23rd June 2016

“We have more in common than that which divides us” – a poignant quote of Jo Cox's adorned the stage at Glastonbury today and holds as true today as it did when she made her parliamentary maiden speech.

Yesterday I voted to leave the EU. I also wrote a piece in my head congratulating the Remain campaign as I wholeheartedly believed that they would win. That the undecideds would stick with the status quo. That the cry of xenophobia had been believed by too many. 

I have campaigned, in my own little corner of East Cambridgeshire, to leave the EU since our Prime Minister delivered on his promise of a referendum. We are leaving a political organisation, not a continent. We were political allies before the EU and we will continue to be so. We have hundreds of years' of history of welcoming immigrants from across the world and, we will continue to do so. We love Europe. I love Europe. Those things are all true. What I could never buy into was the belief that the central government which has manifested itself in Europe would ever effectively serve the interests of its members.

I don't believe in federalism. I believe in democracy. As a good friend and colleague once told me, democracy is about taking the decisions as close to the people as possible. Within the EU structure, that is not very close to the people at all (and, yes, I also oppose the House of Lords). The President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, said, “Britain belongs to the European Union”. To me, this epitomises the nature of the organisation. If they have that view of Britain, how do they view Greece, Spain, Italy – those countries who really need their help to claw their way out of the economic gloom that they have found themselves in since surrendering their currencies to the Eurozone? Nearly 50% of those under 25 are officially unemployed in Greece and Spain. The EU is a power-hungry juggernaut, immovable in its direction, as demonstrated by our own inability to get any meaningful reform. It also has an extremely chequered past in terms of keeping its member states safe from terrorism, driving prosperity, creating jobs or doing right by refugees from war torn homelands. To me, it has crashed and burned on all of those issues yet, we hail it as the purveyor of peace, prosperity and opportunity.

Today has been a strange day as the Remain camp cry “where are the Leave supporters now?” as they hurl down their abuse on social media and direct their anger at those of us who voted for the same reasons as them, because we believed that this was the right thing for our country. And I respond with, “we are quietly planning on going to work, trading, serving the people and businesses of our country, creating jobs, building our futures and keeping the wheels of this country moving over the inevitable hurdles that this historic event will create.” I have spent countless hours researching, reading and listening to all sides of this debate, yet still, I am called uneducated, small-minded and racist. This campaign has divided our nation like nothing I have seen before. Now is the time that we must ensure that our government is the best that it can be, we must be heard, we must care, we must listen and we must work. I, for one, plan to brush off the insults and do everything that I can, in my little corner of the world, in the coming weeks, months and years to lift our country back to its feet so that it can prosper, grow, welcome, trade and embrace its place in the world. 

23rd June 2016 

"There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right." ~ Martin Luther King

23rd June 2016

So, here we are, days away from voting on our country's future and the debate is showing no signs of growing up. Indeed, as desperation sets in on both sides, the claims and accusations are getting wilder. Job losses, monsoons, wars and disaster await us. 

It would be nice if everyone stopped for a moment and listened to each other to take stock of what is really motivating those people around them. They might be surprised.

My campaign for Brexit, in my own little corner of Cambridgeshire, is born entirely out of a vision which has democracy at its heart. Our children deserve a shot at a future and I want that future to be free. EU membership is not freedom, is not democratic and it will swallow us up over time.

• It's not racist - I want to see immigration to the UK from across the globe. Immigration is what has made our country the wonderful and diverse place it is today. That must continue. That is not what we are fighting here. The immigration debate is about managing it so that our country is not crippled by years more austerity measures and sky high taxes as we struggle to keep up with the cost of open borders within the EU. I don't want to see any country crippled by immigration. Brits in Greece or Eastern Europeans in Britain. Free movement of people is simply not economically viable for any of us. 
• It's not born out of a superiority complex - I want to see freedom for Greece, Italy, Spain and all of those who are unable to rebuild their economies whilst the EU retains its hold. I don't just believe that the EU is wrong for Great Britain. I believe it is wrong full stop. It is destroying its member states. Youth unemployment is off the scale across the EU, currencies were devalued overnight as member states were convinced to join the Euro and economic growth is a thing of the past. I want to see Italy, Greece and Spain becoming synonymous with their strengths again and not bankrupt and beholden to the EU.  
• It is not about just thinking that the grass is always greener - It is about a deep rooted belief that without the fundamental principles of democracy underpinning our society then we are giving up all that we have fought for and built. Our successes now are in spite of the EU, not because of it. The Remain campaign would have us believe that, without EU membership, our people would have no holiday, sick pay, maternity leave or rights. Our society advanced pretty well before the EU and I am certain that it would continue to do so afterwards. 

The idealised EU that the Remain campaign talks of, with a prosperous trading bloc, is simply not the EU that has taken shape. Never has there been less opportunity for young people in Spain, Italy, Greece etc. In peacetime, this level of economic gloom and unemployment is not acceptable. Are we just scared of going it alone because, from where I'm sitting, the future is not bright and I can't work out why we'd stay?

I read a bit about the VW scandal recently. Some 25,000 EU lobbyists work under the radar to influence Brussels to line the pockets of European businesses at the expense of the environment and what's right (this was a case in point). We can do nothing about this engrained corruption and that's not democracy. 

The EU will not reform. Our best chance at securing reform was with a possible Brexit looming and we failed spectacularly with the most valuable bargaining chip that there was, right there in our hands. That should tell us all we need to know about our influence within this organisation. 

I say that now is the time to be brave and to believe in our ability to create a bright future for our country, together and democratically, and not just to make do with what we misguidedly see as the safe option. 

"People who have prospered under a given social system may be unable to imagine the perspective of those it has failed." ~ Michel Houellebecq