The EU a Socialist business perspective

I still remember my first overseas trip, a Belgian car parts factory in 1979. As I left a customs officer spotted my tool bag - “... and what's in that sir?”, “My tools” I replied. “Oh no you're not, come here ..” She searched my tools, listing everything down to the last screwdriver on official paper which she stamped, one copy for me and one for HMRC. On my return they found that form and cross-referenced everything ensuring I had not secretly exported a screwdriver, or smuggled a Belgian torque wrench. Belgium customs did the same, and my collection of tools worth about a tenner generated no less than 8 official forms. This bizarre and costly ritual was repeated when I worked in France, and then Germany; I still do it for the USA and the Far East.

What a contrast 20 years later. I first knew I was redundant when my pay cheque bounced; my shop steward told me that at my age (36) I would never get a full time job again. He was right, I have been a contract engineer ever since. My first large contract was with Celint, an Italian company supplying videotext terminals to Olivetti. I asked Luigi, yes that was his name, why he recruited British Engineers, his answer was simple – the Maastricht Treaty allowed him to select staff from all over Europe “It's so easy” he said. My next big job was with Ellen Betrix in Frankfurt. So I opened my British Deutchmark Bank Account, which became ECUs, and finally Euros. I have lost track of the number of EU contracts that I have had, or the goods that we have have exported without any export paperwork. The ease of working with EU countries is vital, especially for small businesses such as ours. For much of 2015 I worked for an Irish company, who paid my salary into my Euro bank account. About 10% of all UK financial transaction are in Euros, using the UK Euro banking system. Do not believe what you are told about Free Trade, it is not free of red-tape or charges – exports to Norway may not have tariffs but you have to submit customs forms and each costs £25. For the EU the only official piece of export paperwork required is the postage stamp you stick on the parcel. BREXIT will pile costs onto UK PLC, kill UK exports, and many British small businesses will fold. The Tory Right who are behind BREXIT are supported by rampant free-marketeers of Big Business who will benefit from the abolition of workers and consumers rights, but it is ordinary people who will pay the price.

Migration is a 2-way process, and with the EU it is in balance. 2.8 Million EU citizens work in the UK, and a similar number of Brits have used their freedom of travel, like me, to work, live or retire in Europe. Of all the benefits of EU membership I value my freedom of travel the highest; and for Farage, Boris or Gove to deny that freedom to our children would be criminal. It allowed me to work when the British economy was wrecked by Thatcher's Government, and it enables millions of British people today to have freedoms that our parents could not have dreamt of.