I don't know about you, but I've not seen or heard a single friendly approach to the UK's remaining IN the EU from our so-called 'friends' and 'partners' in the EU during this referendum campaign.
As the EU's second biggest contributor and Europe's biggest customer for goods and services in the world, one would have thought that someone, somewhere in the massive EU machine would have had something nice and friendly to say about wanting us to stay in their club.
Instead of treating us as valued partners - a nation that has bailed out and rescued the freedoms of the people of Europe several times in the recent past - we are treated with contempt. Instead of recognising what we have to offer the EU not just financially and in terms of custom, but as a major global powerhouse that would be an asset to any international body, we are threatened: 'There will be consequences'; 'you will be at the back of the queue', 'your economy will go into meltdown'.
There has been no humour, no camaraderie, no friendliness, just threats.
Do we really want to stay in a club that we pay more towards than anyone other than Germany but whose policies we disagree with and whose future plans we are so terrified about that we have tried to secure a legally binding opt-out from?
Do we really want to hand over our sovereignty to a bunch of unelected Eurocrats who we pay for, but who have probably never heard of the town or village in which we live; who don't have our interests at heart and who we cannot kick out if they don't do what we want?
Particularly when they don't even value our contribution or recognise our concerns and just ignore us whenever we try to suggest reforms to what is clearly a failing political project from whatever angle one looks at it - economically, socially, democratically or in terms of the security, safety or prosperity of its people?
Not once have I heard an EU representative say: 'We really need you guys inside the project. We understand your concerns and we will listen to them and consider their merits - given your status as our biggest customer and second biggest contributor, it's the least we can do. We want you to play a leading part in our project to make Europe a better place for all of its citizens.'
It has not happened yet and now looks extremely unlikely ever to happen. And it's not just the EU whose contempt we have perhaps come to assume: It is now coming from our own elected representatives - our own Prime Minister for goodness' sake, talking down this great nation, its economic resilience, its global reach and influence, its position at the forefront of international laws and fairness and principle.
Indeed these ridiculous threats - none of which are based on any kind of credible facts - are being levelled at us by leaders of all political parties alongside their vested interest-lugging advisors in the corporate and financial sectors for whom the EU has become an unimaginably profligate gravy train funded on the backs - and the taxes -of the working people of this country and others in Europe. Supported by the biased mainstream media (MSM) at every turn.
What these fucking idiots don't seem to realise is that we Brits are generous by nature. We care for the plight of others who are not as well off as we are (we give more in aid both officially and via charity per capita than any other major nation on earth) and if asked to do so, we invariably do as much as we can to help others, locally, nationally, internationally and globally. Because we see ourselves not as 'little Englanders' but as an important part of the global community - a factor, no doubt of former Empire, but also because as an island nation we have a global outlook and friends around the whole world, not just on our geographical doorstep.
And this is in marked contrast to the EU which has a protectionist 'little European' outlook and is much more - almost exclusively - concerned with its own members than the wider world - which is why its tariffs against African agriculture is perpetuating the rape of that hugely resourceful continent and disallowing it from trading its way into the first world.
But if we (the British) are not asked but instead 'told' what we can and cannot do; if we're threatened that we must do something 'or else', we tend not to be so receptive or generous or sanguine about the situation. If we're told 'you can't do this because we say so', we tend to say, 'fuck you, just watch us'. And this is where we are right now.
The choice we have right now is about staying inside a club that treats us with contempt and which, if the vote was about whether we should join or not, would be laughed out of court because of the cost, financially as well as in terms of lost control, democratic influence and global power, compared to the almost zero benefits we derive from being a member. Simply, if we weren't already a member at this time, there's no way we would join.
So why on earth should we vote to stay? We don't agree with what the EU wants to become - a single federal state with its own flag, anthem, army, government, currency. Even the remain leader David Cameron has sought to get a legally binding opt-out from this direction of travel - without securing any reform of the EU's plans whatsoever.
The fact is that we don't want to be a member of this club; we don't share its values or agree with its purpose and nor should we be trying to stay inside a club whose members do not value our contribution but instead threaten us with 'consequences' if we leave.
They have had their chance to engage with us and to reform themselves in a way which might have saved the EU project, but they have rejected this in favour of 'ever closer union' and, in effect, even more of the same stuff that has caused such hardship and economic calamity throughout Europe.
Enough is enough. It's time we left them to get on with it and instead pursued our own destiny under our own control, with our own democratic checks and balances in place and with our own qualities as a nation and as a people at the forefront rather than taking any kind of leadership from some unelected and failed politicians from Luxembourg.
Of course we'll still trade with Europe - if a strong and equitable trade deal is not struck quite quickly after Brexit then Europe will be in far greater economic peril than we will - and will still share security information and liaise on common international matters. But we can do this without being governed by them. Without having to bail them out of their self-inflicted economic and social disasters.
It's time to leave - on friendly terms, at least on our part anyway - but to leave nonetheless.
Thanks for reading.
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