Despite the wild and invariably unsubstantiated claims of project fear and the full might of the establishment in the UK and around the world, with big budget communications, it seems that the forthcoming EU referendum hangs in the balance.
That represents considerable progress for the 'Brexiteers' and I hope the momentum continues in their (our) direction in the coming weeks, but it's not a foregone conclusion and it's time to redouble our efforts.
It seems to me to have become a battle between hope and fear; well-founded confidence in our abilities as a nation and as a people against the establishment's consistent suggestion that we're too small and insignificant to be a global power, unable to stand up for ourselves, unable to do our own trade deals on a global scale and too scared to grasp a bright future for ourselves outside the European Union.
How did we get to the point where our own government is talking us down in such a negative way? Maybe they've forgotten all the great things that we've done in the world - arguably the nation that has influenced the world more than any other via our trade, our confidence, our commitment to fairness and the rule of law?
In the end it looks like coming down to a fight between people who are passionate about making our own way in the world, confident that we will prosper via continued trade with Europe (there is no chance of this status being damaged in any way by Brexit) as well as our relationships with other nations and trading blocs around the world; versus people who are being cowed into subservience to an unelected European dictatorship that is being promoted by the very people we elected to represent our best interests. And these people, the Remainians, seem to think that our best interests are served by having no control over what happens to us in the future.
A fight between those of us with conviction and certainty that Brexit is the right - the only - way forward for the UK and the apathy, fear of change and belief in the status quo of those who seem to have given up on the UK ever being a strong international player again. And this in a world where our (British) core values are needed now more than ever before.
A fight between the global establishment's vested interests (which means they'll tell you anything, regardless of reality or fact in order to engender the fear that will make you vote 'remain') and the interests of the people who they are supposed to represent. This is, therefore, an opportunity not just to maintain the UK's status as a proud and important global nation and at the same time to almost certainly kill off the entire EU project to the benefit of almost everyone else in Europe; but also to redefine the client-servant relationship here at home, at long last: By this I mean to redefine the relationship between 'us' the tax-paying electorate and those whom we appoint - and pay - to work for us, but who actually have been working just for themselves for far too long now.
If you are in the 'Remain' camp, you should be aware that your option is not the status quo; it is an option that will deliver a United States of Europe with a single government, a single currency, its own flag and national anthem, its own army and foreign policy - all produced via a 28-member (and growing) consortium whose aims and vested interests rarely if ever match our own and in which our influence is declining. Indeed, despite being the second biggest net contributor to the whole EU project, the UK has never been the strong, powerful, recognised or valued influencer that the remains would have you believe (see chart below) and nor will we be in the future as our share of the vote and our preferred direction of travel diverges more and more from the EU's own plan.
If we have never prevailed in our negotiations within the EU in the past (and we haven't), what possible evidence is there that we will do so in the future - particularly if we meekly sign up to remain and effectively give the EU carte blanche to carry on in its inexorable direction of ever closer union? There is none.
The EU's current 'bible', the Five Presidents Report, is a plan towards 'Completing the Economic and Monetary Union'. It is unambiguous in this ambition and it has set a deadline of 2025 at the latest. And that means if you are a member at that date, you will be completely governed by Brussels and will be using the Euro as your national currency. Not 'might', but 'will'. And that includes the UK whatever Dave may tell you.
So it is not the status quo; it is not just more of the same slightly irritating but not really important meddling from the EU in British life, but, to all intents and purposes a complete take-over and our nation state being subsumed into the European Union. Forever.
If that is what you want to see, then fine. But don't go into the polling booth on June 23rd without understanding this properly. If you vote to 'remain' you will be voting to hand over ever more power to people you don't elect and cannot kick out in Brussels. People who have almost certainly never heard of the city, town or village in which you live, have virtually no understanding of your local issues and whose priorities are much more likely to be about the integration of failed, corrupt states like Turkey, Albania and others, than representing your interests, despite the fact that you will be paying your taxes to fund the whole process.
This may sound harsh but it is also true. If you vote 'Remain' on June 23rd you will effectively be selling out your country and its past achievements and current influence for good in the world; consigning a truly great nation to the history books. That may, as I say, be what you want to achieve, but you ought to be fully aware of the ramifications of your vote before you make it.
This is a once in a lifetime vote, a once in a lifetime opportunity to keep the UK as a sovereign nation state in control of its own borders, economy, security and its very identity. If we throw it away we will never have the chance to take it back into our own hands.
This blog is not about addressing the minutiae of project fear but about the bigger picture. However I will just say the following about the establishment's stance - with links to recent blogs which do address these issues specifically:
'Stronger, Safer and Better Off in a Reformed EU' is the mantra.
'Stronger'? With a dwindling and declining 8% share of an undemocratic EU that has always ignored our concerns in the past? Being part of a bigger gang is one thing, but if that gang has different values and different objectives to our own (to the point where Dave feels he needs a legally binding opt-out in order to protect us from it), that does not make us more influential in the world, quite the opposite. And this opt-out, together with our trying to stay out of the Eurozone (single currency) is likely to marginalise us even further in the future to the point where we'll be overruled and ignored even more (if that were possible), by EU and EZ countries which will always have a majority against us. So our stance makes it even less likely that we will have any influence in the EU in the future. You can't have it both ways Dave.
And on the 'stronger' issue, if we leave we will prosper, we will certainly not collapse as a first-world nation. But if we leave it, the EU will almost certainly collapse and fail without us. That tells you all you need to know about where the strength lies in this relationship.
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| Even Theresa May doesn't think we're Safer In |
'Better off'? Being restricted as to who we can trade with by our membership of the world's worst-performing trade bloc? A bloc whose protectionist policies are doing more than anything else to keep Africa in the third world and whose biggest customer/trading partner on the planet is a small island off the north west coast of France? The UK, in case you didn't know. How does our needing to prop up an economically failing EU make us better off? How does tying ourselves into a club many of whose members are either bankrupt or economic basket cases, riddled with corruption, make us better off?
And finally, the phrase which makes the rest of this slogan redundant in any case: 'In a reformed EU'.
It isn't a reformed EU. IN ANY WAY. There has been no reform to the EU - just read the Five Presidents Report. Absolutely nothing has changed as far as the EU's future plan is concerned. All Dave achieved with his negotiations is a couple of very minor and largely intangible reforms to our relationship with the EU, not to the EU itself. Describing this process as being about our relationship with a 'reformed EU' is just a blatant lie. And if they can boldly keep delivering this lie, with a straight face, what else are they lying about? Well it turns out just about everything else they've said so far.
That might be worth bearing in mind when you come to make up your mind. Why would you vote on the side of those who are clearly and provably lying to you in order to get you to vote for the vested interests of the establishment and their cronies and their EU pensions and their ability to keep ordinary people under their control for ever more?
I think you'd be mad to do so, but hey it's your choice.
My concern is that you should be aware of all these things before you cast your vote - understand the issues, the fact that this is the most important vote you'll ever cast and the permanent ramifications of getting it wrong.
Please don't go into the booth without being aware of these things.
Thanks for reading.
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