Brexit: Should I stay or should I go? | National Catholic Reporter

Brexit: Should I stay or should I go? | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: The EU has largely brought Western liberal values to both those western nations where they were weak and to eastern nations where they only existed as a desire. A main benefit is for those nations which are really too small to exist independently (which is why the Benelux nations created their union before the EU existed). For the most part, England has these features (Scotland, interestingly, may stay in the EU - who knows what Northern Ireland will do) - although Tory leadership is always a bit dangerous to civil rights in a parliamentary system.



As far as protection from bureaucrats - it is an ugly characterization that they run amok. Such people always seek authority in either the master treaty or action by the European Parliament. If anything is running amok, its democracy.



Where Europe has failed is in having a continental currency without a continental fiscal policy (a unified income tax and debt to back that currency). In this, England is not affected since they do not use the Euro.



Consumerism is well established in Europe, although the rise of the social democratic state has transcended it to an extent. The government guarantees of a decent way of life mean that consumption does not have to serve as a counter-weight to an oppressive workplace.



I am agnostic to whether England should remain in the Union. Sadly, this vote may be a confidence vote in the Tories and their austerity as it is to the EU with their demand for austerity on its debtor states. Still, if the EU loses, let this be a message to them to start buying up member debts and imposing an individual income tax in the continent. I suspect that the American debt consolidation is a big reason it survived. The EU should take a lesson, regardless of what happens in the election. So should the Tories.