Brexit Day Reaction Video: Yes Minister (Why UK entered EU)

This is a tribute to Derek Fowlds, who played junior civil servant Bernard Woolley in Yes, Minister (BBC, 1980-84) and Yes, Prime Minister (1984-86). Fowlds died on 17 January, 2020 aged 82.

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[lewisb]

I used to think yes minister was a satire of the civil service until I started my career with them and then I realized it was a documentary!

[raymartin]

Love you two. Intelligent attempt to tackle a complex issue. Felipe is 100% right when he points out that Britain has/had no interest in conquering Europe. Too small., even if we wanted to, which we never did. Our interest was/is commercial, and avoiding a European hegemon be it Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin or the bureaucracy of Brussels..
As Churchill put it, "If Britain has to choose between the continent of Europe and the open sea, she should always choose the open sea".

[bikerboyT]

Britain's policy for 500 yrs is to never let any one single country get too powerfull in europe and dominate the continent.

[ianwilkins]

Love how you guys say "are we" when referring to Britain leaving the EU lol you now consider yourselves more British than American! Your enthusiasm to embrace your adopted country is humbling and admirable, and your understanding of the British mentality is spot on!

[dek]

When the Maastricht treaty was created which created the EU, John Major who was the PM at the time. He should have put it too a referendum, but he knew that the U.K. would almost certainly reject it. Major was so pro EU that he wouldn’t take that risk. Other countries did have a referendum ie Ireland, Denmark and the Netherlands and all rejected it, but being small countries the EC virtual forced them into having another referendum with certain threats. The U.K. was too big an entity to be intimidated so Major circumvented the process and the EU was created.

[WOTArtyNoobs]

This was a perfect example of why the programme 'Yes Minister' was so funny. It was suggesting that Britain was only in Europe to cause disunity, to divide and conquer. In truth this was not the case. There has been numerous attempts to unite Europe into a version of the United States of America, but all failed because it was only one country driving this forward by military action. First Napoleon, then the Kaiser and lastly Hitler.

Many saw the European Economic Community as a captive economic market that would protect the industry of Europe from the might of America or the Soviet Block, or the Far East. The EEC was all about protecting local industry which is why they accumulated wine lakes, butter mountains and milk lakes. Europeans were hopelessly inefficient at producing food at cheap prices, so the protectionist tariffs of the EEC prevented other countries sending us their surplus. The EEC in turn accumulated vast surpluses of what the locals could not afford to buy and eventually a lot of this food went to waste with the butter mountain turning rancid and the wine being chucked down the sewers.

Britain wanted into the EEC, as there were advantages of selling to a huge local market without tariffs. This worked for a while, but then the EEC decided that Britain had to pay more than we should realistically pay for our population. They wanted to tax the 'cash cow'. That's when Margaret Thatcher demanded and received a huge rebate on the contributions. If the EEC had not agreed, we would have left in the Eighties.

When the EEC turned into the EU, there was a lot of upset people in the UK who believed that this was a grandiose ambition (by the Germans) to create a Fourth Reich with Berlin in charge. They wanted a single currency, a single Parliament and an unelected group of bureaucrats in charge - the EU Commission. This was too much for many in Britain and when word of the corruption became known, many wanted to leave the EU as they saw it as nothing more than the same as if the Germans had won in 1939-45.

The fact is that there is a lot of animosity between EU states. This is mostly the historical hatred between states that used to be regularly at war with each other. So the French hate the British and the German's hate the French, Spain hates Portugal etc. This division gets worse when one member state imposes rules on others. When rulers such as Merkel tell the individual state leaders that they must accept Muslim refugees, a lot of the Christian states (Hungary and Poland) refuse to do so, whilst the Germans accept them out of guilt for WW2 and Sweden because they are a Socialist state and to refuse would not be socialist.

British people decided that they did not want to give away their national identity. This is what would have happened once the full aims of the Lisbon Treaty were reached. The eventual complete and utter dissolution of national parliaments in favour of the EU one. It would be like the Federal Government in the States telling all the individual states that they have to get rid of their Governors and assemblies and be ruled by Washington DC - it would cause the United States to become the Disunited States.

So Britain is taking back our sovereignty, keeping our Monarch and our Parliament and our currency and we will be outside the EU but still trade with them. We will be free to buy cheap produce from around the world, but not forced to accept the laws created by faceless EU bureaucrats that we cannot veto.

Yes Minister and then Yes Prime Minister were hilarious programmes, because they exaggerated the animosity of Britain for the EEC and then the EU, but the decision to leave the EU is to preserve our ability to decide our own destiny.

[LightxHeaven]

Yes Minister is the most accurate factual documentary of the civil service ever produced.

