Morality and the EU Referendum
Moral Maze
BBC
4.4 • 623 Ratings
🗓️ 17 March 2016
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Claim and counter claim in the EU referendum debate have filled the air waves and packed the papers and there are still 14 weeks left to the actual vote. The atmosphere is already highly charged and the political stakes couldn't be much higher. The way we vote on June 23rd will have profound implications for generations to come. We've heard a lot about the political and economic arguments that we should consider when casting that vote, but what are the moral considerations? Is preserving our national cultural identity behind strict border controls a moral priority? Do we have a wider duty as good citizens of Europe and the world? Is fear of immigration and fear of an uncertain economic future a defendable moral position? Is it a moral argument to say our choice should be a utilitarian calculation of where we personally and as a nation will be financially better off? Is sovereignty the moral trump card? Morality and the EU referendum. Chaired by Michael Buerk with Melanie Phillips, Michael Portillo, Matthew Taylor and Anne McElvoy. Witnesses are Anthony O'Hear, Kirsty Hughes, Brian Denny and Sebastian Farquhar.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to a programme from BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:04.3 | Good evening. Our leaders have always tried to dress up politics as morality, |
| 0:08.2 | to persuade us that a vote for them as a vote for the post-enlightenment virtues we hold, |
| 0:12.0 | or ought to hold dear, liberty, equality, democracy and truth, |
| 0:15.9 | that the issues at stake are at heart simple, a choice between good and bad. |
| 0:20.1 | So it is with the European referendum |
| 0:21.9 | still months away. The political and economic arguments already sound repetitive and stale. |
| 0:27.2 | The fight for the moral high ground, though, is intense. Is it morally acceptable to make this |
| 0:32.4 | judgment on a solely utilitarian basis, to try to work out which way leaves us better off |
| 0:37.4 | and go for that? |
| 0:39.0 | Is it morally superior to protect our national cultural identity behind strong borders and |
| 0:43.6 | strict immigration controls? Or is it better to cede some powers in the interests of |
| 0:48.2 | cooperation and harmony in a Europe torn and blooded by two world wars? Or is the crucial moral test, sovereignty, self-determination? |
| 0:57.2 | What's right is what gives us the greatest control over our own affairs. |
| 1:02.1 | Simple, of course, it is not, but we'll try to pick our way through it in tonight's moral maze. |
| 1:06.8 | Our panel, Melanie Phillips, social commentator on the Times, |
| 1:09.1 | Anne McClevoy, senior editor on The Economist, |
| 1:11.7 | the former Conservative Cabinet Minister Michael Portillo, |
| 1:14.1 | and Tony Blair's former chief political advisor, Matthew Taylor. |
| 1:17.2 | And McClevoy, what's your, I'm going to ask you which way you think you're going to vote, |
| 1:21.0 | but what's your moral touchstone in the referendum argument? |
| 1:24.5 | Well, one of the things that the economist has been pointing out is that this isn't just |
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