The upcoming EU referendum isn't a vote about the future of our relationship with Europe, but is a vote about the future of Great Britain.
The EU is the most undemocratic, supposedly democratic institution on the planet and I feel it is important for the younger generations to understand this point.
Back in 1975 when I was the same age as my children who are all in their twenties, a referendum was held and the question posed was, did we want to join the Common Market?
The Common Market was nothing more than a trading block where member countries could trade freely with each other without import or export duties – that was it. So we voted yes, why wouldn't we?
Little did we know that that was only the first step towards a grand European project that if allowed to reach its ultimate conclusion will end up with us all of the populations of the member countries becoming citizens of The United States of Europe with one central government in Strasbourg.
So you have to ask yourself the question, how did we go from one vote to join a common market to the European Union that we have today? Did we vote for any of those changes, changes that have fundamentally changed what it is to be British? No we did not!!
And if we supposedly live in a democracy, how on earth can the common market have become the European Union, with all of instruments of a state, a parliament, a central bank, a currency, (though thankfully we aren't in the Euro) a judiciary and entwined into this grand project the notion of free movement of people – when did we vote for that?
The fact is, we didn't, nor we were we supposed to because if the implications of any one of those changes had been put to us we would have said, no. So it has all been done through treaty changes agreed and signed off on by heads of government, completely bypassing the democratic process.
At the very least, fifty percent of the new laws that apply in Britain are made in Europe, subjugating the British Parliament to the will of our European masters - masters we couldn't even name. Do you know the name of your MEP? I thought not, neither do I!
If we don't like our current government then we, the people, have the right to vote them out of power. How on earth do we have the right to do the same in Europe, the answer is, we don't, which begs the question, how on earth can it be said that we live in a democratic country when the power of our parliament and the power of the people who elect it is systematically being taken from us and the EU takes more and more powers away from us?
So to the youngsters of today. I know you have lived your entire life in the European Union and so know nothing else and yet now you are being asked to decide whether to remain or leave and that must be a quite daunting prospect for you. Indeed the question before you is far more all encompassing than the simple question put before my generation, so I will ask you this. If in the forty years since the last referendum all of the fundamental changes listed above and many, many more have come to pass outside of the democratic process, then what in the next forty years will the European Union of 2056 look like? By then there will be many more changes, none of which will be the result of the democratic process and you will be sitting there wishing you had never voted to remain, I guarantee you that.
So this isn't a vote about Europe, whether we should remain in the EU or not, it is a vote about Britain’s future. A country that has existed for thousands of years, a country steeped in history, a country who's parliamentary and judicial systems are the model for almost every democratic country in the world. This is the greatest nation on the planet and millions of British men and woman fought and died in two world wars so that we might be free, free from European rule and yet here we are in 2016 on the very cusp of giving away the very thing they thought they were saving us from, so that we might live as a free and independent nation, is that really how we honour them, to have betrayed them? I sincerely hope not.
So if, do we want to join the common market was the question before us in 1975 and since then so many powers have been systematically stripped of us, by stealth and slight of hand, as a consequence of that vote, then you can rest assured if you vote remain, you won't just be voting to remain in the EU but unwittingly giving the green light to ever more fundamental changes to what it means to be British. Britain, for the first time in its long history being ruled from abroad? Put a cross in the remain box and that is what you will get.
For me this is a vote about patriotism and just like the millions of British soldiers who took up arms to defend our nation, you too have a mighty sword in your hand on June 23rd, not a weapon of war, but a weapon of choice and you get the opportunity to decide the fate of this great nation, so lets take it back into our own hands, meet the problems head on and face the future together a free and independent nation.
Vote for Britain – vote LEAVE!!!
Simon
Poll