 |
| View of Førde, Norway (Image from newwinemusic.wordpress) |
I spent my recent annual leave in Norway. During this eight-day stay, I visited the wonderful city of Bergen and resided in the small village of Alversund, 40-minutes drive from the renowned world heritage city. I explored the charming fjords in addition to walking across peaceful forests and communicating with accommodating people who speak admirably fluent English - some spoke better English than I ever will.
My week away was a week well-spent and rest was exactly what I needed, and at the right destination - even if the weather wasn't as warm and dry as the heatwave witnessed in the UK over the recent weeks. However, it is not the weather I wish to discuss.
Earlier this month, the British parliament passed on a bill that will enable people of the United Kingdom to have a say on whether the country will stay or exit the European Union. Should this bill be approved by an MP select committee, the referendum should take place by 2017. In this vote at the House of Commons, all 304 politicians who attended the vote, voted in favour of the bill - a significant majority of which were Tories while a small number were Labour "rebels". No Liberal Democrat MP turned up to vote for this bill although it isn't guaranteed they would still be in support of a referendum should the MP select committee say otherwise.
The reason why 304 politicians took such action was because they aren't happy with the current situation in Europe and Brussels (capital city of Europe). Since the global recession five years ago, countries such as Greece have been bailed out, crisis discussions between the most powerful of European nations (including UK) conclude with little agreement about budgeting and so on, while unemployment levels across the continent is embarrassingly high. The latter may have eased ever so slightly in recent months but that hasn't stopped Eurosceptics from emphasising the Union's faults.
The anti-Euro brigade has spread across the UK with campaigns from newspapers like The Daily Express treating the EU like it's some bug from an "I'm a Celebrity... Get Me out of Here" bush tucker trial. "We are Brits, get us out of the EU," I can hear them cry. It is a popular paper that has a certain amount of influence on the British public which provoke them to be critics of the way the Union is run. Despite all of this, I don't think people know why we should exit the EU. There is a sense of a lack of reasoning behind people's anger. We have been a member for almost 40-years, why complain now?
I consider myself to be well-travelled in the European scene. I have visited France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Denmark and Sweden before - they are all part of the European Union and there seems to be a collective agreement that they are somewhat satisfied by their position in the EU at present. Some people in the UK have voiced their concern and want to join Norway and Switzerland, who do not rely on support and funding from the European Union.
I was in Norway recently, as I mentioned a little earlier, and even though I have never been to Switzerland, I can only imagine both nations have their similarities. Not only are both countries financially comfortable, but you can also sense that overall satisfaction around you - well, I felt the positivity in the Norwegian anyway. In simpler terms, Norway is in a completely different world to the UK.
The United Kingdom for a start is heavily urbanised with cities expanding all the time. The economic focus has always been on international investors coming to the country offering opportunities to young people and helping British businesses to keep their head above deep waters. Britain is highly reliant on support from abroad, especially after the recent economic troubles. In Norway however, almost everything is kept Norwegian - international investments are rare and once they do come, the Norwegians wouldn't really give a damn about it. However, saying that, immigration is increasing in the country - a notion which is more welcomed there than it will ever be in the UK.
In addition, Norway is very rural. I visited a summer house six hours drive away from Bergen during my time in the country and during this lengthy journey, I only saw very little villages. If I passed a town, the size of it would have been seen as a village in the UK - for example, the town of Førde has a population of just over 12,000 people. For me anyway, the countryside experience was a complete culture shock. But it's also important to point that perhaps Norway doesn't need urbanising. They have their own resources and don't really feel the need to expand places like Bergen, Oslo or Stavanger.
Also, Norway is an incredibly expensive country. I noticed this when I last visited the nation in 2008 but my awareness this time around is much greater compared to five years ago. For example, I ordered a Chicken McNugget meal from McDonalds - in the UK, I usually pay in the region of £6. In Norway, I paid 115,- which is equivalent to £13. For me, that's a ludicrous amount of money, but to Norwegians, this is normal. Their average wage is almost double to what we get in Britain. It is clear the people in Norway live comfortable.
Let's put it this way, cleaners in Norway get around £13-per-hour while I was told taxi drivers receive around £25 an hour "on a bad day". I can only imagine Switzerland being the same as it is widely known that cities Zurich, Bern and Geneva are among the most expensive in the world. In addition, Switzerland is also geographically very rural and I can imagine their local businesses aren't feeling the pinch.
Dreaming is healthy but we need to be realistic. What the British government need to start doing is be inspired by Norway and Switzerland rather than getting too flirtatious with China and Japan. It's good to encourage international investments but it would only prove that we are too reliant on foreign money. If we really are to leave the European Union, we need to change our attitudes both morally and politically. If we really want to leave the EU by 2017, I suggest we change these attitudes today. But for now, it is best to remain in the EU until we find the level of economic growth where it can allow a country of over sixty-million to stand on our own two feet without relying on Brussels. Running away now would be too risky.
Comments
Post a Comment