Bridging the EU’s generational divide
- 2016-06-21
- By ReimaginingEurope
- Posted in Caroline Spelman, EU Referendum
Caroline Spelman is a Conservative Member of Parliament. She is also Second Church Estates Commissioner, and a Vice President of Tearfund
When I approach the EU Referendum as a Christian, my starting point is always: What would Jesus do?
I think there are two key areas where he might ask us some further questions as we strive to make up our minds:
- What will be the effect upon the poorest and most vulnerable if the UK leaves the EU?
- Which option is more likely to ensure peace and love of our neighbours?
Personally, I think the answer to those questions is unequivocally that we should remain.
I cannot in all conscience advocate a path which I believe will plunge this country into recession. Recession always hits the poorest hardest. The EU is the principal market for our manufactured goods. To leave it puts at risk hundreds of thousands of jobs as manufacturers face the reality of having to pay tariffs to export their goods to their main market which makes their products less competitive. For those companies that are foreign-owned like JLR it would raise a question over whether they would want to produce their products outside of their main market. Europe is home to half our suppliers and we sell more cars in Europe than anywhere else in the world by a long chalk. We export far more to them than they export to us so we are in a weak position to argue terms. A recession causes the economy to stall and the lack of activity reduces the tax take upon which our public services depend for funding. Interest rates would rise which would be hard for those on mortgages and the value of the pound would slide. In the short term this might help exporters but in the medium term it leads to inflation which is a scourge I grew up with and learnt to fear.
I’m well aware there is a generational divide on this issue where broadly the working population want to stay in but the older generation want us to leave. I want to explore what that is and how as Christians we should approach this intergenerational conflict. Of course, it’s understandable that those in work who fear for their jobs and want the opportunity to take jobs unhindered abroad would be likely to favour the ongoing freedom to do so within the EU. So what is it that makes older voters so disenchanted with the EU? They often say to me, “but if only it was just a common market I might be more favourable”. But it was never just a commercial arrangement.
One of the key reasons for creating it was to keep the peace in Europe which for centuries had seen repeated bloody conflicts culminating in two deadly world wars last century. And one has to say that the EU has succeeded very well in that aim despite Cold War pressures, threats from Russia and other atrocious attempts to destabilise it by terrorism. Surely the older generation has a clearer picture than the younger of why we don’t want to go back to Europe at war?
I wonder if the underlying dislike of the EU by the older generations has to do with the way the world is heading. People say to me I’m going to vote out because I don’t like immigration. But this is a global phenomenon and just leaving the EU won’t stop it. I’m sure you know that Donald Trump wants to build a wall to stop people coming from South America to the North? Not that I think he can afford it or that it will work.
For the UK we also have the issue of our history. We were an empire and we exploited other countries and as we became great we gave their citizens British passports. We can’t ignore our history and we can’t just turn the tap off. We are also the world’s fifth richest economy and we signed our two treaties after World War Two to oblige us to provide a safe haven for genuine refugees which is what we are doing with Syrians at the moment and we have done for Iraqis and Afghans before as we were at war in their countries. No modern state can insulate itself from the rest of the world entirely, nor is it desirable to do so as North Korea exemplifies. We have benefited from successive waves of migrants who have eased our skill shortage and contributed greatly to the love of the nation. What would Jesus do? Put up the barriers?
The Bible teaches us to honour our fathers and mothers. Do we honour those who fought for us and died by turning our backs on an institution that has helped to keep the peace? I urge those of later years to think about their children and their grandchildren when casting their vote on June 23rd. None of us should cast our vote just in our own interest but think about those we bind to our decision.
I am not a starry-eyed Europhile. I also nearly lost the will to live when doing a table round of 28 ministers all speaking for 3 minutes on their own country’s views on each item on the agenda. There must be a better way. Reform is needed. The UK is the reforming nation in the EU. We pushed for the creation of single markets in the face of opposition. The UK pushed for enlargement to stabilise the fledgling democracies of the former Soviet bloc on our borders. Other countries are expecting us to push for reform and to get it. All of them want us to stay. In fact we don’t have a single ally who wants us to leave, not even Australia or Canada.
Let’s be proud of our position in the EU!
About the author
Caroline Spelman is a Conservative Member of Parliament. She was educated at Herts and Essex Girls’ Grammar and London University. Caroline worked in the sugar industry for 15 years before becoming MP for Meriden in 1997 and was Chairman of the Conservative Party 2007-2009. Caroline has been on the front bench for the majority of her time in parliament, including Shadow Secretary of State for Local, Regional and Devolved Government, and for DfID, and was Secretary of State for Defra from 2010 to 2012. Caroline is currently Second Church Estates Commissioner, and a Vice President of Tearfund. She is married to Mark, a management consultant and they have 3 children.