[jagdpanther]

Hacker: "But we need a nuclear deterrent to protect us against the Russians"
Appleby: "Who said anything about the Russians? It's to protect us against the French"

[terry]

I’m sure I saw the Great in Great Britain yesterday while walking my dog, but it could just have been a trick of the light .
But I’m sure I will see it again for real tomorrow .

[MarkSmithSa]

Churchill wanted them to get together so there would be no more wars. But he did not want the UK to be a part of it.

[gavingiant]

What most dont know, is that we wanted in, but they didnt want us in, (the french), and now they dont want us too leave, but bye bye, lol

[graememorrison]

The UK actually started out in something called EFTA - along with Norway, Iceland (I think, and a few others) It was a sort of west Europe parallel organisation to what went on to become the EEC, but it all gets a bit complicated.

Loving the way you two are digging into the fundamentals of the British national psyche - and understanding our historic aversion to any form of totalitarianism. I can't imagine it's easy. (I don't think anyone who was born or grew up here could offer a complete interpretation either!)

Also Felipe and his pronunciation of 'Bri'ish' with the glottal stop! You'll both be fully native before you know it. #scary !

[eclectictraveller]

The European Economic Community (EEC) was founded in 1957 and consisted of six countries. Originally it was about integration, free trade and togetherness after World War II. In 1973 Eire, UK, Denmark joined. There are now 27 member countries and the EEC has been superseded by the European Union (EU). The EU members have signed a number of treaties gradually increasing the amount of financial, political and military cooperation including a new currency, the Euro.
Yes Minister dates to 1980 to 1982 and was a comedy satire designed to show the supposed conflicts between the ideological politicians and the impartial Civil Service. The aim of the UK was not really to wreck the EEC from within or without. In 1975 we British voted for EEC membership and worked constructively as members for most of the 40 years we were a part of it. UK attitudes changed as Maastricht, Nice and Lisbon treaties forced ever closer cooperation. Eventually the Brexit rebellion came and from 11pm tonight we will be out. For the record I voted Remain but I take a positive view of the future and believe we Remainers and Leavers should all work together to make a success of it.

[chrismccartney]

And tribute to Derek Fowlds who passed

[philipmason]

In case you don’t know the whole history of this subject, the UK entered the Common Market (EEC) in 1973 purely as a trading bloc to compete against other larger countries and trade bodies. It made complete sense but then unelected bureaucrats took charge and formed an HQ in Brussels to oversee this behemoth and brought their left wing politics to run it. It’s fair to say that if the British public had known that this was going to happen they would have been strongly against it. As the years went by Brussels turned out more and more rules and administrations which adversely harmed British fisheries and other profitable industries, many of these making no business sense at all and to make matters worse the UK was forced to become the second highest payer into the EU budget after Germany.
It’s the older British voters who remember the UK making their own rules before the EU imposed their regulations which held precedence over UK law and no, they’re not senile, as most Remainers accuse them of. People under 40 were born into being under EU laws and know nothing else so it’s understandable that they are reticent about Brexit. Although the UK is a very small country geographically we’re the sixth largest economy in the world and trade deals with the US, China, Japan and especially the Commonwealth countries on our OWN terms will benefit us greatly and keep us away from the EU 28 countries one size fits all mentality.

[blondieandthefatman]

I love you guys. You come to a country, which because of language, seems familiar to you. Massive step. I have met many Americans who have come on a 2 year contact, kept them selves to themselves and only mixed with other Americans. However, you guys have really embraced our country and tried to understand it. Which is great. That's why you have so many UK subscribers, possibly more that American. You have really opened a can of worms, (a British expression), with this one. It has caused so much debate. Very complex issue. Most older people can see what's going on and voting to leave. Keep up the good work.

[gwills]

The more members it has, the more arguments it can stir, the more impotent it becomes.

Why does this make so much sense!

[SuperReasonable]

The non humorous takeaway about us leaving the EU is to understand that there’s a big difference between the EU and Europe. The EU is a political system that the Brits voted against while we are Europeans and love the other Europeans. It’s about being good neighbours, while ridding ourselves of an onerous political system and taking political accountability back into our own hands.

[thelongstory]

I watched Yes Minister with my dad when I was young. He always told me that it was actually a surprisingly accurate representation of how government works and how often things can be far more complicated in real life than in mere principal. They honestly very rarely write comedy like this anymore, so I'm glad you did a video on this.



Joining the EEC/EU was essentially to keep one hand on the steering wheel. And now that it's on what was from the start the inevitable collision course, the UK jumps ship and watches the EU disintegrate from afar.

[opler]

The `wine/ milk lakes` and the `butter mountains` are a reference to subsidies paid to european farmers encouraged to grow and grow regardless of the fact there was no market for the stuff. There were warehouses full of the stuff..all paid for! They even converted wine to anti-freeze to spray on frozen european streets in the winter. I swear it`s true.