What the EU has done for us

It’s an unfortunate aspect of Welsh life that only about 10 per cent of our people buy an indigenous daily newspaper. It speaks volumes for the difficulty of conducting a serious debate about matters that affect Wales, and not least the debate on the European Union.

Most people in Wales read newspapers published in London and these give scant attention to Welsh interests. More than 80 per cent of them are owned by right wing anti-EU billionaires: the Sun, Times, and Sunday Times by Rupert Murdoch, an Australian living in New York; the Telegraph by the Barclay brothers who live in tax havens in Monaco and Guernsey; the Mail by Lord Rothermere who lives in France; and the Express and Star by Richard Desmond who built his empire on the foundation of the soft porn business.

 

Media baron Rupert Murdoch campaigning for Brexit from New York

In the coming months all these papers will be conducting a noisy and strident campaign in favour of our leaving the EU. You can bet your life that none of them will give close attention to the following benefits that have resulted from our EU membership:

• Providing 57 per cent of the UK’s trade with the rest of the world
• The structural funds that have been vital in the regeneration of west Wales and the Valleys.
• Regulations that have underpinned our clean beaches and rivers in Pembrokeshire.
• Cleaner air.
• Lead free petrol.
• Restrictions on landfill dumping.
• Promotion of a recycling culture.
• Cheaper mobile charges.
• Cheaper air travel.
• Improved consumer protection and food labelling.
• A ban on growth hormones and other harmful food additives.
• Better product safety.
• Single market competition bringing quality improvements and better industrial performance;
• The break up of monopolies.
• Europe-wide patent and copyright protection.
• No paperwork or customs for exports throughout the single market.
• Price transparency and removal of commission on currency exchanges across the Eurozone.
• Freedom to travel, live and work across Europe.
• Funded opportunities for young people to undertake study or work placements abroad.
• Access to European health services.
• Labour protection and enhanced social welfare.
• Smoke-free workplaces.
• Equal pay legislation.
• Holiday entitlement.
• The right not to work more than a 48-hour week without overtime.
• Strongest wildlife protection in the world.
• Improved animal welfare in food production.
• EU-funded research and industrial collaboration.
• EU representation in international forums.
• EU diplomatic efforts to uphold the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
• European arrest warrant.
• Cross border policing to combat human trafficking, arms and drug smuggling; counter terrorism intelligence.
• European civil and military co-operation in post-conflict zones in Europe and Africa.
• Support for democracy and human rights across Europe and beyond.

But for me all this is as nothing compared with the EU’s role in providing more than 60 years of peace between European neighbours after centuries of bloodshed. Not only that the EU has assisted the extraordinary political, social and economic transformation of 13 former dictatorships, now EU members, since 1980. But, as I say, we can expect to hear none of this from the mainly foreign-owned London press.