With the in or out vote in the near future I realise that I need to learn a lot more about the EU but the discussions I’ve listened to thus far are invariably partisan. Are there any any books that present a balanced view?

Why don’t you read several partisan books to get a balanced view?

I would have thought that a purely factual unbiased book on the EU won’t provide you with the critical/compelling arguments that you want to hear.

i agree, its a bit like reading the Guardian and the Telegraph every day should give you a fairly even idea what is going on in the world

Also my unbaised is another persons radical right /left wing bias – so I guess read as much as you can from loads of diff sources

I think an impartial civil servant should write a document detailing the case each way.

Its insane that someone like me with no strong background in economics or law has to work it out for myself if people in government with Oxbridge double firsts can’t decide.

I have trouble sleeping too.

I think an impartial civil servant

Such a person does not exist, it would have the ‘service’ bias applied with it’s love of order and not rocking the boat. (Dependent on who or what ideas are currently in favour at the time of writing).
To avoid this a committee would be appointed which would publish sometime in the ’20’s.

Its insane that someone like me with no strong background in economics or law has to work it out for myself if people in government with Oxbridge double firsts can’t decide.

Every five years the British people have to decide which political party has the best economic policies.

And you would struggle not to find an expert on law and order who could advise the Home Secretary in any UK pub.

I’m not sure that the EU referendum will pose a greater challenge.

Plus of course we also vote every 5 years to decide how we would like the European Parliament to look like, although admittedly as the EU is a thoroughly undemocratic organisation it’s all a completely pointless window dressing PR exercise.

All the big parties broadly agree on how to run the economy and most of the big issues so the electorate can’t get it badly wrong. (Although they did in Germany 80 odd years back.)

In contrast EU membership is a big call and going the wrong way could (perhaps) have a big impact.

so the electorate can’t get it badly wrong

That’s not a universally held opinion.

Good question OP

Amazon “European Union” and there are good immediate suggestions. Bootle and Charter are both interesting (albeit leaning to one side)

The whole referendum issue is absurd because it is taking place in the context of no one addressing the elephant in the room. The current structure doesnt work and cannot work by design. You cannot have monetary union without fiscal union and all that this implies. So that is the choice. The rest (and most of what CMD is debating) is simply noise.

But those who serve us will not present us with the correct question to debate or the correct info on which to make it sadly. It will be a depressing build up dominated by rel extreme views and deceit.

Firstly, there is no such thing as an unbiased account, of anything, ever. The best you can hope for is to read several accounts, understand the reasons and level of each ones bias, and draw your own conclusions, which will of course be biased, but at least they’ll be yours, and hopefully fairly informed.

Secondly, it’s far too complicated for anybody to tell you what the outcome will be. If anyone claims to know what will happen if we leave or don’t leave, then it’s fairly safe to assume they’re an idiot. There are lots of things that are likely, or possible, but there’s a huge amount of guesswork because nobody can possibly know what agreements might replace our membership, or what directions the rest of the EU might take in the future.

Just had a quick skim of the Pinder book tha comes up in Amazon. Very short and starts with obvious points about durable peace. At the end of the day the EU is a (well meaning) political construct that flies in the face of fundamental economics – hence the on-going trials and tribulations. The politics are more interesting to read as the economics is rather dry.

But in terms of the dry stuff simply google optimum currency areas and think about what is required to achieve a sustainable monetary union. Then if you are convinced by that argument consider how and why monetary and fiscal union need to go hand in hand (google mark carney on the matter) and then decide on whether that is a good idea or not. This simple stuff will not appear on the Brexit debate sadly but is fundamental.

I hate agreeing with THM but…

The current structure doesnt work and cannot work by design. You cannot have monetary union without fiscal union and all that this implies.

…is about right.

If course the Germans running the economy might not be a bad thing – other opinions will differ.

Lots of pluses and minuses but overall France and Germany not tearing each other apart every 30 years and Britain not feeling that you’re not allowed a European war without us joining in – that’s been quite good.

