YOUR VIEWS ON: CAN THE EUROPEAN UNION BE REFORMED?

argaret Thatcher turned against that neoliberal trading project, now known as the EU, when she realized that it was,-reading Right with its ‘nanny state’ working-hours directives; stricter-than-US environmental standards and (partial) opposition to GM; and ‘political correctness gone mad’ rulings on LGBTQI and women’s equality and other human rights issues. Lately, the EU has angered tech libertarians too as it has, unlike most governments, got tough with all-powerful tech giants such as Google and Facebook and actually fined them for their crimes and misdemeanours. Can the EU be reformed? With progressive forces acting from within, it can be pulled into a more socially useful direction. It is a union, a sum of its parts – and if those parts are progressive, socialist, there is hope. The most ardent and effective anti-EU lobby, whatever some Lexiters might like to fantasize, is now thoroughly dominated by the nationalist Far Right and its elite puppeteers. The ‘sovereignty’ on offer is such a long way away from democracy it’s become a sick joke. This is the political reality we are living in. I don’t think your rather arcane debate really captured that.