Eur-opeless

Ever since Britain began engaging in the process of European integration in the 1970s, there has been an often awkward relationship between the British and their continental counterparts. This has been a running theme that continues to this day- an issue that currently looms larger in British politics than it has for decades due to the Conservatives' promise of an in-out referendum on European Union membership in the next parliament (should they be re-elected)- which consequently puts pressure on the Labour party to match that pledge. So there is a significant chance of a referendum on British membership before 2020.
Though Eurosceptic, I am not a Europhobe: I believe that membership of the European Union is ultimately in Britain's best interests, although I am wary of federal European interference in member states' affairs. The greater ease in terms of trade that membership offers, through a common market which provides easier access to other continental markets, as well as making Britain more attractive as an accessible gateway into Europe, is arguably the organisation's greatest asset from Britain's perspective. It also bolsters Britain's bargaining power when negotiating trade deals with large nations: an influential representative of an organisation of hundreds of millions of people has more leverage than a representative of tens of millions of people alone. Moreover, having a large say in the running of the EU (and paying for access to the common market and its institutions) is fairer than paying out and having to abide by legislation over which you have little to no influence, as is the situation for Norway and Switzerland.
Having said this, the EU and its supporters have been unbelievably poor at conveying to the British public these benefits; instead the EU is associated with unfair intervention in states' affairs, economic incompetence and detachment from reality. Following developments within EU member states, primarily Britain, in the British media (even the BBC, associated with a more centrist, unbiased approach to many issues), the British public are almost relentlessly bombarded with these negative associations with Europe. At present, prominent stories include how Cyprus is struggling with its finances, and is having to raid and undermine its own banks, due to pressure from the EU; there are fears in Britain of Romanians and Bulgarians arriving en masse next year due to the expiration of restrictions on their arrival in this and other EU member states- people from some of the EU's poorest states, who are expected to put greater pressure on already overstretched housing, jobs market, and the public sector generally (see my previous post for more on this), with Romanians currently associated in the British press with squatting in private properties; exploiting Britain's "Big Issue" magazine for the homeless for their own acute material gain; and criminal gangs. Meanwhile, the European Court of Human Rights (not an EU institution, but strongly associated with the body nevertheless) is preventing the British government from deporting the infamous Abu Qatada back to Jordan. Practically every week in the UK, there is a news story showcasing the cracks in the EU as an organisation, and highlighting the plight of its members: from economic crises in Greece, to prolonged attempts to form governments in Italy this year and Belgium last year.
Given this relentless negative association with Europe, combined with other concerns in Britain today, it is unsurprising that the UK Independence Party seems an attractive alternative for an increasing number of voters. Despite our differences, the partnership between Britain and other EU member states is very valuable and practical; for the reasons I described above from Britain's perspective, whilst others value Britain's positive influence in terms of defending democracy and the free market within the EU (not to mention its sizable contribution to EU funds!). Consequently, if those who consider British EU membership as beneficial, both within and outside of the UK, and want to keep it intact, they need to seriously get their act together if they want to guarantee that UKIP will remain outside of the British parliament for the foreseeable future, and secure a "Yes" vote for Britain remaining in the EU in a potential referendum.

Excessive Problems for the UK

On the whole, if one has been following the news in the UK, there is generally very little positive news or cause for optimism to be seen on a national scale. The most obvious issue is the economy; hindering the job prospects for the unemployed, and jeopardising the long-term income of those currently in work. But there are also serious lingering social issues in the UK as well: the strain on public services, most notably the National Health Service, and supplies generally; from energy resources to housing. As I see it, there are three main issues stifling the UK's progress and undermining our stability; two of which are within our control, and the current government is currently taking much-needed steps to tackle them (let us hope that they do enough, soon enough, to have an impact before our problems get worse). These broad issues are: 1) Excessive Population 2) Excessive Government Debts 3) The Global Recession. Obviously, 3) is largely out of the UK's hands, but nevertheless undermines a more solid economic recovery through exports (invisible or otherwise). The UK is by no means suffering as much as most places round the world: swathes of Africa, Asia and elsewhere are still blighted by poverty; revolutions, coups and political instability undermine (or at least linger in the shadows) in a surprisingly high number of countries worldwide. Even in Europe, part of the developed world, European politics and finances are now very messy: from the struggle to form a government in Italy, one of the most politically and economically significant states in Europe, to the current concerns for providing funding for a bailout of Cyprus. Plus, with the ongoing threat of the Cypriot government considering an unprecedented raid on savers' bank accounts, as well as the ridiculous suggestion of capping salary bonuses EU-wide, Europe seems to be providing more and more incentives for international business to relocate elsewhere- and take their invaluable investment and tax revenue with them! Nevertheless, as far as the UK is concerned, in a number of ways Britain is experiencing some of its greatest hardships experienced in the past 50 years. And I lie much of the blame for two of the causes of this (government debt and overpopulation) with the previous Labour government. During their period of office, from 1997-2010, we experienced higher levels of immigration than during any other 13-year period EVER in our history, and marks the greatest proportional shift in population since the Norman Conquest of England almost 1000 years ago! This has meant that, come the recession, there are too few jobs, houses, energy supplies, water supplies, school places, hospital appointments, etc, to accommodate an over-inflated population. When this is taken into account, it becomes less surprising that we had both water shortages and floods in the same year; and that, despite the total number of people in employment higher than ever in this country's history, unemployment still remains a significant issue. To provide some explanation for this, if England were considered alone, it would be in the top ten most densely populated countries IN THE WORLD- with the south east most populous. And England represents a vast majority of the UK's territory and population. This links in with the problem of government debt, as the government is compelled to tackle these problems with higher spending at a time when it is trying to reduce already substantial government debt; accumulated when the economy was already doing well, with borrowed money partially used to fund jobs- a totally unsustainable approach to employment. As a result of an excessive population, the government is obligated to spend more to increase housing, as well as more on job seeker's allowance. I don't envy the government at all: it needs more jobs than ever in our history, but the government debt is too high to resort to filling the gaps with surplus public-sector jobs. All it can do, as it is already doing, is try and get the right balance of so many elements: providing the fundamental public services expected by the public with constrained finances; encourage the private sector to take on as many of the UK's remaining unemployed as possible (not easy when valuable supplies of overseas income are more scarce elsewhere in the world due to recessions or relentless poverty); take enough tax to reduce national debts and fund the public sector, but not so much that the poorest are even more stretched and the rich are frightened off to less-punitive tax regimes elsewhere; cut spending, again to get the national finances in order, yet not to the extent that basic public sector provisions are failing, whilst also trying to scrape together some funds for infrastructure projects to aid the economy in the short and long term. I would like to end this post by pointing out that to be opposed to excessive immigration does not necessarily make you racist. The belief that "to criticise immigration was racist" was the consensus in mainstream politics and the media up until a few years ago, which exacerbated the aforementioned problems. But many are realising that, firstly, race is no longer a clearly defining characteristic of immigration: many British citizens today are NOT white, and many immigrants ARE white. Moreover, it is nonsensical to blame migrants themselves for excessive immigration (legal immigrants anyway). Migrants have applied to enter this country, their applications have been accepted by the British establishment, so they have moved here: what is so scandalous and amoral about immigrants doing this?! Those at fault are those who were in government and could see the big picture: that millions of people were arriving in this country year after year, and did little to hinder it or publicly acknowledge its long-term impact. Excessive debt and excessive immigration: these are two of the largest thorns in Britain's side, put there by the government that was supposed to safeguard this country's interests, but instead jeopardised this country's prospects for the foreseeable future.