The Remain campaign has focussed so far on the negatives of leaving the EU. There are many, of course, but iss it right to decide the fate of a continent, for that is surely what we are doing, on shallow arguments of money or policing or false discussions over sovereignty or migration?
Let me state for the record that I like living in the UK as part of the EU and I like being European. That's not an easy thing for me to admit and I fully expect to take some flak for it. Ten years ago I'd have laughed if you had said I would ever regard myself as "European". Ten years before that, I might even have said grumpily that I was English rather than British. The realisation that I felt European and that, more importantly, I was happy with that feeling, came upon me only slowly as I travelled more widely and saw more clearly the benefits of cooperation and the horrible, horrible price of narrowly-drawn, inward-looking, national self-interest.
Can I pinpoint the moment of realisation, of change? Not precisely, not with certainty. My feelings evolved slowly as my accreted experiences gradually opened my eyes to the wider world. They coalesced, I think, as Cmdr Chris Hadfield talked about how his own perceptions of the importance of borders and countries had basically drifted away as he had watched those countries pass beneath him during his first few days aboard the International Space Station.
So what do I like about Europe? Why do I like being European? Why do I believe that the UK's future lies within, rather than without? What, basically, is the point? I'm glad you asked.
I like the ease of travel and the lack of passport controls (yes, I know about Schengen and all I can say is that the sooner the UK joins, the better). I like the knowledge that I can live and work and travel freely across the vastness of our shared continent without having to worry about border controls or visas or human rights infringements. I like that I can use my phone without vast expense, that I can retire to Malaga if I choose, that I can buy books from a tiny online shop in Germany or sell my old rubbish to someone in Spain or Italy or Denmark without having to worry about customs tariffs or import duties.
I like being part of a larger European family, the feeling that we belong to something bigger than just our own small island, that we aren't struggling alone against countries vastly larger than our own. I love trying new food in ancient cities that I've never visited before and meeting people whose native languages are utterly unlike my own but with whom I share, at least to some degree, a common sense of purpose and history.
And yes, much of our common history has been filled with blood and death and strife but that's just the nature of history in places as long populated and as diverse as Europe. The important thing is to keep war, trade dispute, invasion, battle and conflict in the past where they belong and not drag them screaming into the present. I'm particularly pleased that nobody of my generation, or of my parents', has had to fight in a senseless European war, unlike my grandparents and great-grandparents and every generation that preceded them since the founding of Rome. That's quite an achievement and one not lightly to be set aside or understated.
And who wouldn't want to live in a Union that includes Paris, Rome, Berlin, Madrid, Lisbon, Barcelona, Vienna, Prague and Copenhagen. Nowhere is there a greater concentration of history and culture, of exemplars of human achievement in commerce, sport, culture, art, music and architecture. We don't need to ask why people come to Europe, we need to ask why anyone would choose to stay away!
Look at all that we've achieved together in education and research, in travel and trade, in our cities and institutions, in culture and shared purpose and collaboration. There is much still to do, of course there is, and it will need people of drive and vision and commitment to push forward the rest of us and deliver the Europe that we all want to live in.
And then imagine what more might be achieved by a united Europe with a grand vision for all its peoples that strives ever to improve itself. A Europe free, prosperous, equitable, diverse, and welcoming that might then act as a beacon of hope and light in a world where certainty and security are in short and seemingly dwindling supply, where atrocities still occur just beyond our borders, where never has it been more important to present a positive alternative to hate and terror and bigotry.
It has taken decades to get here and the journey is only just beginning. Mistakes have been made and there will be more in the future. Some people will object to change, others will embrace it, many won't even notice as their world is improved around them. Not every plan will succeed, nor every dream be fulfilled. Sharing, by definition, means giving up something precious and yet we must do so willingly, as a child must learn to share its favourite toy, so that all might benefit from the exchange; the whole really is greater than the sum of the individual parts and all parties gain by sharing things of value.
And let me ask you this. Would our Victorian ancestors, had they been given an inkling of the disasters that awaited their descendants in the twentieth century, have stepped back behind their borders as some would have us do now? Would they have withdrawn from the pursuit of common benefit and taken shelter from the coming storm? Would they have abandoned their friends and allies and hidden themselves from the troubles that were to beset them in the hope that they might be spared the horror being visited upon the rest of the continent?
Or would they have opened their arms to their neighbours and built bridges of trust and friendship across our diverse continent? Would they not have dreamed bigger, built more greatly, strived harder and aimed higher precisely because they recognised the risks from the smaller, more insular, more divided, less generous alternatives? Would they not have done everything in their power to create the continent within which we find ourselves living, a world largely free of the terrors that plagued earlier generations and that could so easily have plagued ours as well?
Now is not the time to retreat from our ideals and our principles and to scurry, shame-faced and defeated, for the superficially attractive but utterly unworkable isolationist solutions of the nineteenth century.
Now is the time to bring forward new vision, to boost our involvement in the European project, to advocate new ideas and to work together to build a better, stronger, more compassionate, more inclusive, more liberal, less restrictive, more generous, more European, continent.
