Andrew Jefford's eloquent plea for the UK to remain in the EU

Vote Leave is led by Boris Johnson
who has long been a supporter of the EU

In just over a month the UK will vote on whether to remain a member of the European Union or leave. The Referendum will be on Thursday 23rd June 2016. Given that we joined the European Community in 1973 – 43 years ago – holding another Referendum on whether to stay in or not rather underlines our always ambivalent attitude to the European Union and the European ideal.

I have long been a convinced supporter of a European Union and hope that we will vote to remain in the EU. I see myself as a European whose main home is in London. To vote to leave would be a terrible mistake.  

Yesterday wine writer Andrew Jefford posted on Facebook an eloquent and wise plea for remaining in the European Union:  

'These are my children’s eyes, photographed by their mother. They are young British citizens who, at present, live as freely in Europe as they could in the UK. They aren’t, of course, old enough to vote in the UK’s June 23rd referendum on continuing membership of the European Union, but their lives will be affected far more than my life will by the outcome. If you are a young British voter, please vote. It will be the most significant vote you’ll ever cast. No General Election will ever have this level of significance.

The economic arguments for Britain remaining in the European Union are many and compelling. Leaving would be an act of economic self-harm. Most of the putative upside – only thinly sketched out by those who wish the UK to leave the European Union – is hopeful fantasy, as would quickly become evident in the slow economic hangover that will follow any possible vote for Brexit. Independent international economists overwhelmingly concur with this view. 

EU migration to the UK has been of great economic benefit. Farming, transport, construction and the health service are four sectors among many which would struggle in the UK without EU workers. Migration is not a separate issue to economics, as those advancing the Brexit argument assert. 

Read the rest of Andrew's post here. 

Andrew Jefford