An urgent letter:
Dear British Friend and Colleague,
thank you so much for your thoughtful and full email about the EU
Referendum. I have read it several times.
It goes without saying that the me-me-me money-money-money level on
which the debate is being conducted in the UK is absolutely appalling. Like you
I have a vision of Europe which is about a shared intellectual history and set
of values, a shared visual culture going back to Greece, a shared musical and
cultural world and a vision of peace and co-operation. My view is influenced by the Germans - the
Germans do remember what war was like and many Germans do have a vision of this
shared culture. My view is also an Irish one.
What the EU has done to help Ireland open up and become more tolerant
and remember th deep European heritage it had for centuries before the ghastly
obscurantism after Irish independence is for me a great good.
If Britain leaves, then Britain can change nothing about the EU. It will in
my view be an unmitigated disaster. The
EU does need to change in many ways but Britain absolutely must stay in and
help. It will be bad for the EU if
Britain leaves, as Britain is needed to keep the balance between France and
Germany and to promote democratic values, at a time when some of the former
Eastern bloc countries are moving so far to the right. It will be bad for
Britain, as it will become an inward-looking little poodle of the US, worrying
about cricket and the queen. And the UK will break up, as Scotland will vote to
stay in the EU. I remember how insular Britain was when I first came there forty
years ago and how self-satisfied it was, and I can hardly believe how much it
has changed for the better. And, while the Republic of Ireland will be rubbing
its hands at the thought of all those firms which will relocate to Ireland,
what about the inner-Irish border? What
on earth will Ireland be going back to if such a border is recreated?
You complain about how the EU has treated Greece. Yes, it has had a hard time. So did Ireland, but they used the opportunity
to reform some things and many people in Ireland were glad to have their own
fat cats rapped over the knuckles and a troika coming in and sorting things.
Greece needs to have its debt remitted, certainly, or it will never come out of
recession, but perhaps some of its fat cats have been made to pay some taxes
and register their property by now. You also talk about how disgusting it is
that Germany is cosying up to the appalling Erdogan. Well, had the UK taken
200,000 asylums seekers as Sweden has done, perhaps that would not be so
necessary! (And not just the UK, of course). Yes, I know the UK is giving lots
of money to keep people in camps in Turkey, but that's not a future for those
unfortunates. Everyone whom I know in Germany is helping to integrate asylum
seekers. Why? Because that is how decent Europeans do things and because
Germans have a memory of fleeing themselves and being looked down on as
refugees and having to start all over again.
You yourself mentioned how important EU rules about workers' rights, the
environment, etc, are. I agree. Speaking as someone who works in a British
University, leaving the EU would be a disaster. You can forget about research
in the Humanities, for starters, as the UK virtually does not fund it, but lots
of other important research programmes will not be funded either. The European
Research Council and other smaller EU funding bodies are life-lines for British
research.
I cannot bear the thought that the UK will go back to where it was 40 years
ago. I cannot bear it to refashion itself in the image of Gove and Johnson. Or God help us, Trump.
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17. Juni 1953 - 17. Juni 2016
Wie die Zeiten sich ändern: Bis 1990 wurde in Westdeutschland regel- und mäßig an den Arbeiteraufstand in Ostdeutschland erinnert. Als 13-Jähriger bin ich an diesem Tag zur Sektorengrenze in Berlin-Wedding geeilt und erlebte, wie Verletzte vom Potsdamer Platz in den Westsektor gebracht wurden und später sowjetische Panzer auffuhren und noch einige Tage später mehrere Erschossene feierlich beigesetzt wurden. Beide Teile Deutschlands sind inzwischen 16 Jahre lang wiedervereint und das in einem ebenso vereinten Europa. Ich hoffe, dass dieses Europa jetzt nicht zerbricht ...
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