Chin up or chexit? Charities and the EU referendum

06 Apr 2016 Voices

Ian Allsop gives his sage advice on how you should vote in the EU referendum.

Ian Allsop gives his sage advice on how you should vote in the EU referendum.

I know it is what everyone has been waiting for. Which way am I voting in the EU referendum? Before I reveal anything I should make it clear that any views expressed in the following paragraphs are my personal opinion (or as I like to call it, my opinion), and do not represent the official position of Charity Finance.

Also I don’t want to fall foul of any regulatory guidance, confused or otherwise, about what I can or cannot do in terms of campaigning, so I will try to set out both sides of the argument in an impartial fashion (as most other people haven’t), before leaving you to read between the lines and deduce that we should certainly, without question, stay in. Or get out. But definitely the former.

Personality politics

Aside from me, how certain people are voting has become central to the whole muddied, confused debate – the cult of personality trumping (more on him next month) anything as trivial as facts. If I was in any doubt about which way I am leaning then the news that Boris, Gove, Mensch, Dorries, Patel, Grayling and IDS are all on the side of leave should pretty much seal the deal.

But then Jeremy Hunt says we should stay. As does Clarkson, and I expect Beadle would have as well, were he alive. But only as a prank. And new friend of the column Matthew Hancock also supports remain.

So we are back to square one. If it were based on this alone I would want both sides to lose.

(For the record I don’t think Rob Wilson has publicly stated a preference either way, although I expect he would favour any outcome that boosted social investment.)

Let us try to look at the facts. On one hand, if we leave we will have greater prospects of economic growth and increased security.

On the other, if we remain, we will have greater prospects of economic growth and increased security. Which is the main problem. No one really knows one way or the other. Now I am no economic expert. But then neither is Boris Johnson or countless other people who are leading the debate, on both sides.

Boris. Who accuses the remain side of scaremongering while using the phrase “agents of project fear”, which is possibly one of the most scaremongery things ever. If scaremonger was a profession, like ironmonger or fishmonger, more jobs would already have been created by this referendum than the number each side is claiming will be lost if we make the “wrong” decision.

I said earlier I am no economic expert. Which isn’t strictly true, if a 2:1 from Essex in economics is to be believed. I even wrote a paper on the common agricultural policy, but I am finding distant memories of butter mountains and wine lakes is of no use now.

The sector perspective

Perhaps I should look at this from a charity point of view. Will leaving the EU make any difference to the sector? Clearly many beneficiaries will be affected by any worsening in the socio-economic environment, but as we don’t really know which decision will prompt that, it is hard to plan on that basis.

I suspect the outcome might not actually make that much difference either way, at least in the short term. Most people will struggle as they always have, and whether they are governed by faceless bureaucrats in Brussels or home-grown selfinterested overlords is neither here nor there. Is it more patriotic to be shafted by one of your own?

From a professional point of view, as I compile the technical briefing section of Charity Finance, I know that quite a lot of interesting copy stems from decisions made on VAT or employment legislation in Europe. If we were to lose those, then I think Charity Finance would be worse off. So on that basis (and all the other thinly-veiled ones above) I am starting the campaign for “charities in”, or “chin”.

One thing I think we can all agree on is that Brexit is a dreadful term. It is symptomatic of the creeping portmanteauing of the language (portmanguage) – otherwise known as the Brangelina effect.

But if that is the way it has to be, and if I am saying charities should be on the side of remain, then we must all support chin rather than chout or chexit – because whatever happens, the chin is where the sector will have to take it. As usual.

Ian Allsop is a freelance editor and journalist, and regular contributor to Charity Finance

 

More on