European Commission efforts to keep Britain in the EU and coercive control

It's interesting yet unsurprising to see reports of the European Commission setting plans in motion to keep Britain in the EU.

It was always going to happen.

Despite the reports, no one in the British media is asking the obvious questions that would make people think about the issues and help inform their thinking about how to vote in the referendum:

1. Who benefits from European Commission efforts to keep Britain inside the EU?
    
2. Are they doing it for the British people, or EU self interest?

If EU membership is such a benefit to the British people, then should it not follow that our membership must somehow be a burden to the EU? That being the case wouldn't a Brexit relax that burden on our hard pressed European neighbours? Britain leaving the EU would be a relief, wouldn't it? The reality of course is that British membership disproportionately benefits the EU.

The EU needs Britain. We are a big net contributor to the EU budget, and among other things we have many crucial things that a political construct needs, such as a comparatively strong military, an advanced science and technology sector, and huge diplomatic reach in the world. The European Commission has a vested interest in assimilating what Britain has and using it for its own ends, hence the lengths to which it will go in order to keep us in the EU, perversely using our own money on propaganda to convince us to remain.

If Britain being part of the EU could be described as a relationship then it's a parasitic one. The EU feeds off Britain and in return infects us with debilitating rules, such as the Water Framework Directive, which is contributing to the flooding in England which is having such a devastating effect on people. Not having control over how this country is run and what we can do on our own land to protect homes and businesses is already having dangerous, traumatic and costly consequences. Britain having to implement EU rules that cause us harm, an affront to democracy, is a powerful reason why we should vote to leave and completely exit the union for good.

In addition to this, something that is incredibly ironic is that the British government is enthusiastically about to put into effect new domestic abuse laws regarding coercive and controlling behaviour.

We are told by the Grimsby Telegraph that domestic abuse can take many forms, in particular domineering and dictatorial control. Most of the examples the piece gives to explain what coercive control could look like, read like a list of what EU membership and governance entails and results in:

• Unreasonable and non-negotiable demands
• Surveillance and unwanted contact
• Cruelty
• Destroying the partners other relationships and isolating her/him from friends, family members, co-workers and others
• Restricting daily activities
• Combination of demands, threats of negative consequences
• Manipulation through minimisation, denial, lies, promises, etc
• Threats and intimidation
• Excuses, rationalisations and blame
• Stifling the partner's independence
• Controlling partner's access to information and services
• Financial control and exploitation
• Demanding obedience
• Treating their partner and children as objects
• Extreme jealousy, possessiveness and ridiculous accusations of cheating
• Punishing the partner and children for breaking one of their rules
• Ignoring their partner's needs, opinions and feelings, and the harm that their behaviour does to her/him

Behaviour of a kind so unacceptable it could result in an individual being imprisoned for up to five years, is somehow considered desirable and necessary by our government when it happens politically to this country at a national level. That is what David Cameron and his cronies want us to vote to continue putting up with. The double standards and hypocrisy are breathtaking.

Increasingly we are seeing that being in the EU is not only sub-optimal, it is anti democratic and too often it is damaging to this country. This is not something that can be repaired by reforms that keep the EU as our supreme government.

The only way to resolve this is to leave the EU completely and for good. We can co-operate in programmes and in areas of common interest, but we should be self governing to best serve the needs of the British people. We must vote to leave the EU.