Rejoiners can only feel hopeful about Keir Starmer’s quest for a closer relationship with Germany. Still the economic powerhouse of the EU despite its present travails, Germany’s goodwill toward the UK will be crucial in creating a closer economic relationship with the EU as a whole. All this is moving in the right direction.
So why was he (or rather his news-management machine) making such a song and dance about not agreeing to Youth Free Movement and not rejoining Erasmus? That looks like mixed messages.
Steve Anglesey in ’The Rejoinder’ (Aug 29) suggests a three-part explanation for this behaviour. First, Youth Free Movement and Erasmus look too much like the dreaded freedom of movement, and we know that immigration is at the top of the British public’s list of anxieties at the moment.
Second, he doesn’t trust the apparent shift in public opinion about Brexit. Anglesey doesn’t say this explicitly, but I guess we might suppose that Starmer suspects the opinion shift against Brexit is shallow and unreliable; not a firm basis for political action. And he may well be right. In the light of both of those considerations he chooses to hold off risking a ‘betrayal’ backlash, waiting (Anglesey suspects) until the Tories have a new leader, and are fully engaged in warfare with Reform about what counts as a good Brexit. And therefore have less spare firepower to turn on him.
Those calculations may be sound. However, that is not a reason for rejoiners to go quiet and wait on events. Those events may keep Starmer spooked indefinitely, and we need to create a counter-pressure against his natural caution. This pressure would need to be long-term, as the process of reconnecting with Europe is probably going to be a slow one. And it would need to be focused, with clear priorities.
There is a rationale for keeping our focus on Youth Free Movement in general, and Erasmus in particular. They should have priority in any campaigning for rejoin, for the following reason:
One of the strongest cards in the brexiteers hand throughout their long campaign, was the fact that British people identify less with Europe, on average, than do most other Europeans. Several surveys have shown over the years that European-ness constituted a fairly small part of the average Britons sense of identity. This meant that commitment to EU membership always tended to be shallower, more conditional than is the case for other Europeans. This gave leverage to the brexiteers, and we have all suffered the consequences. In the long run this could get worse, with a vicious circle of ongoing Brexit isolation producing an even more insular nation. That would be bad for all of us.
In moving the country back toward Europe, we need to invest in a long-term cultural shift toward a stronger European identity, making Britain a stronger and more stable part of the European family. And we need to focus on is the younger generation. The more positive contact they have with other Europeans, the more European they are likely to become in their outlook. This would include travel, study and perhaps work in Europe, and also contact with Europeans doing the same in the UK. The more that contact happens, the more European the younger generation will become.
There are many routes along which we can work to build better and closer relations with Europe. But each of those needs realistic timing. Erasmus and Youth Free Movement have two time-scales, one to start the process and one to accrue their benefits. Those benefits will take decades to fully accrue, but will constitute a crucial change in our culture. But the process needs to start as soon as possible, and that requires a clear message to Starmer that there is a major constituency for this move. We need to show that we will support him if he finds the courage to stand up to the brexiteers. And we will challenge him if he doesn’t.
Stephen Wilmot
derby4europe 