In your second post THM, given the UK didn’t join the Euro, surely it’s arguable that the monetary/fiscal debate is less relevant to us except in where it might lead other countries to go.

Agree with THM about monetary union – Greece being the obvious showcase for all the flaws – but is monetary union what the referendum is about?

How many people really get that worked up about the eu? It annoys me that all this time and effort is being spent on it to placate a minority of the Tory party. All the real issues going on in the world. It feels like a worry of the priveliged. I dream of a time in my life when all of got left to worry about is the eu.

Alot of people get worked up about the EU, and unfortunately most are uniformed. But one thing that any book is unlikely to cover is the sheer corruption of the EU. It makes Blatter look like a cheeky scamp. That for me is a problem and something that needs to be exposed. People think we have an issue with ‘The Establishment’ and an old boys network in the UK government – it’s nothing compared to what goes on in Brussels.

But one thing that any book is unlikely to cover is the sheer corruption of the EU. It makes Blatter look like a cheeky scamp.

Why is that……..because making such allegations in print would be libellous?

Perhaps you could write the book yourself?

You would be as well to buy and undergraduate book on EU law that sets out the principle treaties, history, case law etc.

I truly fear an exit for my country, Wales, which relies quite heavily on the EU.

I truly fear an exit for my country, Wales, which relies quite heavily on the EU.

Why, what’s wrong with Wales?

Exactly Ernie, so in the absence of actually knowing what the EU is and how it works, how is anyone expected to make a binary in/out decision without being fully informed. I think it’s relevant. It’s going to be a bloodbath of spin and counter spin, pointless statistics being traded leaving us completely bamboozled, no mater how many newspaper articles or books we read.

Bad Europe …tons of spongers coming over here.
Good Europe …we can go and live in Spain and buy cheap booze.
That will be the Sun readers dilemma.

so in the absence of actually knowing what the EU is and how it works

It’s not exactly rocket science. What do you want to know?

No such book.

Besides social, political and economical arguments there is something a reality will not and do not want to face up to or has simply ignore out of deliberate action or lack of knowledge due ignorance and greed – I am talking about Bureaucracy, as advocated by Karl Emil Maximilian “Max” Weber.

Yes, there come a point you need to stop the enlargement of the institution like EU.

No, the people will not turn into refugee over night and no, your children will not starve nor we will be destroyed by some fanatic psychos.

Remember if you choose to enlarge the system and be totally integrated then you deserve what you get good or bad. You will feel mostly good if you can be ignorant of your surroundings.

The rise of the machine (administrative machine that is) is already right in front of us but we just don’t see it nor want to acknowledge it or simply have the ability (knowledge) to see it. The machine I am referring to is the organisation that cannot be challenged nor be responsible for it’s action. Powered by administrative machine that does not feel.

Everyone (advocates) that talks of becoming full EU member does not really know this utopia is not that easy to get off once on because the machine is very powerful and intelligent unlike the people that work in them nor you who vote in. I stop here … 😯

As always … I see them coming.

At the end of the day the EU is a (well meaning) political construct that flies in the face of fundamental economics – hence the on-going trials and tribulations.

Isnt that more to do with the euro than the EU itself?

I think we used:

Craig and De Burca

Chalmers

Both fairly heavy-going legal texts, which manage to make the institutional stuff and the arguments about democratic deficit rather more boring than they appear to be in the press. Which is no bad thing.

Whether a lengthy account of the treaties, institutions, institutional behaviour, the court’s jurisprudence etc. is really sufficient or what anyone honestly wants in dealing with this referendum is highy questionable, of course.

🙂

Thanks for the input all, looks like I’ve got some really boring reading ahead of me.

Yes AA, but going forward the two cannot be separated. Sadly IMO as I am pro Europe but anti €

OP Chapeau for having the fortitude to subject yourself to such a read. As above most such books are going to be written by journalists of historians and will naturally have a degree of opinion. You may find an academic economics text ? I would counter with the view that what has happened in the past may not really going to tell you what might happen in the future with the EU.

You might try this Cambridge Press although I can’t help thinking there are better things to spend £45 on 😯