The EU referendum, building the Britain I want

Great post Rebecca which I have only just got round to reading. I too voted for Remain for very similar reasons laid out in your article. Now that we have voted for Brexit we must respect that choice but at the same time we must double our efforts that Britain maintains the values of your grandmother. Thanks for your insight.

Rebecca Riley for leader!

Terrific! Similarly, I wrote a piece on a flight over, with the aim of getting things off my chest. I also posted on Facebook where it got some traction. What I wrote was this: Tomorrow Britain faces a huge decision, the most important and significant one since I became politically aware when Neil Kinnock was elected leader of the Labour Party in the early 1980s. The result will determine much of the future of Britain, but also that of our European friends and neighbours. It is very likely that its impacts will be felt further afield also. Since 2008 the world has been dealing with an economic crisis which we may slowly be beginning to come out of. The world is also suffering from crises of other and even more devastating kinds on a human level. The fighting raging in Syria means people have no choice but to flee to escape the absolute reality of death. Boko Harem attacks continue in Nigeria and neighbouring countries. We have terrorist attacks killing and destroying the lives of innocent people in Europe, Africa, and elsewhere. The list goes on. At times like these, countries around the world need to work together closely to work towards solving these problems. The answers will be complex, difficult and not easy to find. They require a determination to work together and to find commonalities, and to cooperate over many years. They require the ability to understand nuance and complexity. If we are to succeed in this, our countries need to trust each other. Yet since the UK general election last year, and before also, so much of the political discourse in the UK has been an inward-looking discussion about whether we as a nation should turn our backs our neighbours and friends, and strike out on our own, dreaming of returning to a historical ideal which never really existed. If Britain votes to leave the EU we will spend at least two years negotiating the exit with our neighbours. Trade agreements with other world countries will take a long time to establish also. Which countries will be excited about setting up such arrangements? Doing all this will require lots of political effort and additional human resources to get the work done. All this will have significant cost. To go ahead and leave, we will damage our close relationships with our closest partners. Our voice will be diminished, not enhanced. In the EU, we can influence decisions and policies and ensure they are heard outside Europe. If we are outside the EU, we will no doubt be seen as a nation which is only in it for the good times, but runs away when the going gets tough. Such a perception would harm our global reputation. It seems almost like the child in the playground who is happy with the rules to a game when they are winning, but as soon as things aren’t going so well for them, they storm off in a temper. Others end up not wanting to play with that child. Britain should never become that child. We hear so much criticism of the European Union, some of it justified, but so much misdirected and often incorrect. Certainly there are things to be improved. Yet we must remember that no system is perfect, and Britain might do well to seriously look at how to improve democracy in our own country where it is so easy for a party with less than 40% of the national vote to govern with an overall majority in parliament. This to me seems a far more absurd situation than having a European Commission which is appointed by agreement among the elected governments of the EU member states, and has a democratically elected European Parliament to oversee it. So whilst I say, yes let’s look at how we can reduce the democratic deficit in the EU, let us sort out our internal system too. Why are Brexit supporters not making noise about that? Then we come to the fact of the benefits which the EU brings, ranging from workers’ rights, environmental protection, consumer rights, etc. However, I would like to emphasise one in particular which I witness every day in my work, and that it the way that having the European Union provides a system where scientists and researchers across the continent are able to come together, collaborate and make discoveries which will have an impact on people’s lives, not just in Europe but across the world. Bio-genomics, cancer research, climate change research, crop research, health care. All things which directly can have a positive outcome on the lives of each and every European citizen. Yet it isn’t just about the money, it’s about how the funding is provided. Researchers with common interests are able to draw up a single proposal for a particular theme which they submit together to a single funding source. A single decision comes out, yes or no. Without this, the partners risk having to each apply to their own funding sources, with the risk that just one rejection could scupper a project accepted by other funding sources. For funding from multiple sources to work, coordination would be needed among different countries’ funding sources. That would cost. Yet the EU already does this. So the European Union is not just about money and figures which you can try and put a finger on. It’s about collaboration. Collaboration among countries, collaboration among governments, collaboration among scientists… Collaboration, collaboration, collaboration. We hear too much on immigration and how it overwhelms us. Good arguments have been made about this and how the Leave arguments are off target (David Cameron has made a good one in the last 24 hours, even). But I would like to tackle this subject on a personal level. I recall preparing for my GCSEs back in the late 1980s. In the discourse I prepared for my French oral exam on what I would like to do in life, I talked of working in R&D to find solutions to environmental issues (hydrogen-run engines is what I had in mind). However, what I emphasised was my excitement of the opening of Europe in 1992 which would enable me to travel and work around Europe more easily than ever. The first part of the talk was wide of the mark (though through my work today I do make a small contribution to enabling researchers to do their amazing work), but the second point has been a determining part of my life. I have lived and worked in France, Germany and Spain. I moved to Spain on a whim in February 2000, and thanks to the open borders, I was able to go, see if it worked and decide whether to stay or not. I did, and 16 years later I am married to a Spaniard and have a British and Spanish son. I want the opportunity for my son, wherever he lives, and all other British children to be able to have the excitement and life-enhancing experiences that this freedom of movement gave me. It is those experiences which bring people together, make them realise that there is so much more which unites people than divides them, and can help strengthen the close trust and friendships which the UK, the rest of Europe and the world need if we are to successfully deal with the challenges we face. There is so much more I could say, and I must admit that this has been written quite quickly on a two-hour flight, so I am sure it could be improved a lot. However, it sets out the essence of what I want to say, which is this: a vote for Remain is a vote for the UK.

I think the problem is we have no idea. We voted without a manifesto. We don't know the policy approach on any of the issues we now face.

It may take generations... if ever... No?