In the often surreal discussions around Europe we seem to be ignoring the facts, and what Europe is doing for Britain now.
A few days ago, the European Commission announced the two projects that will receive up to €1 billion (£855 million) each over the next 10 years under the Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) programme. Describing the award as ”the largest research excellence in history”, the Commission emphasised the role of the EU in promoting innovation and science. The projects, on graphene and research into the human brain, are both created by partnerships of universities across Europe. The British presence is strong in both of them. Cambridge University, for example, led the original “science and technology roadmap” of the bid.
I took a quick look at the overseas media, and the news was widely reported, and with pride. There was hardly a peep in the British media.
This is not surprising though, as we seem to be doing rather well at undermining our influence in the world, including the reported attempt of the government to deter Bulgarians from coming to Britain by publicising the rainy weather or the queues at our passport controls.
Making it harder for foreign students to come here and study is another landmark achievement.
But it is by suggesting a referendum in 2017 that Cameron has reached his peak. To appease his party’s Europhobes, he has taken an enormous gamble on our economy.
46% of top companies in the City are owned by foreign investors. Investors from today’s rising powers, in Asia and Latin America, are here to access a European market of 500 million people. More than two fifths of the international firms based in London say that access to European markets is the core reason for being here.
Let us look at the car industry. Why would it want to continue to invest in the UK, with the spectre of a potential exit? Were we to leave the EU, British based producers would face a 4% tariff on car equipment sales to Europe. Aerospace is another key example. We have the world’s largest industry outside America: leaving Europe would mean that we would lose ground to France. Big manufacturers like Airbus prefer to keep supply chains simple and, in case of exit, they might plump for new suppliers in Europe to avoid a customs barrier.
In practical terms, the general drift of investments would be away from the UK. We are talking about jobs and people’s wallets here.
The reality is that Cameron is thinking of Britain in Europe as Singapore on steroids. A space for free trade, with no regulations, no protection for people. When he talks about repatriation, what he really means is withdrawing from the Europe of social rights and employment law, which enshrined in law, for example, that if you get pregnant, you do not get the sack.
This idea of a regulation-free Britain and Europe certainly pleases some of Cameron’s friends in the City and Tory donors, but should deepen the despair of the hard working majority, those already strained by the PM’s reckless austerity policies; the 100,000 more long term unemployed, 89% of whom are women; those affected by the cap on Local Housing Allowance or by the new eligibility criteria for Disability Living Allowance, and the new mothers, who will lose a shocking total of £1,300 during pregnancy and their baby’s first year due to cuts to maternity pay, pregnancy support and tax credits.
In the absence of any evidence to justify their strategy, the government is fuelling vicious myths and stirring up the usual ideology about scroungers – as if millions of Bulgarians are just waiting round the corner to come here to claim benefits and enjoy long lie-ins.
Yes, immigration has caused its frictions. But we would miss the point if we did not say that there are good and bad employers. The latter are the ones who use migrants as an excuse to engage in a race to the bottom in salaries. Whereas it is non-unionised labour that is the real threat. Labour is the party of the living wage, after all.
There are many things we could reform in Europe, starting with a budget focusing more on growth and jobs, rather than on the outdated Common Agricultural Policy. We could fight to put the Social Europe agenda at the very heart of the European project and for science and innovation to become key priorities of investment.
This is a completely different project from Cameron’s. It puts Britain first.
