United in Europe, Safer together

With fewer than fifty days until we vote on the UK’s membership of the European Union, the anti-European camp still can’t count one major ally or international independent body as a backer of Brexit.

Their endorsements to date come from the leader of the National Front in France, Trump in America and Putin in Russia and stand in stark contrast to the Remain camp supporters who have come out in droves.  

From the Prime Ministers of India, Australia, New Zealand and Japan and President Obama to the IMF, World Bank and five former NATO chiefs, our allies have made it clear that we thrive when we play a leading role in Europe.  President Obama said 

'From the ashes of war, those who came before us had the foresight to create the international institutions and initiatives to sustain a prosperous peace: the United Nations and Nato; Bretton Woods, the Marshall Plan, and the European Union. Their efforts provided a foundation for democracy, open markets, and the rule of law, while underwriting more than seven decades of relative peace and prosperity in Europe.'

On the ninth of May the Prime Minister drew on a pageant of historical episodes, from the Roman empire to the fall of the Berlin Wall to argue that Britain’s destiny is inextricably bound up with Europe’s, and voting to remain in the EU on the twenty third of June is the patriotic choice.

In response, Polly Toynbee writing in the Guradian on the tenth of May said 

'At last here was a sense of the gigantic, existential nature of this decision. Who are we, what do we want to be, where do we belong? Look up beyond this year’s wallet to the far future.'

I agree with Polly; this is about more than economics, more than immigration; it is about peace and unity instead of division.  Because with division comes mistrust.  None of the EU members wants us to leave, how will they feel if we do?  What will they think?  

It is only seventy three years since my father's plane was shot down by a fellow European.  Fortunately he bailed out successfully and I am here to tell the tale.  After two years as a prisoner of war he returned, according to accounts, a changed man.  

Even in the sixties the scars of war remained.  I remember, as a child, being driven through Manchester to visit relative in the north of the city.  All around me I saw the persistent bomb damaged sites and felt really sad that this could have happenend.  I do not want the tragedy of my father's generation to be in vain.  

Plesse vote to remain in the EU on June 23rd.  

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