I an not a natural conservative (with a large or small “c”) but Caroline Spelman’s article was the most well reasoned and persuasive argument I have seen on the subject of the referendum during the whole of the lead up to the event. It was mercifully free of the usual slogans from either side and approached the subject with realism and Christian concern. If only the national debate had been conducted on this level we would have been not only much wiser but better informed and better able to make a rational judgement on the most important matter we have ever been asked to vote upon.
Thank you Caroline. This is such a well reasoned, concise and articulate look, at why, from a Christian point of view, we should vote to remain in the EU. In these final few weeks I’ve been struggling to see through all the banded around financial figures, scaremongering & inflated arguments. For me, this cut through them all. Confirming the reasons I feel we should vote to stay in the EU. I will now with more confidence vote to Remain in the EU. I take my democratic right to vote seriously, but, wanted to do it in an informed way & to be true to Jesus & my Christian faith above all. This I now feel I can do.
‘The EU is the principal market for our manufactured goods.’
Just who is saying we will not have access to the single market if we leave the EU’s bureaucracy? German car manufacturers? French cheese-makers? Italian wine producers? Spanish orange growers? Portuguese port exporters?
The EU sells more to us than we do them. It is in their interest not to make their industries redundant.
‘Of course, it’s understandable that those in work who fear for their jobs and want the opportunity to take jobs unhindered abroad would be likely to favour the ongoing freedom to do so within the EU.’
They will have that freedom just as Americans, Australians, Canadians, South Africans, Indians and Japanese. When trade deal are done with these countries, do they demand that their cheap surplus labour (a Marxian concept) have unfettered access to our public services and welfare benefits? Of course they don’t.
‘One of the key reasons for creating it was to keep the peace in Europe which for centuries had seen repeated bloody conflicts culminating in two deadly world wars last century.’
But it wasn’t the EU that kept the peace. It was and still is NATO. There is no EU military (at the moment – and when one is created it will undermine NATO – and you’ll be on your own.)
‘What would Jesus do? Put up the barriers?’
Yes. He insisted that in order to enter the Kingdom of God one has to be born-again.
In the end the EU state will not tolerate Christians whose allegiance to Jesus and His Kingdom is superior to their allegiance to an international bureaucracy. (Just ask parents if they will persuade their sons and daughters to die in defence of a bureaucracy.)
‘The Bible teaches us to honour our fathers and mothers. Do we honour those who fought for us and died by turning our backs on an institution that has helped to keep the peace?’
‘Churchill had made his opinion on the question of Great Britain’s role in Europe very clear as early as 1930, when he published a newspaper article in support of Aristide Briand’s plan for the creation of a European federal union. Churchill wholeheartedly supported Briand’s idea, but he stressed that Great Britain could never be part of such a union because: “[…] we have our own dream and our own task. We are with Europe, but not of it. We are linked, but not comprised. We are interested and associated, but not absorbed.”’
http://britishscholar.org/publications/2012/06/15/with-europe-but-not-of-it-an-exclusively-british-attitude/
‘Reform is needed. The UK is the reforming nation in the EU.’
The UK cannot be the ‘reforming nation’. This is because it has been asked to ‘play football’ but refuses to receive a pass on Schengen, the Euro etc. If it remains it will be in a two-speed EU being driven around in the passenger seat displaying the ‘L’ plate on the rear.
‘No modern state can insulate itself from the rest of the world entirely, nor is it desirable to do so as North Korea exemplifies.’
There is one thing that the EU has in common with North Korea: it insulates itself from real people with its executive (the Commission) being unelected and unaccountable.
Caroline Spelman’s statement is full of distortions of the truth.
She says we fought WWII for Peace. If we had wanted peace we could have saved ourselves the trouble, by simply going along with Hitlers Nazi regime. There were plenty of those who favoured “peace at any price”.
The war was fought for FREEDOM, which means having one’s own country and not to be forced to live according to an ideology imposed by an outside power, e.g. like the EU, which is a coming dictatorship. Does Ms Spelman know the an ECJ ruling recently stated that even “criticism of the EU” is now illegal under EU law? We should indeed honour our parents’ generation, who gave their lives so we could have DEMOCRACY and FREE SPEECH.
