“I might well point out that leaving the EU in the hope of a better world for all, but mainly us, was idealistic nonsense.”
It’s nothing to do with idealism, Jim, but simple realism. On the contrary, the idea of the EU (in its ultimate form of a Federal Europe) is the truest manifestation of idealistic nonsense. No other nation in the world (outside the EU, that is) would succumb to the demands of the EU. No nation would sacrifice its right to determine who does and does not settle within its borders; no nation would sacrifice its legislature to a foreign court as the ultimate arbiter; no nation would acquiesce to laws made by a foreign power; no nation would forfeit the right to strike trade agreements with other countries but instead be subject to those settled on their behalf when their best interests may not be foremost. But these, among many other travesties enacted on behalf of the electorate, are what successive UK governments have facilitated to maintain our membership of the EU.
Last winter I met some Canadian people and we got chatting about our forthcoming referendum. They could not understand why we should want to quit the EU. Then I explained to them what membership really means and how they would feel had such conditions been foisted upon Canada (roughly on the lines of my remarks above). They were absolutely astonished and wondered how any UK government could ever have agreed to such conditions. They had no idea what membership really meant, believing the EU to be just a cosy “free trade” area.
As I said earlier, in not too many years’ time, people in the UK will look back in absolute amazement and wonder how on earth successive UK governments could have allowed such a scandalous diminution of sovereignty to develop.