Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin - Is Leaving The EU Worth It？

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May 26, 2019 - Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin

12:39

Is Leaving The EU Worth It？

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	What's your name, sir?
	I'm Dan.
	Dan.
	Nice to meet you.
	Nice to meet you, Dan.
	And what would you like to talk about?
	I'm a student from Warwick.
	I completely disagree with everything you say.
	Oh, fans.
	No, no, that's fantastic.
	I saw one of your videos.
	Thank you so much for coming up and talking.
	And I know it's nerve-wracking, but I'm sure everyone's going to be very kind, and I'm not going to be aggressive with you.
	I'd love to have a conversation.
	You have to make sure that's pointing at your mouth, though.
	My big concern about leaving the EU and all that is we are currently undergoing massive climate change, undeniably.
	And how do you feel leaving the EU is actually going to do anything to help our deteriorating climate?
	I don't think it's going to change our perspective on the climate whatsoever.
	I don't think it's going to have anything to do with this subject.
	I'm not an expert on the climate change subject, so I don't want to go into the science of it.
	But as I understand it, most of the pollutants that are produced are produced in China and India.
	And America.
	And America, is it right?
	But these are countries we have no control over.
	So I'm not really sure what we can do about this from our perspective.
	From a local perspective, what I think we can do is try and get unnecessary plastic waste out of the environment.
	I think that'd be fantastic.
	I mean, the last thing I want to see is plastic bottles floating down the river here, you know.
	So I'm totally for that.
	They're not biodegradable and they create microplastics.
	So I'm all for getting rid of unnecessary plastic in our lives.
	I think that's a great idea.
	I'd love to go to wood and glass and fabric and things like this.
	Things that won't damage the environment.
	I think that's a fantastic idea.
	And we can do that without saying, oh, mankind is evil, mankind is evil, you know?
	So I think that's a positive step forward.
	What do you think to that?
	How do you think leaving the EU, though, like this massive power block, and then we can talk to China, can talk to America and get them to do something is going to help in any way?
	I think we can talk to them without being a part of the EU.
	I don't see why not.
	We're the fifth biggest economy.
	I mean, we're not the powerless, weak, helpless country that for some reason the Remain narrative portrays us as.
	And the European Union, like, it's not a stable power block.
	It's actually really unstable.
	It's actually, I mean, if I was in charge of it, I would think it was falling apart.
	You know, when the second biggest net contributor decides they're leaving, that's a massive problem.
	I mean, there are going to be huge tax hikes to cover our deficit.
	What was it, somewhere, 8 billion a year that's the net contribution that we make?
	That's going to have to come off the German, French and Italian taxpayers' back.
	And I'm sure that the French, I'm sure you're aware, are still protesting about the fuel tax hikes.
	So how are they going to feel when they're told, well, actually, you're going to have to pay an extra bit out of your wages to cover what England's not or Britain's not paying for the European Union?
	How are the Germans going to like it?
	They're about to dip into a recession.
	You know, this is an untenable project, and I don't think it can go on forever.
	And in fact, there was a study done, it was released, I think, three days ago now, that found that something like 58% of people in the EU think that the EU won't last another 20 years.
	So I'm thinking, well, it's not about whether we want to leave.
	It's like, what are we going to remain in?
	And I just don't see it as being a stable thing.
	But all the research and all these important things that come out of the EU that we don't see, for example, like my university is completely funded by the European Union, essentially.
	It's probably not completely funded.
	And Tata still.
	Hang on a second.
	How much do I pay in student fees?
	£9,000 a year?
	Yeah, it sounds like you pay for it.
	No, the EU funds the research grants.
	Well, yeah, for research grants, but that's not their money either.
	That's our money.
	pay for that and there's no particular I honestly can't see a particular reason why any of the countries say the EU disappeared tomorrow why couldn't we just contact the French and Germans and say hi we'd like to set up an international research cooperative Why couldn't we do that?
	Why do we need to have directives handed down from Brussels to do that?
	Because it's really hard to just go to another country and just research when you have to get through passports, visas, and all this stuff.
	Getting a passport's easy and getting a visa is easy.
	Yeah, but it just makes it that extra piece of work that we don't need to do.
	Yeah, but that's really easy.
