of the biggest problems with the EU is the European Commission, about which I have many disturbing stories to tell, and DG CONNECT’s ICT-ART CONNECT (STARTS) initiative will be a classic!

The UK is an advocate for change and should therefore take on this monster that the European Commission has become. A hard task for sure, but not an impossible one.

In my book A Tale of Two Deserts I wrote the following:

“This is the power of one; it can change anything! Plant the seed of a tree today, and next year there is a young sapling, but in a hundred years, though, there may be a small wood, and in a thousand years, a forest. This is how we can transform and heal the world. No one needs to be hurt and no one has to die to create a better place for all. Someone just needs to say, ‘that which is now will be no more’, and to peacefully start making this so. The climate of thought will eventually begin to change and others will start to see the value and join in.”

The power of one can change the EU. This is a positive perspective. We should be seeking harmony, inclusion, sharing, and cooperation and not surrendering to the power of money. Alas there are many extremists who are looking to the past and offering simple and damaging ideas based on nationalism, which seems to be the only alternative to the EU. It’s that binary thinking again! And it seems to me that the European Commission is playing into the hands of the extremists by providing them with the ammunition they need, with DG CONNECT’s ICT-ART CONNECT (STARTS) initiative being an example: a case of the European Commission meddling in matters they do not understand and surrounding themselves with people with conflicts of interest, who are happy to speak words that reinforce the Commission’s delusion that it knows what it is doing (Charming Snakes & also the Director General’s New Clothes (coming soon)).

To leave or not to leave that is the question. And we the British people will be asked this question in 2017. In the past I would have said that we should not leave, but now I am not so sure. So self-evidently I will be returning to this matter in due course.