Why I trust the EU more than the UK government

EU competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, scourge of Google, Amazon,  Gazprom and Trump

Trade Minister Liam Fox, no trade deals but get ready for chlorinated chicken

Like almost everyone else in this sceptre'd isle, I am thoroughly unhappy about the disastrous Brexit negotiations. I had voted remain but had some sympathy with those wanting to leave. I thought the EU had been too hard on countries like Greece and Portugal following the banking crisis and had done too little to develop a coherent policy on immigration and asylum seekers. But now I have no hesitation in wanting to remain part of the European community. I trust the EU with all its checks and balances much more than I trust the UK government with its obsessive determination to bat for little England. That becomes more evident every day as the PM and her ministers attempt to justify their haphazard negotiations with a sang froid that makes me doubt their sanity.

I have tried to rationalise why my views have become so hard and fast. Obviously, they have been partially shaped by the abysmal failure of Mrs May's government to establish a coherent plan in collaboration with all political parties, business and other parts of civil society. This should have been established before asking to leave through invoking article 50. It has not helped that she chose a ragtag and bobtail of her ministers to lead the negotiations. What Davies, Fox and Johnson lacked in objectivity, emotional intelligence and negotiation skills were replaced by their violative characteristics of narcissistic egos, preening self-indulgence and narrow-minded instincts. But there are several other reasons:

• Whatever its faults the EU has become a political entity with an assurance of peace in the world's most bellicose continent. 
• EU policymaking is more rigorous and is shaped by best practice amongst its 28 members.
• The EU understands and encourages subsidiarity to regions and cities.
• UK policies are far too centralised, there is a reluctance to embed powers in local or regional government. 
• The UK government does not take heed of what John Steinbeck recognised, that "small diagnostic truths which are the foundations of the larger truth". This hinders the scope for innovation and government imposes centrally derived policies that are often at variance with local needs.
• Almost all countries in the EU have more progressive tax regimes than the UK and its tax havens.
• The EU is far more likely to exercise control over global tech companies for tax purposes and for data protection.
• The EU has trade deals with 70 countries, Liam Fox, the Brexit braggart, who claimed he would have replicated 40 of these by March 2019, has so far managed just 7.
• Who do you trust? Margrethe Vestager, the Danish EU Competition Commissioner, who has successfully taxed and challenged the global tech giants or Liam Fox!
• The damaging effect of Brexit on ease of movement, whether by air, road or sea & mobile roaming charges threatens to restrict opportunities for trade, job opportunities, travel and friendship ties. 
• The likelihood of concerted action to slow down climate change is far more effective across 28 countries. The UK government actions on wind turbines, fracking, gas power stations and nuclear are hardly indicative of any serious commitment. 
• The EU has an impressive record on environmental standards for air quality, wastewater, bathing beaches, toxic chemicals and much more. 
• Similarly, the EU has introduced standards for manufactured goods, certification of products, health and safety standards and these are being regularly updated and applied after detailed consultation with member countries.
• The European Convention on Human Rights.
• The European Health Insurance Card.
• The UK constitution - outdated, outmoded and out of order.
• EU Research funding that has hugely benefited the UK and the 135,000 EU students who study in the UK.
• And just in case this isn't enough reason, Donald Trump has said the EU is "almost as bad as China, just smaller."

It is an endless list once you start and, although there is the charge that the EU is less democratic and run by bureaucrats, I beg to differ. Most EU civil servants that I have dealt with were experienced in managing public services in their own countries and well disposed towards subsidiarity. The same cannot be said for many UK civil servants who have been cocooned in central government departments with little practical experience of the real world.

And that brings me to the supposedly democratic UK government elected by just 29.1% of the electorate through a discredited first past the post vote that creates a two-party monopoly. Both Conservative and Labour MPs are disciplined by whipping systems based upon either a public school mentality or a rigid collective discipline. The resultant absence of transparency or collaborative discussion has been fatally exposed during the Brexit debacle. Not forgetting the unelected upper house that is brim full of place men and women. Despite this, on Brexit and many other matters in recent years, the House of Lords has been more focused and knowledgeable than the febrile House of Commons.

If we had any sense it is Westminster that we should be abandoning. Let the regions and nations of the UK work directly with the EU. We would be free from the claustrophobic elite cluster of politicians and civil servants from Eton and Oxbridge dominating the governance of the UK. Westminster ensures that London dominates investment, decision making, culture and the economy to the detriment of all regions outside the south-east of England. The May government has proved beyond any reasonable doubt that they are unfit to govern and a Corbyn led opposition has failed miserably to call time on this charade of charlatans.