Mr. David Kitching:

That is problematically true. In terms of intergenerational conflict in the UK, this seems to be the last sting of the baby boomer generation. I am not trying to be nasty, but it was the generation that benefited from the most benign economic conditions that ever existed in the UK in terms of new educational opportunities, employment and the food people were fed. It is a generation that transferred a huge amount of debt onto subsequent generations. Now there is the potential that the baby boomers will remove Britain from the whole European project, although in whatever capacity it might stay in the European Economic Area. However, it will not be so easy for the UK to get back in.

In terms of this country and how we fit into the whole narrative, I do not know if they have even thought about the effect it would have on Northern Ireland. When people look at what went on up there, one refers to PEACE funds and the cash cows that came in. I have often wondered about the comparison of the Sunningdale agreement with the Good Friday Agreement. The latter was described by the SDLP as Sunningdale for slow learners. Sunningdale was written at a time when both countries had just become members of the EEC and did not have much experience of the concept of shared sovereignty, of borders being more porous, and of sovereignty not following the Westphalian concept of the absolute border. If we take that forward to 1998 when one had two countries much more at ease with such concepts, I do not think one can decouple that from the experience of European Union membership. I wonder what effect a United Kingdom withdrawal from Europe would have on Northern Ireland even though there are strong eurosceptic elements in Northern Ireland as well. There are many other aspects of internal British politics that would be malignly affected by any such move.

The European Union itself would lose out because my experience in Brussels is that British officials who buy into the European project tend to be some of the most practically minded policy makers one meets in Europe. Brussels itself would lose out on the manner in which it conducts its business. A huge number of them would lose their jobs because one cannot work in the Commission unless one is from a state which has membership of the European Union. I hope for their own sake that British people do not choose to exit because in the long run it will damage a lot of people, not just them.