Scapegoating If I was asked for a single reason for the bad reputation of the EU in the UK, I would answer: decades of scapegoating. To put it briefly: (i) every time the EU does something good for the UK (for example, money from the EU builds a new hospital or EU regulation forces the UK government to provide more nursery places), UK politicians (from the prime minister, to ministers, MPs and the local council members) will take the credit for it, (ii) when some bad or unpopular laws or regulations are passed (whether by incompetence or to protect some shadowy interests) the blame is put entirely in the EU. UK politicians constantly blame the EU for any unpopular measures, most often than not blatantly lying. And nobody corrects them or, if they do, these corrections hardly ever make headlines. The most serious example of these lies or omissions is the problem of freedom of movement in the EU. Most UK politicians agree that this is the main reason behind the Brexit vote (whether...
