An urgent letter:

Dear British Friend and Colleague,

thank you so much for your thoughtful and full email about the EU Referendum. I have read it several times.  It goes without saying that the me-me-me money-money-money level on which the debate is being conducted in the UK is absolutely appalling. Like you I have a vision of Europe which is about a shared intellectual history and set of values, a shared visual culture going back to Greece, a shared musical and cultural world and a vision of peace and co-operation.  My view is influenced by the Germans - the Germans do remember what war was like and many Germans do have a vision of this shared culture. My view is also an Irish one.  What the EU has done to help Ireland open up and become more tolerant and remember th deep European heritage it had for centuries before the ghastly obscurantism after Irish independence is for me a great good.

If Britain leaves, then Britain can change nothing about the EU. It will in my view be an unmitigated disaster.  The EU does need to change in many ways but Britain absolutely must stay in and help.  It will be bad for the EU if Britain leaves, as Britain is needed to keep the balance between France and Germany and to promote democratic values, at a time when some of the former Eastern bloc countries are moving so far to the right. It will be bad for Britain, as it will become an inward-looking little poodle of the US, worrying about cricket and the queen. And the UK will break up, as Scotland will vote to stay in the EU. I remember how insular Britain was when I first came there forty years ago and how self-satisfied it was, and I can hardly believe how much it has changed for the better. And, while the Republic of Ireland will be rubbing its hands at the thought of all those firms which will relocate to Ireland, what about the inner-Irish border?  What on earth will Ireland be going back to if such a border is recreated?

You complain about how the EU has treated Greece. Yes, it has had a hard time.  So did Ireland, but they used the opportunity to reform some things and many people in Ireland were glad to have their own fat cats rapped over the knuckles and a troika coming in and sorting things. Greece needs to have its debt remitted, certainly, or it will never come out of recession, but perhaps some of its fat cats have been made to pay some taxes and register their property by now. You also talk about how disgusting it is that Germany is cosying up to the appalling Erdogan. Well, had the UK taken 200,000 asylums seekers as Sweden has done, perhaps that would not be so necessary! (And not just the UK, of course). Yes, I know the UK is giving lots of money to keep people in camps in Turkey, but that's not a future for those unfortunates. Everyone whom I know in Germany is helping to integrate asylum seekers. Why? Because that is how decent Europeans do things and because Germans have a memory of fleeing themselves and being looked down on as refugees and having to start all over again.

You yourself mentioned how important EU rules about workers' rights, the environment, etc, are. I agree. Speaking as someone who works in a British University, leaving the EU would be a disaster. You can forget about research in the Humanities, for starters, as the UK virtually does not fund it, but lots of other important research programmes will not be funded either. The European Research Council and other smaller EU funding bodies are life-lines for British research.

I cannot bear the thought that the UK will go back to where it was 40 years ago. I cannot bear it to refashion itself in the image of Gove and Johnson. Or God help us, Trump.

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17.Juni 1953 - 17. Juni 2016

Wie die Zeiten sich ändern: Bis 1990 wurde in Westdeutschland regel- und mäßig an den Arbeiteraufstand in Ostdeutschland erinnert. Als 13-Jähriger bin ich an diesem Tag zur Sektorengrenze in Berlin-Wedding geeilt und erlebte, wie Verletzte vom Potsdamer Platz in den Westsektor gebracht wurden und später sowjetische Panzer auffuhren und noch einige Tage später mehrere Erschossene feierlich beigesetzt wurden. Beide Teile Deutschlands sind inzwischen 16 Jahre lang wiedervereint und das in einem ebenso vereinten Europa. Ich hoffe, dass dieses Europa jetzt nicht zerbricht ...