EU truths I wish I’d known when I was 18
NOW in my early 40s, this is the letter I would write to my 18-year-old self: You have an amazing few years ahead of you, the places you will go and countries you will live in over the pond and in the EEC (now called the EU) will broaden your mind and make you more aware. You will see Europe as an amazing opportunity. You will watch a trading community slowly become a state, with borders removed, shared laws and policies, an EU court and even a common currency, and you will think a shared idea is a more powerful idea. You will learn a trade, marry an immigrant, buy a house, have a child, get divorced, become a single dad, start your own business, get remarried and open a business in another EU country. You will hear stories about the EU wanting to abolish UK weights and measures, straighten bananas and stop us buying powerful vacuum cleaners and hairdryers. Immigration will hit the headlines, as will how much this costs the UK. At some point in your mid-30s you will start to question the EU. Those EU laws and policy will have become shackles for the poorest countries, as well as many of the rich ones. You will meet people who are in England because they are desperate and you will realise that while they are vilified by some, it’s the big businesses that know they can use them as cheap labour that should be lambasted. You will watch as wages are driven down and people struggle to pay their way. Governments will have no solution to the housing problems and pressure on the NHS. The solutions will seem clear to you and point to regaining control of your own country, for then politicians of all parties would have to stop buckpassing and start to fix problems. You will speak up and at first it will be scary as you will be called ‘a racist Little Englander’. You know you are not racist and the reform that will start with leaving the EU will not just be for England’s benefit, but for many countries within the EU that have also been lied to. I hope you know when it is time to stand up and be counted. More than anything, I hope you vote with your heart.
STEPHEN COFFEY, Motspur Park, Surrey.