What’s in it for Cleethorpes?

You may have voted in 2016 in the belief that a final decision be made on the United Kingdom’ s membership of the European Union with 17,410,742 voting “leave” – as a number the largest mandate for action in recorded voting history it would have been a reasonable expectation.

But here’s the rub – this number was only 32,161 more than voted to stay in 1975 – give or take the population of Cleethorpes who sit within the 70%  of voters in North East Lincolnshire who voted” leave” in 2016.

So, what exactly is in the Governments new love for a closer union with the EU that serves the interests and addresses the fears of the 32,161 who tipped the vote from 1975’s “stay” to 2016’s “leave”. - say for the good people of Cleethorpes?

As a bigger question; what is the British, to be more specific the English, view of the EU and Continental Europe? Do we belong? Do we believe?.

To pull the question back, all considered, does it actually matter in Cleethorpes and the many other small non-metropolitan communities of our country?

Possibly the answer depends to an uncomfortable degree on the Achilles heel of “social standing”

If a member of the professional and monied then continental Europe is a chocolate box of delights to be enjoyed – if a member of the political and bureaucratic elites it’s a pool of fellow travellers and its corridors offer advancement and opportunity. But, for the average citizen of a northern coastal town (say Cleethorpes) its at best an irrelevance. At worst a source of decay, of immigration that depresses wage levels and opportunity that erodes and destroys the historic fabric of their community; as witnessed by the death of the fishing community of Cleethorpes umbilical twin Grimsby, once home of the worlds largest fishing fleet and now a town vying for a place in the top 20 of England’s most deprived  

Is it possibly true that for the majority of the English, Scots and  Welsh Europe has throughout history been a place where they go for one of two reasons; on holiday or to fight in wars.

Travel? The well healed of times passed delighted in a Grand Tour, those of today in time spent in Milan, Florence, Paris, Monaco and other cultural delights. The average worker for a package holiday in the sun on the Mediterranean coast or a jolly weekend in Prague or a Champions League tie in support of their chosen team. For either set, few if any stray from the lights into the outer areas of Paris, Marseille, Hamburg or more or less any major European city from Greece to Sweden where conditions and life quickly loses its shine.

War? Choose your century and conflict. If it was a major war its odds on we were present; of the 125 major European wars fought since 1495, we come 4th  with a participation in 43, behind France (50), Austria (47) and Spain (44). Given England’s location and physical separation from the fields of combat involvement in a third of all major conflicts in the last 500 years is a pretty impressive strike rate. Taking to account only the two world wars of the twentieth century, France alone serves host to 2,945 British & Commonwealth war grave cemeteries in which over 700,000 of our collective men at arms lie at rest.

So, what is the attraction that our political leaders are forever drawn to?

Why is our current government so keen for a closer union with what in economic terms is a supra-national political union drifting into decline, overtaken by the growth of China and India, one that is irrelevant in the growing economies of South America, one that seems to have an unshakable focus on supra-national bureaucratic control, that has a legal system alien to our common law, that is comprised of a collection of States that with an exception you can count on the fingers of one hand offer us little we need or crave , one with few net contributors to its budgets and incomes, one that we consistently run a multibillion-pound trade deficit with, one that is a (if not the) major source of our core immigration, and so productivity, issues?

To explain maybe they should travel to Cleethorpes and answer these questions directly, honestly and fully to its population who as a head count more or less count the difference between the tallies of 1975 and 2016?

I for one am not holding my breath. The contempt  and gaslighting by our powers that rule of the great majority to who the ability to use e-passport gates mean little when their holiday is at a caravan site in Skegness or Scarborough, who have no taste for French cheese and wine, who cannot fathom why a boarder and customs checks are necessary to send plants and ham  to Belfast, who cannot see the equity in their own children been unable to access social housing, and our military veterans scared by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan living on the streets , who cannot access a GP or dental care, all  whilst illegal immigrants are housed in hotels with services on tap  - seem  deeply ingrained and clear to any who care to look.

The blank expressions and robotic tropes of Government Ministers when expressing their understanding and empathy with these issues bear witness to their abject indifference and lack of ability to provide an honest and meaning full answer to the question so I leave it hanging:

What is in it for Cleethorpes?