The money we pay for membership is balanced by the speed and simplicity of free trade with our neighbours. If we want to do anything at all about climate change, importing butter and lamb from New Zealand makes little sense. Most of our trade is with the EU, and the US have been very clear that they will insist we drop our food hygiene standards as part of any deal. Of course, any strong country or organisation sets the rules for trade with weaker ones, but we are deliberately making ourselves weaker than any partner worth trading with.
So many lies have been told about the EU that one would have to question the motivation. Even if a tenth of the horror stories were true, they would still be lost in the muddle of rubbish. Who would do that? We know that Russia and the US want us out of the EU. Both are large, powerful countries threatened by much smaller countries joining together.
The individual personalities are also telling. Jacob Rees-Mogg tells us it will be fifty years before the common man feels any benefit. The figure is irrelevant: he is telling us it is in our interests, but without having to take responsibility for anything. He will be gone before the 50 years is up. What he has done, though, is protected his hedge fund by basing it in the EU. This is a gamble that only wins if we lose, or he would have kept it here. Michael Gove, joint leader of the Leave campaign, is urging colleagues to back Theresa May's deal. Not even remainers think the deal is leaving the EU in meaningful terms, thus demonstrating that he had no real conviction but was treating it as a stage in his political advancement. Boris Johnson, the other leader of that campaign, was already known to have decided very late which side to support. He is now protecting paedophile sex offenders to deflect from his role in the devastation he has wrought. Honestly, you couldn't make it up.
Nigel Farage, surely the biggest hypocrite in history, draws a handsome income from the EU while slagging it off. His exploits are legendary: running in to make a condemnation of something irrelevant to the business of the day before leaving again, posting the clip on YouTube and heading for the pub. He so despises Johnny Foreigner getting jobs here that his most senior staff member is German. His BFF Arron Banks has jumped into bed with Putin just as Farage did with Trump, buying a fake diamond mine in Lesotho to help disguise the source of his funding.
The leavers would not have shut up and gone home if the result had been reversed, whatever they tell you. It is right to keep challenging. The Leave campaign was riddled with corruption, lies and misuse of personal data. Rejoining at a future date would not return us to our current position as we would no longer have the opt-outs and rebates we currently do.
On to point of all that is the investment the EU makes here. While the government plays favourites with funding, keeping London wealthy and the regions poor, the EU sponsors programmes in deprived areas. The irony is that the areas that voted most strongly to leave will lose most if we do.