Aaron Bastani, Novara Media
I’ve been a critic of the European Union for quite some time. While previously aware, at least vaguely, of its democratic deficit – as much a commonplace on A-leveI politics exams as the vocabulary of the eurosceptic right – I only really became acquainted with its harsher side while studying EU trade policy with the Global South as a graduate student. The more I learned, the more angry I became. While leaders of some of the world’s wealthiest countries promised to ‘make poverty history’, often through aid programs, EU trade, and furthermore agricultural policy, was entrenching under-development. Where others saw free movement, solidarity and growth, I saw a mask for colonialism and grotesque exploitation.
It's perhaps unsurprising, then, that I have argued for Britain to leave the EU over these last few months. While its likely Britain outside the EU would have a trade policy just as objectionable as the EU does at present, at least initially, my reply has been it would at least be subject to democratic accountability. Trade policy, you see, is a competence held by the unelected European Commission. Want to change it at the ballot box? Tough.
