One from 19th September 2016:
Too many times, there has been an implication during and after the EU referendum debate that the 52 per cent who had voted Leave had been naïve, ignorant or racist, as if the Remain campaign had been uniquely free of dodgy statistics and of misleading information. Not only is this deeply insulting and patronising, but it does not reflect my personal experience. I was originally in favour of the EU. I loved the idea of nations trading and cooperating to find solutions to common problems. If I could have seen a glimmer of hope that the EU could reform, then I would have gladly voted Remain. But I could not keep deceiving myself.
The EU has not guaranteed peace in Europe: it played a role in initiating the recent trouble in Ukraine. It is not a friend of the poor and vulnerable: it is heavily influenced by big banks and corporations, and has caused misery for the people of Greece. You do not have to be on the political Right to oppose it, as Tony Benn and Bob Crow demonstrated so brilliantly. Treating European immigrants more favourably than non-European immigrants is the real racist policy, and expecting the unaccountable, unelected bureaucrats in Brussels to change their ways is the real naïvety. My main principle against the European Union is also the reason why I oppose our foreign military interventions: I believe in independent nation states, and that the internal running of a country should be a matter for the people of that country to decide and no one else.
I used to say that James Draper, who is 20 years my junior, was my dauphin or delfino. But I am probably now his dowager. Do read the whole article to see that the fight very much goes on.
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