Boris, Gove, IDS, Frank Field & Kate Hoey are just the ticket for #brexit

Following on from all the shouting and the often outlandish and frankly ridiculous claims and counter-claims about whether the UK is better off inside or outside the EU (from all sides); the calm, measured and fact-based submissions from Boris, Gove, IDS, Frank Field and Kate Hoey are a more than welcome - perhaps decisive - contribution to the debate.

After decades in which very few people have been given a platform to question the validity of the EU; the benefits or otherwise of our membership; this group of credible, senior, serious people has come together at what I would say is just in time to help take the UK forward in the right direction.

How anyone can suggest that this proud sovereign nation would be better off being governed by people who have little understanding of our concerns, beliefs and values and who we cannot get rid of if we don't agree with their direction of travel, is beyond me but it is essentially the argument that is being put forward by the 'remains'.

I'm not going to trawl through all the arguments as to why we should leave - I have blogged about them for some years and been anti EU since the mid 1980s, so it is a subject that is very dear to my heart. If you are interested there are a couple of pieces you might want to read here (general piece from 2013), here (UK's influence in the world, from 2014) and here (would we really choose to join the club if we weren't already a member? recent).

Oh and a piece about why Mr Farage is not the right man to lead the 'out' campaign here.

Farage is not the right man to lead the 'out' campaign, but he does deserve a great deal of credit for getting us to where we are now - to securing this referendum, this once in a lifetime chance to take back control of our own destiny as a nation state. He's had to shout long and loud about this issue and it has been a long slow process of getting it onto the agenda. His shouting has been returned by the 'in' side whose own claims have often been equally outlandish, controversial or even outright lies, such has been the nature of the debate so far. Farage still has an important role to play, but my hope is that he will recognise that we now have a new forward line, a new team that can score the goals we need to be scored and that his best bet will be to take credit and to admire from the sidelines as a coach and supporter rather than as the star striker.

The 'in's are still mired in this shouting match, this fear-mongering, this 'leap in the dark' nonsense, because essentially it's all they have. I have long said that the facts will out in this debate and the facts quite clearly do not stack up as far as our continued membership is concerned.

What this new team (and there are of course many others who will contribute - half of the Tory parliamentary party for example) does, is it brings sound. measured, credible reasoning to bear. It brings forward the facts that will win the argument not in a party political way, but in a cross-party, nation first way which is a breath of fresh air compared to the increasingly obvious vested interest brigade which makes up the 'in' campaign.

I think people are waking up to this vested interest establishment-driven, EU-funded-BBC-driven 'ordinary people don't matter and shouldn't have a say-driven' Remain position. And unfortunately for Battling Dave and the Remains, it is the people who will decide on this issue and the much brighter future this country will enjoy when we leave the EU in almost every aspect of our lives, from employment and trade to security, border control, making our own laws and controlling our own destiny.

What has Dave said so far?

That we have greater sovereignty if we're governed from Brussels. Really?

That we'll have better security if we rely on Italy, Spain, Greece, Romania and others rather than sorting out our own security ourselves. Really?

That trade sanctions are a risk to British jobs - when we are the Eurozone's biggest customer in the world and they therefore cannot afford not to trade with us. Really?

That we can control immigration by imposing a minor reduction in benefits from 2020 instead of having proper, robust border controls. Really?

That we need to be in the EU in order to have influence on the world - so as an ignored 8% of the EU instead of the world's 5th largest economy. And we've just seen what our influence counts for in the EU haven't we? The square root of sod all.

None of this stacks up in any way. It's time we left the burning building that is the EU for the good of the UK but also for the good of those countries in the Eurozone whose economies have been reduced to basket cases by EU policy and the single currency: - southern Europe in particular where youth unemployment is above 50% and where they cannot devalue their currencies in order to balance their economies. But actually it's not just southern Europe that is suffering massively from EU policies - it is everyone outside of Germany.

The world's only shrinking trading bloc; a plan devised in the 1950s that has been a disaster for most members and whose continuation is based more on the continued employment, status and solid gold pension plans of massively overpaid Eurocrats than what's right for the countries and people they supposedly represent?

I think the team of Boris, Gove, IDS, Frank Field and Kate Hoey will tip the balance decisively in favour of Brexit. It's time to go. June 23rd is probably the last chance we have to shake of the yoke of Germany - sorry the EU - don't let it go to waste.

Thanks for reading.