Some at least of those of us who do not want to remain with the EU as it is are NOT anti-Europe, we do not want to turn our backs on Europe or want the UK to attempt to “go it alone.”
I can get along comfortably in three European languages and manage a little with two others. I have lived and worked in Europe and made friends from a number of our neighbouring countries. I have friends from immigrant backgrounds and friends who have come here as refugees and I am pleased that they are here in the UK. I want my government to work constructively and harmoniously with our neighbours.
However, I do not want my country, and its neighbours, to be directed by an unelected body which fails to account for the money we provide it and evidence of prime ministerial duplicity about our last referendum, about a common market, makes me query the legitimacy of our membership of the EU.
The EU did not provide David Cameron with what he wanted earlier this year. Does anyone think the EU will behave differently should we vote to stay in? Should we vote to leave, our government, set in a parliament with a “Remain” majority, will not have to apply immediately to leave. This will give both sides time to consider matters before moving on and into that consideration will come concerns from neighbours who do not like the way the EU is moving. In its response to a leave vote the EU would not simply have the UK to think about, but reactions in other countries of the Union.
My “Leave” vote is not anti-anything. It will be what I consider the best way to achieve a positive outcome in Europe, to concentrate the minds of European governments, to challenge the European Union and to support others who are wary of a potential super-state. I appreciate and respect the concerns of many “Remainers” and my vote will be tactical, rather than final and dismissive of our friends and neighbours.
Well said Peter
Consider how easy or not it will be for your grandsons to enjoy the same freedom to travel, learn languages, get access to jobs and free healthcare, work, buy property and do business within Europe. No point being pleased about the freedoms and priveledges you’ve enjoyed since the seventies and then trash it all for the next generations.
Also take a look at the pompous politicians on the right of the Tories who would inevitably take power after a leave win. My pension and employee rights as a teacher are under threat already thanks to Mr Gove’s horrendous policies.
Has every single mainstream UK political party leader, Obama and most of the respected world leaders of most democracies really got it wrong? Or does Donald Trump know what is best for our future?
Think! REMAIN!!!!
1. Consider how easy or not it will be for your grandsons to enjoy the same freedom to travel, learn languages, get access to jobs and free healthcare, work, buy property and do business within Europe. RESPOSE: Brexit, if and when it comes will not rule out learning languages and travel and will not automatically rule out the right to work, to healthcare, to buy property or to do business with EU countries. (Some of the best foreign speakers of English I have ever met were German women who had been taught outside the EU in a communist dictatorship, among them Angela Merkel.)
2. No point being pleased about the freedoms and privileges you’ve enjoyed since the seventies and then trash it all for the next generations. RESPONSE: What freedoms and privileges?
3. Also take a look at the pompous politicians on the right of the Tories who would inevitably take power after a leave win. My pension and employee rights as a teacher are under threat already thanks to Mr Gove’s horrendous policies. RESPONSE: In the present Parliament there is a very clear majority of Remainers who will still have votes after a vote to leave and their influence, and responsibility, will continue and, if necessary, they will constrain the “winners.”
4. Has every single mainstream UK political party leader, Obama and most of the respected world leaders of most democracies really got it wrong? Or does Donald Trump know what is best for our future? RESPONSE: The Tory leader’s Euroscepticism abandoned him as he rushed his re-negotiation with The EU earlier this year. Jermy Corbyn has completed a volte-face on the matter. Other free-world leaders seem, like many commentators, to see this matter as a simple in/out matter. There will be uncertainty whatever the vote on Thursday and what follows cannot be simple. It is good that leaders of other countries speak their minds as we would expect good friends to – the Canadian finance minister was kind and straight with his advice to remain but I wouldn’t flatter Donald Trump with sufficient powers of concentration to be able to reach any kind of rational conclusion on this matter.
Think! REMAIN!!!!
5. I do want to remain, in a Europe of states that appreciate one another and work together, not because a putative super-state tells them to but because they can be persuaded, if persuasion they still need, that mutual respect, mutual support and trust are the best way forward. We should not be panicked by the demagogues on either side yet you presumably claim the support of the Chancellor. We will remain, in Europe, in the Commonwealth and with the many other countries with whom we enjoy good relationships and I believe that as the dust settles the world will be a little wiser.