Today is the day of the EU referendum vote.
Stay or leave? Make sure you go and vote today. Every vote matters. Make sure it is not cast from reading one piece of propaganda from either side of the campaign. Both sides have played dirty and spun the facts a lot; in some cases, they have even lied.
I think we should leave but probably not for the reasons you’d expect. For me, it’s bigger. The political project of the European Union is at a discord with the current British attitude and outlook. We still follow a national discourse.
From the flag we fly to the pounds we spend to the fact we consider ourselves independent. The fact that we are an island plays a role in shaping our mentality.
For decades, the political elite and media outlets have had the opportunity to help change the British mindset and make us more European. I am not European. Without doubt, a democratic and transparent European Union would have, should have and could have led to a more co-operative union of nations or even of states. There are some tasks which require more than a national outlook. The discord is now so wide it cannot simply be narrowed but new bridges need to built.
But we are in a union which is travelling down the direction of becoming the United States of Europe. With its presidents, its anthem, its flag and its parliament, it has a federal outlook. Who is our President? What is the anthem? Why are there twelve stars on the flag? We have not been integrated into the project. Why? I don’t know.
Leaving Europe and coming back to the UK
Samuel x