The last Balkans War was strongly supported by the European Union, in order to give the countries bound into the former Communist state of Yugoslavia their own democracies and national identities. But when it comes to the EU, she wants to see all of us hand over our independent democratic rights and be locked into a latter day empire, all over again!
She says the EU has been responsible for resisting the cold war pressures….which she describes as threats from Russia. The Cold war officially ended with the meeting between President Gorbachev and US Pres. George Bush shortly after the Berlin Wall came down in 1989.The EU was not officially born until the Treaty on European Union 1993, some four years later! So how can she says the EU was involved in mitigation of the Cold War?
In the Rambouillet Agreement, of 1999, when the fraught Kosovo situation was being negotiated, the official version was that the Serbs and Russians refused to sign. This led to the conflict. But the fact is that this might have been set deliberately up to engineer discord. There were no actual discussion between the parties. The text was presented separately to the two groups, who were billeted on different floors and in different wings of Chateau Rambouillet, making it difficult for them to meet and thrash things out. The treaty contained the agreement that the EU would have all kinds of overriding legal powers in the Yugoslav territories. It was completely skewed so that the Russians and Serbs could not possibly go along with it.
Basically, the actions of the West, including NATO, I am ashamed to say, was to stir up this Yugoslavian war….the very opposite of Ms Spelman’s comments. And some in the EU top circles would now like to have their own EU army to face down the “Russian Threat”….a disgraceful 19th Century ploy used to whip in Western opinion at various times since.
I ran a branch of “The Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR” for 10 years + inspired by the Greenham Common Cruise Missile crisis. Through this we hoped to make our contribution towards building friendship and understanding, without bringing politics into it.
I strongly object to Ms. Spelman’s misinformation and patronising comments.
She asks what Jesus would have wanted?
Well, he said “the truth will make you free”…Ms Spelman’s half-truths will, if we don’t watch out, end up denying all of us that very same freedom.
Mr Phillips
Outstanding!
Why was Moses sent to free his people from Egypt ! God didn’t tell them to stay He said let my people go ! Same thing today ,let my people go we need to be free from the dictatorship of the eu and be free to help as we have always done ,our England is the David fighting the Golaith of the eu , we will not be slaves to them any more in Christ Jesus name let my people go , when we leave we will be freeing other country’s that are under a dictatorship that is hell bent on the distuction of our democratic freedom of right to choose who rules over us , we love the whole world not just those who the eu tell us to help , where is the love for all people ! God loves all not just the few I’m Out
D. Singh, thank you for your considered comments. Please may I ask you a question. I know for Israel, during the OT times, it was very clear that God wanted them to be a separate nation. God’s own people. And whenever they tried to allign or integrate with other nations, who weren’t God’s chosen people, it was disastrous. We see it time & time again in the OT.
David Cameron recently stated we are a ‘Christian Country’, but, as to what this means, in somewhat hard to decipher. Our government, our Country is not made up of ”One Nation Under God”. In recent years we have seen many Christians, penalised, vilified and sacked when expressing their right to ‘religious freedom’, from wearing a cross a work, to refusing to bake a cake for a gay celebration. (OK that one was in Ireland, but could of been here) Christian B&B’s have been vilified for not letting their rooms to people who don’t share their same views on marriage. As far as I can see, Christians are becoming more and more marginalised, in what is pre ported to be a Christian Country.
So I’m struggling. I so feel the weight of my democratic weight to vote, as something that should be made with the wisdom & under the guidance & authority of God. Who is my Master. For ‘it is not I that live, but Christ in me. And I’m asking for that guidance in prayer. But, I read one side and I think ‘We must remain’, then I read your articulate arguments, and I begin to waive and think ‘No, we must exit the EU’
I’m married with two teenage daughters, who aren’t able to vote. But, are being swayed by the Remain campaign, as they feel it will provide them with more job opportunities & that if we close the EU door. Then this could be detrimental to our Countries economy and their prospects of finding employment when they leave full time employment.
We are also a family with two disabled members, and a Full Time Carer who can only work 16 hours a week. Therefore, the thought of a recession at this time is quite frankly terrifying.
I really can’t answer ‘What would Jesus do?’ Given the way we as a Nation, have strayed so far away from His ways, His laws & we are openly embracing things that the Bible says are completely wrong.