Whatever the future holds, I believe that both the UK and Europe will be better off with the UK firmly at the heart of the EU. I will be voting to Remain.
Let me state for the record that I like living in the UK as part of the EU and I like being European. That's not an easy thing for me to admit and I fully expect to take some flak for it. Ten years ago I'd have laughed if you had said I would ever regard myself as "European". Ten years before that, I might even have said grumpily that I was English rather than British. The realisation that I felt European and that, more importantly, I was happy with that feeling, came upon me only slowly as I travelled more widely and saw more clearly the benefits of cooperation and the horrible, horrible price of narrowly-drawn, inward-looking, national self-interest.
Can I pinpoint the moment of realisation, of change? Not precisely, not with certainty. My feelings evolved slowly as my accreted experiences gradually opened my eyes to the wider world. They coalesced, I think, as Cmdr Chris Hadfield talked about how his own perceptions of the importance of borders and countries had basically drifted away as he had watched those countries pass beneath him during his first few days aboard the International Space Station.
So what do I like about Europe? Why do I like being European? Why do I believe that the UK's future lies within, rather than without? What, basically, is the point? I'm glad you asked.
I like the ease of travel and the lack of passport controls (yes, I know about Schengen and all I can say is that the sooner the UK joins, the better). I like the knowledge that I can live and work and travel freely across the vastness of our shared continent without having to worry about border controls or visas or human rights infringements. I like that I can use my phone without vast expense, that I can retire to Malaga if I choose, that I can buy books from a tiny online shop in Germany or sell my old rubbish to someone in Spain or Italy or Denmark without having to worry about customs tariffs or import duties.
I like being part of a larger European family, the feeling that we belong to something bigger than just our own small island, that we aren't struggling alone against countries vastly larger than our own. I love trying new food in ancient cities that I've never visited before and meeting people whose native languages are utterly unlike my own but with whom I share, at least to some degree, a common sense of purpose and history.
And yes, much of our common history has been filled with blood and death and strife but that's just the nature of history in places as long populated and as diverse as Europe. The important thing is to keep war, trade dispute, invasion, battle and conflict in the past where they belong and not drag them screaming into the present. I'm particularly pleased that nobody of my generation, or of my parents', has had to fight in a senseless European war, unlike my grandparents and great-grandparents and every generation that preceded them since the founding of Rome. That's quite an achievement and one not lightly to be set aside or understated.
And who wouldn't want to live in a Union that includes Paris, Rome, Berlin, Madrid, Lisbon, Barcelona, Vienna, Prague and Copenhagen. Nowhere is there a greater concentration of history and culture, of exemplars of human achievement in commerce, sport, culture, art, music and architecture. We don't need to ask why people come to Europe, we need to ask why anyone would choose to stay away!
Look at all that we've achieved together in education and research, in travel and trade, in our cities and institutions, in culture and shared purpose and collaboration. There is much still to do, of course there is, and it will need people of drive and vision and commitment to push forward the rest of us and deliver the Europe that we all want to live in.
And then imagine what more might be achieved by a united Europe with a grand vision for all its peoples that strives ever to improve itself. A Europe free, prosperous, equitable, diverse, and welcoming that might then act as a beacon of hope and light in a world where certainty and security are in short and seemingly dwindling supply, where atrocities still occur just beyond our borders, where never has it been more important to present a positive alternative to hate and terror and bigotry.
It has taken decades to get here and the journey is only just beginning. Mistakes have been made and there will be more in the future. Some people will object to change, others will embrace it, many won't even notice as their world is improved around them. Not every plan will succeed, nor every dream be fulfilled. Sharing, by definition, means giving up something precious and yet we must do so willingly, as a child must learn to share its favourite toy, so that all might benefit from the exchange; the whole really is greater than the sum of the individual parts and all parties gain by sharing things of value.
And let me ask you this. Would our Victorian ancestors, had they been given an inkling of the disasters that awaited their descendants in the twentieth century, have stepped back behind their borders as some would have us do now? Would they have withdrawn from the pursuit of common benefit and taken shelter from the coming storm? Would they have abandoned their friends and allies and hidden themselves from the troubles that were to beset them in the hope that they might be spared the horror being visited upon the rest of the continent?
Or would they have opened their arms to their neighbours and built bridges of trust and friendship across our diverse continent? Would they not have dreamed bigger, built more greatly, strived harder and aimed higher precisely because they recognised the risks from the smaller, more insular, more divided, less generous alternatives? Would they not have done everything in their power to create the continent within which we find ourselves living, a world largely free of the terrors that plagued earlier generations and that could so easily have plagued ours as well?
Now is not the time to retreat from our ideals and our principles and to scurry, shame-faced and defeated, for the superficially attractive but utterly unworkable isolationist solutions of the nineteenth century.
Now is the time to bring forward new vision, to boost our involvement in the European project, to advocate new ideas and to work together to build a better, stronger, more compassionate, more inclusive, more liberal, less restrictive, more generous, more European, continent.
Whatever the future holds, I believe that both the UK and Europe will be better off with the UK firmly at the heart of the EU. I will be voting to Remain.
