If you’re not aware, Britain is holding a referendum on 23rd
June regarding their EU membership. The two sides are Remain, who favour
staying in the EU, basing their argument around a strong economy and Leave (or ‘Brexit’
= ‘British Exit’) basing their argument around, erm, sovereignty I think. It’s
hard to tell when Leave’s two official campaign leaders (Boris Johnson and
Michael Gove) seem more interested in taking the jobs of the two Remain leaders
(David Cameron and George Osborne) after the referendum.
Anyway the Leave campaign, or Brexiters, regard Brexit: The Movie as their Jewel in the Crown. Their Ace in the
Pack. The thing that destroys all other arguments. ‘Go watch Brexit: The Movie’ they say. Does it
really stand up though?
Brexit: The Movie is written
and directed by Martin Durkin, whose previous credits include NASA: The Unexplained Files, Ancient X-Files
and The Great Global Warming Swindle.
Oh, and a documentary on UKIP leader Nigel Farage. Well, I’m assured the next
65 minutes will be impartial and entirely fact based.
Opening hyperbole out of the way, the first stop for Durkin is Brussels
and the multitude of EU buildings. There are 90 EU offices across Brussels,
Strasbourg and Luxembourg. The European Civil Service (a blanket term for all
agencies under the European Commission) employs roughly 30, 000 people. I
appreciate that these extravagant buildings can appear wasteful but if you take
into account the UK’s own Civil Service employs over 400, 000 people and
suddenly this doesn’t seem so much.
The main thrust here though is to explain how the EU works (or doesn’t,
depending on your viewpoint). Which Durkin does. In part. He explains that Laws
are proposed by the EU Commission and then voted on by the European Parliament.
He doesn’t explain they then need to be voted on by the European Council of
Ministers, made up of elected government officials from across Europe, before
they become law. He doesn’t explain exactly how the Commission comes to make
their proposal to begin with. Nigel Farage does appear to bemoan that MEP’s are
not able to raise their own questions in the European Parliament and actually,
it’s hard to concede he might not have a point here.
When he’s talking about the Commission though, that’s when Durkin’s
conspiracy theory past can’t help but go into the overdrive. The shadowy,
sinister organisation all run by the big businesses. The EU invests in farmers,
science and the arts to buy its support, the bastards. They’re all paid off by
the lobbyists, something that absolutely, never ever happens in the UK.
Martin Durkin questions the integrity of people in the EU but I think
it’s worth looking at some of his contributors:
·
David Davis, MP – Opposes equality and Climate
Change denier. It’s strange seeing him bemoan the unelected status of 28 strong
EU Commission when he has voted against any reform of Britain’s own 800 strong
unelected chamber, the House of Lords. And indeed, he was Conservative Party
whip when they voted to sign the Maastricht Treaty in 1992
·
Peter Lilley, MP – if you’re in the Conservative
party and the leader describes you as ‘the bastard’ of the party, there’s
something very wrong
·
Kelvin MacKenzie – as a former editor of The Sun newspaper, there is a lot of
shit that sticks to MacKenzie but he will forever be most connected with the
Hillsborough Disaster and ‘The Truth’ headline that he has NEVER apologised for
·
Nigel Farage – well, I’ll just leave that to
Stewart Lee…
Many of the others aren’t much better. Irrelevant you may say but I say
if you’re going to question someone else’s integrity, be sure your own house is
in order first.
Next is the emotive segment of the film, when we are shown how the EU
has destroyed the British fishing industry with its quotas. This is all very
sad but like much in the film, is a gross over-simplification ignoring why the
Common Fisheries Policy was originally introduced. Basically the problem is ecological
brought by decades of over-fishing and declining fish stocks and a Brexit won’t help those fishermen.
Then we have a history of Britain and the EU which can be summed up
with: all regulation bad. It talks about the German ‘Economic Miracle’ brought
about when it scrapped many of its regulations post-World War 2. Again, this is
over-simplifying ignoring the vast amounts of international aid as a strong
West Germany was considered vital in Cold War era Europe. It takes a turn for
the weird when it gets to the formation of the Common Market and the EEC. The
music suddenly turns all sinister when Durkin says the architect of the EEC was
French. Why is that a problem? Well, he’s French isn’t he? Those dastardly
French! I'm not even being obtuse about it, Durkin just says he's French and leaves it at that.
Apropos of nothing, the talking heads then reveal this is actually a
debate of class, the political elite vs the proletariat. If only I’d known
sooner, I had no idea Brexit was a gateway to a socialist utopia!
There’s an entertaining segment about EU Regulations and how they
affect your life, showing how many regulations cover items in your everyday
life. Its slightly misleading as if you were to add up each individual item you’d
get a total of 12,368 (note: I did not actually count these up) but actually
you’d find a lot of the products share the same regulations. It also ignores
why these regulations exist. If I want to put cyanide in my toothpaste, that’s my
decision. Back off Brussels!
Then we come to what my mind would call the most distasteful
part of the film. Italian’s are stereotyped as lazy, pasta eaters; Asian’s as
quirky geeks and the French as beret wearing onion-eaters. Durkin uses a
scenario of a European umbrella maker complaining about a new Asian model
coming on to the market. He says the EU protect them with tariffs on the Asian company’s
goods (which is actually in line with World Trade Organisation rules) and
quotas on the number imported (what? Protecting a country’s own industry? How
dare they).
Gerald Mason of sugar manufacturer Tate & Lyle Ltd claims EU
competition rules and trade barriers have seen a decline in their profits and
rise in prices and bemoaning imports from other manufacturers into the UK
market. Which jars with claims elsewhere in the film that competition is a good
thing to have. But ah, they say, this is not competition, this is ‘protectionism’.
However, EU competition laws were introduced to prevent any one company having
a monopoly in the market place. A free-market economy requires competition so a
certain amount of balancing is required.
Incidentally, contributor David Davis is a former director of Tate
& Lyle. I’m sure that’s just coincidence but for full disclosure it should
be known.
Next up, our man Martin takes a trip to Zurich to see how Switzerland
do outside of the EU. They have access to the European Single Market but are
not members of the EU. And it’s hard to deny the Swiss are doing very well.
They are one of the most prosperous countries in the world, with one of the
highest standards of living and lowest rate of unemployment. However, the Swiss
model has recently fallen out of favour with many Leave campaigners as to have
access to the Single Market, they have to pay into the EU budget, follow its
regulations and have free movement of people.
Actually free movement brings up something I have to give the film
credit for: not once does it bring up migration, the lowest common denominator
of politics. So I applaud it for at least attempting to take the high road.
The final section is trade and even the film seems confused by this,
not sure whether having a trade deal is a good thing or not. There are claims
the EU economy is shrinking (not true) and of how prosperous we will be outside.
However, and this has always been the criticism of the Leave campaign, there is
no evidence to support any of the claims they make. Many respected institutions
on the other hand have produced reports that say we will be worse off.
Ending hyperbole telling this is our chance ‘to take back control’,
whatever that means.
If you are a Leaver annoyed by what I’ve said, be aware I’m trying to
add balance because Martin Durkin gives none in his film. There is no talking
head in his film arguing the other side of the case. Even Michael Moore at
least gives his subjects the opportunity to give their side in his films. They
rarely take it but at least it’s offered.
If you are a Remainer, I am aware there are many who could have put the
case far better than I and I don’t doubt there are many things I have missed.
If you don’t know which way to vote, don’t just listen to what I say
and don’t watch Brexit: The Movie. Do
your own independent research and reach your own decision.
I know which side I am on and Brexit:
The Movie has not swayed me.
