United

As anyone who reads this blog knows, I am a European. I think the European Union is a good idea. Working with other countries is good; working alone is bad.

I also like immigrants. Anyone who has the initiative to leave where they are and go somewhere else to get a better life is likely to be more successful than somebody who stays in Hull or Tirana and complains that there are no jobs.

And I question the belief that where we are born defines us. Governments think it does and gives us passports to reinforce that view. Politicians also claim that people who were born somewhere else are sufficiently different to be a threat. 
In this internet-connected society, we are defined by who we are, who our friends are, what interests and beliefs we have. I have more in common with people who have worked in newspapers, people who follow football and people interested in technology, wherever they are in the world, than I have with people in Britain who are interested in religion or TV personalities.
My interest in politics is not soley in Westminster; it is in how people in different countries tackle the problems we all face.

The internet is international. Big companies are international. Refugees are international. Crime and terrorism are international. If nation states are to survive, they must join forces with other nation states to become international, too.
Deciding to pull out of an international group because you don't like foreigners or you think our governments are so good they should be allowed to work without any help from outside, is obtuse.
And politicians who play on people's fears about immigrants have always been dangerous.

Please vote Remain on Thursday.

Friends, neighbours, migrants

Well done Caroline Lucas. The Green Party's only MP always talks sense and her contribution to the European debate says something no other politician has dared to say: the free movement of people is a good thing. 
'No case for the EU is complete without making clear just how much we value the contributions of our fellow Europeans to our country. They are our doctors, our nurses, our shopkeepers, our plumbers, our teachers, our professors, our builders. They are our friends, our neighbours.'
All we have heard so far is: immigrants = bad; free movement = terrorism.
Lucas counters this: 'The warped myth-making on migration won't be beaten by winning this referendum alone; it will be beaten when politicians are bave enough to stand up to the myths and lies and promote fair, alternative solutions.'
She is right. Immigrants are people like us who want to live somewhere where bombs don't fall, or regimes oppress. Or they simply want to achieve more than they can where they are.
When I was a young lad, I gave up the job I had in the city where I grew up and sought fame and fortune 300 miles away. How does that differ from a lad in Bulgaria wanting to see if he can make it in Germany, or Britain? That's what freedom of movement does. It gives people opportunities.
People from other countries may not look like us; they may not speak like us; they may be more keen on religion than us. Does that make them people to be feared, or interesting people from whom we may learn something? Do we still think we are best and all other people are inferior?
In American Donald Trump is gaining votes by telling people foreigners are the cause of all their troubles. I recall another demagogue telling the people of his country that all their troubles were caused by Jews. 
In Britain, we have Jeremy Corbyn challenging the status quo with a vision of the 1940s. And we have the Green Party, shaking things up with common sense on immigration and a basic state wage.
I like to think our radicals are more sensible than the Americans, but whether their voices are heard or drowned out by the bile will only become clear on June 24. 

Words and music

Of the three music stars who died recently, the one I will miss most of all is Glenn Frey, of the Eagles.

Bowie was inventive, Lemmy was loud, but Frey was clever with words and music, and there are few who do both well.

'It's a girl my Lord, in a flat-bed Ford, slowin' down to take a look at me'

'City girls seem to find out early, how to open doors with just a smile.'

'You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave'

Words like that, with great guitar and drum work from a bunch of long-haired, tall, lean guys in jeans and checked shirts made the Eagles special.

And they were proper rock stars. They fought each other, they drank and took drugs.
They made great records. Thank you Glenn.

When will they ever learn . . .

Cameron wants the Commons to vote in favour of British troops bombing ISIS in Syria.
He says this will make us safer. It will do exactly the opposite.
All it will do is make Cameron feel better when he meets other leaders.
Our politicians never learn. They make the same mistakes over and over again.
No wonder so many young people voted for Jeremy Corbyn.

Bombs or brains?

David Cameron is banging on again about military action 'to make us safe'. What planet is he on?
Let us suppose that our brilliant army, navy and air force, backed by our nuclear arsenal, manage to wipe out Daesh/ISIS in both Syria and Iraq.
Are we to believe that, after celebrating our brave success, we will be immune from terrorism?
George Bush and Tony Blair thought that by invading some Arab country and 'shocking and awing' them into submission, we could somehow avenge the terrorist attack on New York and make the West safe from terrorism. They were wrong. Terrorism has increased. Why do we think military action will succeed now?

We are a county with the military might we needed half a century ago. 
Daesh/ISIS are a terrorist organisation with the military might they need now.
We might defeat them if we used the same tools they have, but we don't want to use soldiers with guns and tanks. Our public wouldn't stand for it.
We might defeat them if we used our nuclear weapons, but we don't want to do that.
So we use the things we have that they don't - air power, missiles, drones. And those tools won't defeat a terrorist group who can melt into the general population.
All military action will do is satisfy the politicians' need to do something and the terrorist leaders' need to have an enemy.

Terrorists are clever. They strike when we are not expecting it, at targets who are not prepared for it. 
We will only defeat them by being cleverer than they are and pre-empting those strikes. To do that, we must accept more surveillance, more action against those who indoctrinate.
Terrorism is the new way of fighting. We need to resist it with a new form of defence.

Big pond, small pond

The European Union is about working together.

It believes that European interests are as important as national interests, and, in time, will become more important than national interests.

The freedom of movement, goods and services, along with the single currency, make the people of Europe citizens of a continent, not just a country.

Politicians in Britain and in several other countries, cannot get their heads around this. They keep banging on about their national interest.

The solution is not, as David Cameron suggests, for Europe to become more like Britain. It is for those who believe in a European future to divest themselves of those who don’t.

Not a two-speed Europe, a single-minded Europe which decides on what terms other countries can deal with it.

The Europeans will decide what happens; share services, resources, regulations and data; deal as a group with international companies and other countries.

Those outside won’t have any say in what happens; won’t have the same access to services, resources or data; and will have to deal with multi-national companies and other countries on their own.

I want to be a European. I may be in a minority in Britain, if the media and politicians are to be believed. But my life will be better if the things which affect me are decided by Dutch, French, German and Italian representatives as well as those from Britain than it will be if my local representatives decide them all with no reference to any wider picture.

A different guy

The media just don't get Jeremy Corbyn. They are looking at everything he does and saying 'a normal political leader wouldn't do that'. Of course he doesn't. That is why so many people voted for him in the leadership election.
He went to an anniversary service for the Battle of Britain. He did wear a tie, which was surprising. He didn't sing the national anthem. Shame! Disrespect!
Nothing of the sort. If, like me, he doesn't care for gods and he thinks the monarchy is an anachronism, why would he sing 'God save the Queen'?
I like a bloke who does his own thing, not the things people do because everyone else does them.