Thursday 27 June 2013

The answer to the Ultimate Question of Europe: 42

We all know what would be Eurosceptics’ answer to a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union: “no”. But what is the question?

The question of the question has been raised by Liberal Democrat MEP Andrew Duff, who asks what kind of EU would Britain be choosing to stay in or leave. He points out that, if David Cameron gets his way and there is a referendum in 2017, by then the EU will have changed.

As in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, where the answer to “the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything” was 42 but nobody knew the question, so Eurosceptics have an answer but no question.

As Duff says, if you want to resolve this issue favourably, it is better to get engaged in the argument within the EU about the sort of EU we want and the fundamental reforms currently being debated, instead of standing on the sidelines obsessing about an answer to which there is as yet no question.

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