I've been thinking this evening about how we approach campaigning for Europe and I think we need a shift in strategy - a shift from gratitude to pride. Let's take a look /1
The common theme of most past pro-EU campaigns, whatever form they've taken, has been to try and explain to people how the EU has benefited them, their region, their country etc. /2
It's very much been a 'what has the EU done for us' approach. And while this has its merits, I think we're running out of steam and we can't go much further with this approach alone /3
There's two problems as I see it. First, these arguments are all a bit tired in format. Sure, we change the names, change the numbers, but the structure is basically the same and so our opponents' answers are already prepared. Even if we're right, it's beyond dull for most /4
Second, trying to make people feel gratitude for something that is provided by organisations is not something that is obviously effective. Infamously at the national level, voters tend not to reward past achievements - why should the EU be different? /5
When we listen to people's complaints, it's not even as if people are (normally) saying that the EU doesn't do anything. What they're more likely to say is that it feels distant and alien /6
So how do we remedy that? Well, this is where pride should be the aim over gratitude. The UK has done lots of things in Europe to make it the way it is today. Heck, we helped drive the creation of the entire Single Market but good luck finding Brits that actually know this /7
It was also Britain that led on establishing more support for regions, the need for European social policies, promoting environmentalism, various reforms to EU budgeting, eastward enlargement, the recent rash of free trade deals, and early moves in common EU foreign policy /8
Even our departing Commissioner, Julian King, who only came into the job after the referendum, has been immensely important in setting up the Security Union, winning the respect of fellow EU states in pushing to defend Europe from cybercrime and leading the debate on Huawei /9
These are all British achievements and we can list more. They are ways in which the EU that exists today has been fundamentally shaped by Britain. It is wrong to pine for a British Europe because the truth is it exists already /10
If we want to make Europe feel closer, we need to talk about these achievements and get Brits to feel that we own these things, that they have our name on them and that we therefore have a stake in the European project /11
For the many people who feel British most of all, convincing them to feel European will be the work of a lifetime and in many cases the only real shift will come with a new generation /12
But what we can do is to make Europe feel more British and to close the identity gap through that route /13
There are two more advantages to this approach: first, we can avoid the minefield of trying to tell people to feel grateful while also trying to avoid being patronising and infantalising people. This balance is often not well managed so steering clear is probably best /14
Second, it's an approach that is fundamentally patriotic. These are our achievements, our Commissioners, our politicians, our diplomats, our civil servants, our history - good luck call it all worthless. The only people 'talking Britain down' won't be us in this framing /15
Moving from gratitude to pride runs the risk of empowering exceptionalism but really at this point could that aspect be any worse anyway? So long as we can't undo the exceptionalist attitude entirely then we might as well repurpose it /16
Of course this is all just a suggestion but it's at least the kind of conversation we should be having /end
@APHClarkson @KeohaneDan @duncanrobinson @paperghost @nosemonkey @SheRa_Marley @Otto_English something for everyone here I think