I fear we may find our Country going through a time of Divine judgement, due to our Nations blatant disobedience. I think the Queen, in her position of Sovereignty & her vibrant faith & obedience to God. Probably best seen in the recent publication “The Servant Queen & the King she Serves” has been a reason why the judgement of God has not fallen on this nation in the way that it may have, if she had not submitted & held on to God the way she has. God Bless our Queen
So, finally, my question is. “How do you see coming out of the EU is what Jesus would do? The barriers you are talking about, are eternal barriers. Based on our individual choice whether to follow Jesus in this life, whatever the cost maybe, will determine where we end up for eternity. Heaven or Hell being the only two options. Voting to come out of the EU will not make this Country any more ‘Christian’. Only true nation wide repentance and revival would do that. And if we stay in the EU how is this going to make us any less of a Christian Country than we already are?”
I ask this with no malice, just as someone, struggling to see how to make the right decision before my God, who one day, I will stand in front of. On that day, I want to know that I was a good and faithful servant, in my time on earth….
Any thoughts would be gratefully received & considered. Many thanks. And may God help each of us, and have mercy on us, as we try our best to make the right decision in this EU Referendum.
‘In recent years we have seen many Christians, penalised, vilified and sacked when expressing their right to ‘religious freedom’, from wearing a cross a work, to refusing to bake a cake for a gay celebration. (OK that one was in Ireland, but could of been here) Christian B&B’s have been vilified for not letting their rooms to people who don’t share their same views on marriage. As far as I can see, Christians are becoming more and more marginalised, in what is pre ported to be a Christian Country.’
The cases have been brought under the Equality Act 2010 which have the same goals as the four major EU Equal Treatment Directives from the European Union.
Behind the EU’s Equal Treatment Directives is a particular doctrine (teaching) of Equality. It is the same as Prof CS Lewis warned of years ago: Equality without Distinctions (all are the same and all must be treated the same). Clearly, all are not the same and that is why in law a train of legal fictions has been installed (of course in church we are meant to eject fiction and deal with reality).
When homosexual ‘rights’ collide with religious (Christian) rights in law there has to be a winner. Given that the EU has rejected God’s values, and it cannot operate in a vacuum, it has had to install another set of values (based on the dictum: ‘Presume not God to scan the proper study of mankind is Man (Lord Acton?)). In other words God’s scale of values have been replaced by Man’s scale of values in the legal sphere by the EU (it had nowhere else to turn except to itself). From the EU’s perspective (and our judiciary’s) the Christian values are old and out of date – and Christians, therefore, must get to the back of the queue. In the long-term practicing Biblical Christians are on a trajectory of collision with EU law.
‘But, are being swayed by the Remain campaign, as they feel it will provide them with more job opportunities & that if we close the EU door. Then this could be detrimental to our Countries economy and their prospects of finding employment when they leave full time employment.’
No ‘EU door’ is going to be closed. British executives, teachers, doctors, aeronautical engineers, plumbers, electricians, bricklayers (Auf Wiedersehen, Pet) will still be able to go to Germany, France, Italy, Spain etc. for work – as will German, French, American, Canadian, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese company executives work in their company headquarters in Britain (so will the Irish under the Anglo-irish Agreement). What we wish to manage is, for example, surplus cleaners, porters, tomato and potato pickers. Once they become unemployed and they are in ‘priority need’ (under public housing legislation) we need to prevent them from making demands on our welfare infrastructure (GPs, A&Es, civil and criminal justice systems).
I cannot see a recession being triggered because it will take years to first decide what EU laws we wish to repeal, those we wish to keep (for export trade reasons to the EU) and those we wish to keep but amend.
‘So, finally, my question is. “How do you see coming out of the EU is what Jesus would do? The barriers you are talking about, are eternal barriers. Based on our individual choice whether to follow Jesus in this life, whatever the cost maybe, will determine where we end up for eternity.’
God gave men (and nations) the task of governing their nation-states – it is our responsibility before God to govern the people well in this country which He broke (over geological time) from the continent. He broke it for a reason. He knew that this people would cry out to Him – and like Rome – gave them an empire with straight shipping lanes. That Empire broke the moment we refused in 1948 to recognise Israel as the apple of His eye. The Americans did, and the Twentieth Century became the American century.
‘And if we stay in the EU how is this going to make us any less of a Christian Country than we already are?”’
That is, I find, the most astonishing paradox in this whole debate. Given that the EU’s conception of the State is: the State defines your freedom; and given that its laws are on a collision course with Christianity; then I’m driven to the conclusion that many Christians will ‘fall away’ and the few brave Christians who refuse to the bend the knee will be rewarded, through great hardship the accolade: His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’
‘What would Jesus do? Put up the barriers?’
Yes. He insisted that in order to enter the Kingdom of God one has to be born-again