One of the reasons European integration has stalled is because the EU has adopted this neoliberal model of globalisation, shelving the higher social ideals of a united Europe. These are still wearily trotted out in the grudging rhetoric of a non-taxpaying corporation throwing a Christmas party in an orphanage, and are barely understood by their alleged proponents. With Germany posited as the creditor nation within this model, it is inevitable that its interests will differ from debtor ones, such as the UK and Greece. As integration has floundered, we are stuck with an unelected commission-rather-than-parliament-led EU, anathema for democrats.
Against this, the stentorian voices in favour of exit are even further to the right than their opponents. They too would destroy the few protections citizens still enjoy, only quicker. Whatever happens to the economy in the event of an exit (as with Scottish independence, the claims made by both sides range from fanciful to ludicrous), the UK would remain a debtor nation, only it would now go to China, instead of Germany, to negotiate its terms. Boris Johnson, positioning himself as a Poundstretcher Trump, would be advised to pop across the Atlantic and ask the real thing exactly how that’s working out for America.
For every creditor, there has to be a debtor. Perhaps, rather than considering the wisdom or otherwise of a European exit, we would be better served discussing why the UK has been designated a debtor nation in this global economic order. The problem is that neoliberalism has played its financialisation and privatisation hand. And, as a declining capitalism is no longer able to offer sustained high levels of economic growth, elites and their asset-to-debt-swapping practices have become more isolated and exposed for what they are: tools to exploit their citizens, reducing them to serfdom in the process.
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