Leave or remain? That’s what we Brits are being asked to
decide on, and very soon.
I’ve just finished applying for a Visa Waiver for my wife to
visit her daughter & family in the USA. It’s called an ESTA and I could
feel the will to leave sapping away as each page completed revealed another one
to do. “They” wanted her name history, parental information, employment
history, all current and previous passports, contact addresses and residential
addresses. “They” declared that there was no guarantee of privacy before asking
such questions as “have you ever been involved in genocide or drug dealing” (I
felt like answering “yes, against flies and mosquitos” and “yes, I was a barman
at Uni” but haven’t noticed a great sense of humour exhibited by homeland
security) … and this is to waive the
need for applying for a visa!
We’ve forgotten that travelling around Europe has become so
much simpler and less bureaucratic with the EU. Show your passport and that’s
it. But if we leave? At the end of my first year at University, I travelled a
little in Europe. France (Paris), Spain (Barcelona) and Germany
(Kaiserslautern) were all on the itinerary. Spain was not then part of the EU.
French trains could not run on Spanish rails, and vice versa, as the gauge, (the
distance between the two rails), was different in the two countries. Crossing
the border between Spain and France took a good two hours. We had to leave the train from Barcelona just before
Perpignan, take our bags and passports through to French customs. Finally, when
all passengers had gone through, we boarded another train and got on our way to
Paris. Years later I took the same trip and on that second trip, I boarded a
TGV at Barcelona Sants station, crossed the border without stopping, alighted at
Gare de Lyon and walked straight to the Metro. Spain had joined the EU, so
passport, customs, and border checks had been made redundant and Spain had at
long last allowed standard gauge to be used for high-speed international trains
– originally they’d built railways with a different gauge “to make it more
difficult for French invaders to use the railways”.
As for health, no worries now as EU members have to offer
reciprocal services. Something we would lose if we left the EU.
I want Britain to remain in Europe because I don’t want to
waste hours and even days of my life filling in forms just to go on holiday or
make a business trip. More, I’m sure there are better ways for my personal holiday
and business travel budgets to be spent than paying for people to make
travelling longer, more costly and more difficult.
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