	For self-rule, I think that's a worthy price.
	I really do.
	I really think it is.
	You want to sell out the sovereignty of the country for slightly more convenience when applying to go somewhere else.
	But we're not selling out our sovereign treaty.
	We can do what we want.
	What can't we do under the EU?
	Well, okay, well, Article 13 is going to destroy the internet access, the social media access that you have at the moment.
	I mean, that's a directive that's coming down from the EU specifically as an attack on Silicon Valley.
	And I'm the last person who wants to defend Silicon Valley, but it's unjust what they're trying to do.
	You can't say that Facebook is a publisher for everything that someone puts on it.
	It's unfair.
	They've got two and a half billion users.
	That's unreal, isn't it?
	But that's something the EU is doing, and that's something that's going to affect all of Europe.
	And the thing is, they've tried doing this before.
	They've tried doing it with Google's news aggregator in Germany and Spain to try and essentially suck money out of Silicon Valley again.
	And so Google just left Germany and Spain.
	I don't think they're actually returned their news aggregation to Spain either.
	I think they've just left.
	So that's a service now that people in Spain can't even access, thanks to the EU.
	That's not making their lives better, is it?
	It's one of those things where it's like, I hate this kind of top-down centralized rule because the people who do it, A, not brilliant.
	They're not the sort of genius technocrats that I know that people like to believe that they are.
	And so that means that they don't really have a good working knowledge of how the regular people on the ground actually live and how actually experience the world around them.
	Do you think our people in Westminster have any better ideas?
	No, I'm all for devolution.
	I want as much power taken away from Westminster and returned to local areas as possible.
	I don't like this kind of centralization, this push towards centralization.
	I think it does alienate people and it does disenfranchise them.
	But then how are we meant to deal with these massive problems we have, like the global warming?
	Well, what can we do about it?
	What can Britain do about global warming?
	We can reduce our, like...
	But we're not responsible for it.
	It's America, China, and India, isn't it?
	They're the real causes of global warming and of all climate change and pollution.
	So it didn't matter if we went entirely green tomorrow, the problem would still carry on as if we essentially did nothing.
	Okay.
	So what do we do?
	Well, we need to negotiate from a position of power and we have more power with more money, more weight, more sort of people.
	Bigger organization, China are going to listen to the EU.
	China aren't going to listen to 80 million people.
	I think there are alternatives.
	I mean, for example, we have a close relationship with the United States and the Commonwealth.
	This is a large block that we can take advantage of, that we can use as leverage, if that's the thing you're concerned about.
	And I don't see why we wouldn't.
	And they wouldn't demand that they govern us remotely.
	They wouldn't do that.
	So why can't we do that?
	That sounds like a really strong foot forward.
	And especially if we get even closer with the United States, if they are, I mean, I'm not sure about the statistics.
	I'll just assume that you've done your research.
	If the United States is a major polluter in this region, then we can start putting pressure on them.
	We can start just advising them and saying, listen, you've got to start listening to this thing.
	We can actually start actually having an effect.
	And then once we persuade the Americans, well, they're deeply interconnected economically with the Chinese.
	Maybe they can start putting pressure on the Chinese.
	But I really don't think the European Union has a future.
	So I think it's wise for us to get out, man.
	I think it's too late for the European Union's future because we've left.
	But I think if we do remain for some reason, I think the European Union is better for us.
	But that's my personal opinion.
	What's better about it then?
	I'm really curious.
	It's just the way that everything's done.
	It's all centralised, as in everyone has to follow this policy.
	I agree the UK would probably adopt most of these policies, but countries like Hungary and all these other countries which are developing economically, we can have a huge effect over to make sure that they undergo these policies that are really good for the world.
	See, that seems tyrannical to me.
	It really seems tyrannical to have a group of bureaucrats in Brussels who are not elected by the people of Hungary dictating what the Hungarians have to do.
	I mean, I was actually in the parliament where Victor Orban was called up and they were interrogating him.
	And they were calling him a dictator.
	And it was literally people who had never won an election to the European Parliament.
	The younger types calling an elected representative of a country a dictator.
	And I was just like, this is clown world.
