Thoughts on the Nick Clegg Vs Nigel Farage Debate this evening.

I was interested this evening to see Nick Clegg basically badmouthing the EU, in an attempt to prop up the status quo.

He lied about the amount of  EU legislation implemented in the UK, using the weasel-wordy qualification "Primary" Legislation in order to reduce the amount of EU-derived legislation to 7 percent. I'm afraid Farage failed sucessfully to pull him up on that specific qualification as the mark of a career politician.

The same goes for Nick Clegg's insistence that to want to exit the EU is an old-fashioned stance. The EU was derived as a concept in the 1930's, before he U.N, before the G20, before all of the modern trade bodies came into being.

The EU isn't the be all and end all on trade agreements.

All Nigel Farage had to do to show how out of date the EU is, is hold up a mobile phone. Why does it work seamlessly in every country you visit? Why does its charger work in multiple countries? Who ratifies the standard for the USB connector that you connect to your PC with?

The ultimate global authority on standards is the United Nations. Their standards are then adopted and implemented by regional bodies (The EU) which are then implemented and adopted locally by member states.

This is why when you buy a device with a USB port in the USA, it works with a device bought in China, or the EU. Its why when you buy a phone in Europe, it works in the USA or China or India. There is no "European" USB, or "American" USB, or cellular telephone standards.

If mains electricity had been invented and adopted within the current regulatory framework we'd have global standards for voltage and the type of socket you use.

The EU as a concept is out of date, 1930s philosophy born out of the 1914-18 conflict, that was strengthened during the second world war that something had to be done to unify Europe, when the question was already being answered.

Ditching the EU removes a swathe of expensive, unnecessary legislature that in the modern age does a job that is already being done. The global trade links forged by the major trading nations of the G20 and promulgated by the global legislature and regulatory framework set by the United Nations does the job already. It is a modernist, cost-effective, policy.

Once the curtain has been pulled back of the Wizard-of-Oz-esque flim-flam that is the European Project, it will collapse. No-one in UK politics wants this, because the EU is a convenient scapegoat for all our ills. Politicians can take credit for good policies themselves, while blaming the EU for bad ones, or using it to deflect criticism.

Lets abolish it and let our politicians stand on their own two feet and be responsible for their own actions.

UPDATE:

This is the positive message that Nigel Farage needs to start promoting to push past the image that he is "old guard" and wanting to return to an England of Empire, Closed borders and as Nick Clegg put it "a return to the Gold Standard".
In fact Nick Clegg looks like the one wanting to hold onto the past, and promote the status quo.

For more on this look up the ITU, the IEC, the ISO, most if not all of whom seem to be located in Switzerland.