The European Tribune is a forum for thoughtful dialogue of European and international issues. You are invited to post comments and your own articles.
Please REGISTER to post.
That is just the anti-EU spin, right? But corporations are about maximizing profits, and they separate the spin from the reality, can't they? So if the EU in fact, not in spin, helps to improve their profits, what are they gaining by attacking it? Or are you saying that in fact UK corporations' profits are less with the UK in the EU than if it were outside it?
Here is a pure hypothetical: Suppose that EU regulations miraculously changed/disappeared (e.g. under pressure from the supposed resurgence of the right in the recent elections) to become perfectly amenable to the interests and aims of UK corporations. Then would the anti-EU rhetoric in the UK media -- at least the part driven and sponsored by UK corporations -- disappear and give way to pro-EU rhetoric? Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.
Here is a pure hypothetical: Suppose that EU regulations miraculously changed/disappeared (e.g. under pressure from the supposed resurgence of the right in the recent elections) to become perfectly amenable to the interests and aims of UK corporations. Then would the anti-EU rhetoric in the UK media -- at least the part driven and sponsored by UK corporations -- disappear and give way to pro-EU rhetoric?
I think that experiment may have been done in reverse. IIRC, back when the EU was the EEC, the Labour Party's then policy to take us out of the EEC was framed by the media as yet more evidence that they were the Loony Left.
So my answer would be-yes, remove all those nasty workers' rights and equality bits and I expect the UK media would have a change of heart.
But corporations are about maximizing profits, and they separate the spin from the reality, can't they? So if the EU in fact, not in spin, helps to improve their profits, what are they gaining by attacking it?
Needle. Groove. Stuck...
it's the principle, innit?
gvt = brakes, faster profit = ungoverned.
great google almighty, i loved the story of your e-search, marco!!
nothing like making it easy and attractive to random readers. 'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty
Sorry for the confusion.
Still, I am curious about the actual, bottom-line benefits to UK corporations with respect to membership vs. non-membership in the EU.
And although it is a completely unrealistic hypothetical, I am still very interested in hearing what might happen in the fantasy scenario of a neoliberal European Union: would the British media, followed by the British population, then embrace the EU? Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.
The perception is that things like worker protections, environmental standards, safety standards, human rights protections, maternity leave and so on are bad for corporate profits. It's not clear to me that this is true in the long run (i.e. in the order of tens of quarters, not one quarter).
The British population would probably hate a neo-liberal EU even more because it would become the excuse for taking away their rights and benefits. The British media might very well love it to bits though, if that's what their bosses told them to do.
But the financial costs of these to UK corporations must surely be less than the financial/economic benefits of being part of the EU, mustn't they?
The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform has a web page titled What if we Left the European Union? which lists downsides such as:
we might lose the advantages that economies of scale bring to pan-European industries such as car manufacturing or aerospace;we would have to bear the costs of renegotiating bilateral trade agreementswe would risk losing direct inward investment from companies which see the UK as a gateway to the EU.If we wished to continue trading with the EU - for example as a member of European Free Trade Area (EFTA ) (like Switzerland) or the European Economic Area (EEA) (like Norway) - we would still have to comply with EU laws, while having no say in negotiating them. We might even have to keep up contributions to the EU budget as the price of continued access to the Single Market, but get nothing in return.
Are the above points are just pro-EU spin that just try to cover up the larger downsides (to corporations) that you listed above? Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.
As I recall, and 30+ year old memories are lousy evidence, the UK was sold on the EU by economic arguments. The socio-political justifications were either not mentioned or used as reasons for not joining.
At least in the media I was consuming. She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre
Oh hell no. I didn't even bother considering the socio-political arguments. These are corporations we are talking about here. Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.
What if we Left the European Union? - BERR
1. basic Single Market freedoms such as the right to live, study and work in Europe might be jeopardised;4. we would lose out on EU funding for research, which currently outweighs our contributions, and would no longer be able to influence the development of the Framework Programme. [this one is quasi corporate relevant as well, perhaps even more so than socio-political relevant]5. guarantees of important protections for consumers could be lost;6. workers' rights could be eroded, making it harder for employees to find a satisfactory work-life balance;7. one of the strongest voices for reform in EU would be lost, with the result that new EU rules would be more likely to be damaging to British interests; [this one also somewhat corporate relevant]
1. basic Single Market freedoms such as the right to live, study and work in Europe might be jeopardised;
4. we would lose out on EU funding for research, which currently outweighs our contributions, and would no longer be able to influence the development of the Framework Programme. [this one is quasi corporate relevant as well, perhaps even more so than socio-political relevant]
5. guarantees of important protections for consumers could be lost;
6. workers' rights could be eroded, making it harder for employees to find a satisfactory work-life balance;
7. one of the strongest voices for reform in EU would be lost, with the result that new EU rules would be more likely to be damaging to British interests; [this one also somewhat corporate relevant]
Since then there's been a drift towards closer cultural and political integration. I'd guess some of the old timers feel this was never part of the deal, which explains part of the push-back.
But as InWales said above, we have our own 'patriotic' wingers who are captivated by a Disneyfied semi-feudal British identity. Brussels threatens this identity and promises a tidal wave of something bad or other.
These wingers don't much like anyone who isn't British.
They'll tolerate some immigrants as long as they work hard for them (middle and upper class) and don't steal their jobs (lower middle and working class). But the idea of being flooded by foreigners - i.e. anyone who isn't English British - makes them break out in a cold sweat.
The core problem is that plastic faked-up identity, and the constant media portrayal of everything that happens in Brussels as a rather floppy and bureaucratic dagger pointed at the heart of it.
And the reason for that portrayal is partly a genuine sense of outrage, and partly the expediency of being able to use public Euroskepticism as a negotiating position.
I'd guess wingers in other countries have similar motivations.
It's reactionary in the widest sense - perhaps because the UK has never quite assimilated the cool rationality of European modernism. The culture moved straight from paternal imperial arrogance to feudal volkisch nostalgia, with a side order of neo-Victorian business brutalism.
There was that hippy thing in the sixties, but apart from that UK political culture has been reliably grim, adversarial, antiquated and desperate. The only vision is a nostalgic one. Looking forward in a positive way is something that seems to terrify people.
I guess the fact that the UK wasn't flooded by (South) Asians after India's independence or that no Ozzies, Kiwis and South African under-30s come to the UK to work explains why the EU worker mobility rules are such a problem... The brainless should not be in banking. — Willem Buiter
Ozzies, etc, are still part of the Empire, and therefore British by default - obviously.
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 22 3 comments
by Cat - Jan 25 18 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 26
by Oui - Jan 9 21 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 13 28 comments
by gmoke - Jan 20
by Oui - Jan 15 90 comments
by gmoke - Jan 7 13 comments
by Oui - Jan 2724 comments
by Cat - Jan 2518 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 223 comments
by Oui - Jan 219 comments
by Oui - Jan 21
by Oui - Jan 20
by Oui - Jan 1839 comments
by Oui - Jan 1590 comments
by Oui - Jan 144 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 1328 comments
by Oui - Jan 1215 comments
by Oui - Jan 1120 comments
by Oui - Jan 1031 comments
by Oui - Jan 921 comments
by NBBooks - Jan 810 comments
by Oui - Jan 717 comments
by gmoke - Jan 713 comments
by Oui - Jan 68 comments