EU Referendum - #brexit or #remain

The EU referendum is almost here. It is not an easy one, but wanted to share my thoughts on this important decision.

Posted: Wed 15 Jun, 2016, 14:32
The EU Referendum is only a week and a day away. I am beginning to feel the same way as I did a week before the Scottish Independence referendum in 2014 i.e. questioning views I had strongly and securly held for many years. In both cases I decided based on one thing, my vision for the sort of country I would like to live in, which I had always been clear on. But, as the big day approaches, the arguments and counter-arguments are clawing away at the edifice of certainty and really making me question my views.

The more you consider the ramifications of the decision, the more difficult it is to decide. There are a very long list of matters to consider - the economy, sovereignty, security, trade, immigration - and that is just the start. It is a very big decision and there is no certainty of the outcome either way. Again, just the like the Scottish referendum.

At the moment, it looks like it is going to be a very close result. Although the polls have been very wrong before, so this itself could just be spin. You quickly realises that there are no facts, just opinions, because the reality is that nobody knows what would happen if we left.

I do feel a strong sense of suspicion that many of the same politicians that were saying that Scotland was "better together" within the UK, are the very same ones recommending we should now "go it alone". When Scotland wants to go be independent it is isolating itself, but when the UK wants more independence it is being "strong". And the implication is that they knew that Scotland would not have prospered, and they now know that the UK would prosper with separation from Europe. Really?

My concern with staying in Europe is that Europe is a mess. There are so many flaws that can only be resolved by closer political union - something most of the countries do not want. It seems like an unsolveable problem - how to gain the value of union without losing any domestic political power. Looking at comparable regions/nations like China or the USA, you can see that the internal states have all ceded control to central authority. I doubt Europe will ever be like this, the nations are too different and too independent.

But I think a united Europe is a good and necessary thing, and we need to part of it. Not just geographically (not much we can do there!), but politically as well. I do not know what the solution will end up being, but we need to work towards something. I would rather the nations were arguing over these policies of union, than arguing over borders or creating competing mini-alliances within Europe. Europe has seen too much of that in the last century.

So I will be voting to remain in the EU.