	This is totally backwards.
	These people are not elected and yet they're calling an elected representative a dictator.
	I agree.
	It's not perfect, but it's better that we're in it than we're outside of it just whinging, doing nothing.
	Well, why would we be whinging, doing nothing, and in debt?
	Like, why wouldn't we be prosperous?
	Why wouldn't we be able to cut taxes and encourage business growth?
	I mean, we could do that, but it's not going to like our closest trade neighbour, France, like, we can't trade with them on a good deal because they're a part of the EU and they're not going to be happy with us.
	And evidently, that's going well at the moment.
	Yeah, but we'll just trade with other people.
	I mean, for example, the Irish economy is in real danger of no deal because South America is lining up to give us beef and cheese, which is what we get from the Irish.
	we don't want South American beef and cheese.
	Why not?
	Because it's, like, the way in which he's...
	He's joking, he's joking, he's joking.
	He doesn't think you're a racist.
	The way in which it's produced is completely backward.
	like the rainforest they completely like destroy the rainforest mate yeah but that's brazil We're talking about Argentina.
	Well, no, no, but this is the thing.
	It's Argentina in particular that want to sell us.
	And, you know, I mean, I don't know if I want to trade with the Argentinians.
	You know, they're going to try and get the Falcons off of.
	And when Jeremy Corbyn gets in government, he'll probably give them back.
	When I say give them back, they never owned it.
	But anyway, but the point is, there is a big world out there, and we can set the standards ourselves, because I agree.
	I mean, we don't want low-quality food, but there are definitely unnecessary restrictions on what we can and can't do from the European Union.
	And again, I think it comes from a real position of privilege.
	Like the chlorine-washed chicken.
	I didn't know anything about chlorine-washed chicken, but I heard the scarce.
	Oh, God, they washed their chicken in chlorine.
	That must be poisonous.
	And it's like, well, millions of people in America eat this chicken every day, and there isn't a massive health problem.
	All it is, it literally is a wash to kill a bunch of bacteria, and then it's rinsed off.
	Chlorine's not the problem with the chicken.
	It's appalling conditions that you can leave the animals in because you chlorinate it.
	That's the problem with the chicken.
	But that's not how it's promoted in the media.
	That's the thing.
	It's promoted as if it's going to be a health danger, a health risk to the public.
	And it's just nonsense.
	I mean, you can say, well, I morally object to the way they raise the chickens.
	And you should follow your conscience when you're purchasing things.
	I mean, I would buy free-range chicken.
	I wouldn't buy chicken that had been stuck in ridiculous cages and stuff like this.
	But it's not the same as the scare stories that, oh, you're going to get poisoned with chlorine and things, is it?
	Yeah, I agree.
	The media does hype things up.
	But the laws are in the EU for a reason.
	There are laws like that for a reason to stop people abusing animals like they do in America.
	And I'm kind of glad that they're there.
	And I don't know why we would want to leave them.
	The problem I have is that where's the line of principled opposition to where it stops?
	Because when I went to the European Union, they were legislating the length of candle wicks.
	And I mean, if they're going to go down, I mean, that to me, that seems like the candle maker's job.
	I don't think that they need, I don't think a bureaucrat in Brussels needs to actually tell people how long the candle wick has to be in their candles.
	And this is the thing.
	When you've got a group of very well-paid bureaucrats whose job it is to essentially fix the continent and make it the place that they think will be perfect, then they don't see anything outside of that purview.
	They say, Candlemakers, you must make wicks this long.
	I mean, that is just a ridiculous waste of money.
	And I find that to be an intrusive way of doing things as well.
	If I was a candlemaker, I'd be like, no, I'll make the candles to the length I think is appropriate.
	And I don't need some guy in Brussels telling me how it should be done.
	I mean, I don't know about that.
	No, no, but it's the principle of the thing.
	You know, it's like, well, why do they get to determine every single minute aspect of your life?
	Well, I don't think they do.
	I think there's obviously my opinion on it is I can still do pretty much what I want, but I can't make chlorinated chicken and a few other things that I don't really mind.
	So I kind of think I'm happy to sacrifice this in exchange for the ability to, you know, have sort of more sort of pressure on America, China, India to, you know, continue with climate change and all these other things that the European Union is.
	Well, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.
	Thank you very much.
	Thank you very much.

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