An interview with Robert Innes
- 2016-03-18
- By ReimaginingEurope
- Posted in EU Referendum, Robert Innes
Reimagining Europe is committed to encouraging healthy debate and good disagreement on Britain’s relationship with the EU ahead of the EU referendum,
In this podcast Reimagining Europe interviews Robert Innes, the Church of England’s Bishop of the Diocese in Europe. The interview takes a closer look at the challenges facing British nationals living in other EU members states.
Robert is uniquely the only Church of England Bishop to live outside Britain. He is based in Brussels and has a different perspective on the approach to the EU referendum. He is also the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Representative to the EU.
If you are a UK national resident in another member state do you share Bishop Robert’s analysis? Let us know what you think.
As a Christian, I ask, What Would Jesus Do?
We all know, that corruption is rife, in the EU.
We know that our ship building industry, has been killed by the EU.
We know that our Farmers, have been decimated, by silliness, such as the butter mountain, & milk lake.
Our fishing industry, is a pale shadow of what it was, thanks to the EU.
They allow UK fishermen, just 30% of the fish quota, in UK waters, making it uneconomic to go to sea.
They have therefore, decimated British industries, losing many thousands of UK jobs.
Corruption, & decimation of UK industries.
Loss of jobs.
An obscene membership fee, for minimal benefits.
What would Jesus do?
Is it not obvious?
Jesus would be an illegal immigrant if he came to Britain. Or a refugee. Either way, he’d choose European peace and integration. Over division and separation.
While agreeing fully with Bishop Robert, I would say that my experience in Poland is somewhat different from his in Brussels.
1) Many otherwise fair-minded people in this country do not get the chance to make an informed assessment of Britain’s position. Unfortunately they are not well served by their politicians and media in this respect (I make an honourable exception of the Catholic weekly ‘Tygodnik Powszechny’). Britain is perceived as haggling obsessively about welfare benefits to ex-pat Poles who, by and large, work, make a financial contribution and are entitled to a share in the UK’s national prosperity. Few understand the vast differences in principle, between the welfare state as set up in post-war Britain and the system in operation post-communist Poland. Nor do many realise that UK citizens have never voted on the EU in a referendum and that only the retired and those nearing retirement have ever voted in a referendum on Europe at all. As far as I know, there has been no authoritative British voice in Polish discussion within Poland. Perhaps Bishop Robert could consider making such a contribution.
2) It is true that Poland in general identifies itself with Christian values, although these are sometimes confused with patriotism. Britain, in contrast, is often seen as a society pervaded by secularist dogma . This also needs to be qualified by a high-profile British contribution (which would, I think, be seized on by the TV pundits here).
3) Having lived in Poland pre-accession, unfortunately I cannot say that I’ve noticed any benefits from being an EU citizen in another EU state apart, of course, from crossing borders. I had to pay hefty tax for a second time on a family legacy and any privileges as an EU citizen have involved negotiating great bureaucratic obstacles. Perhaps EU citizens in the capital or in Krakow fare better!
4) Many in Poland appreciate Britain as a proud country with a distinctive history and one with which they have strong links. It is difficult to underestimate the effect of Britain leaving the EU. It would be lovely if the Church of England could be instrumental in forwarding balanced, respectful and well-informed debate here.
I live permanently in Hungary, and have done so for ten of the 26 years that I have been married to my wife, a Hungarian citizen. We have never had any problems living and working in the UK, though we did spend a year in France when we faced illegal discrimination from our employer at a time when France had opted out from the arrangements for workers from the accession countries, of which Hungary was one. We therefore have good reason to feel cynical about the failings of the EU to work for its citizens, especially given our commitment to international reconciliation work (I come from Coventry). However, the help we were given by the Anglican church in France gave us comfort and hope in adversity. We moved back to Hungary to be near my wife’s elderly (88), increasingly disabled mother. We have two sons, aged 26, a teacher of French and German in Suffolk, and 13, attending a Church School here in Kecskemét. Many of our Christian friends here support the current government over Sunday opening, opposition to same-sex marriage and illegal migration. Some see the possibility of BREXIT as providing a basis for the break-up of the EU, and a reassertion of Christian values. We believe that it would bring about a disintegration and re-division of the continent which would threaten what is still, in this part of Europe, a fragile peace, and that it would make our children’s lives more difficult and complicated. Looked at from here, although we are proud of Britain’s independence, we are also aware of its influence, not least in the teaching of English, and would be saddened to see this threatened by the selfish concerns of ‘Little Englanders’.
Dear John Gaines, I too am a Christian and can also ask the question ‘what would Jesus do?’ but come to quite different conclusions than you do. This is, no doubt in large part because I come to quite different conclusions about the various issues that you say ‘we know’ about. I think ‘I know’ differently about these things (and believe that I am at least as well informed about them as you are. How are we, as Christians, to proceed in this situation? Just agree to disagree? But that would leave us at odds about not only our assessments of the issues, but as a result and more importantly, about how to use the criterion that you have set up: ‘what would Jesus do’? Please do come back on some of the comments that i and others have made on your comments
My thoughts and prayers for Bishop Robert and his family and flock in Brussels as the shock, anger and suffering of Holy Week comes home, to be followed soon by the reversal and hope of Easter!