Should We Stay or Should We Go

Just climbed a mountain. Glaslyn lake is in the background

Tomorrow is the day when the UK decides whether to stay in the EU or leave it. A big day. The results of this referendum will impact us all in ways that both campaigns have been trying to varying degrees to elucidate and quantify. Yet who really knows what will happen with either outcome?

There are those who say that remaining part of the EU is like clinging to the side of a sinking ship, and others who say that leaving it would trigger its collapse. Some maintain that Britain would be a weaker country outside the EU with less global clout (notably Obama and other world leaders). Others insist that we would stand on our own two feet as the world's fifth largest economy and be able to forge closer links with emerging economies.

Then there's the plethora of other factors that should be considered if we did snip the knot - will big companies desert us? Will house prices plummet? (About time, perhaps.) Will regulations protecting the environment and labour rights be scrapped? Will we all have to start picking our own fruit if the Eastern European migrant workers aren't allowed in? Will our economy simply implode?

No doubt a lot of you have got rather desperate at the lack, so far, of any advice from this blog author on which way to vote tomorrow. As even conservative estimates say that 60% of the British population are active followers of this blog, the next paragraph or two will in all probability determine the future of our nation.

Will I, as a (very) small business-person, be advocating Leave so as to rid ourselves of all those ridiculously burdensome EU rules that simply make it almost impossible to conduct trade for a profit? On the other hand, will I as a (very) small farmer be calling for us to Remain so as to ensure the continued annual receipt of subsidies through the Single Farm Payment?

Well, as neither the burdensome rules nor the subsidies actually reach me in any way, I am able to call this one with a free conscience. I suggest we all vote as I voted a few weeks ago by post:

Yes, let's stick with those pesky mainland-Europeans. We are Europeans too, believe it or not (the Channel only cut us off a blink of geological time ago.) The EU needs reforming but we should stay involved and work together to reform it. We would not do well as an island-fortress. Being part of a large bloc gives us all more of a chance to counter the ever-increasing global force of China, and of the huge multinationals who seem to be wresting ever more power from democratic governments (eg ISDS in the TTIP negotiations). And Britain staying in will give other countries less of a reason to quit the EU. The more we work with, talk with and trade with our close neighbours the less chance there is of a descent into armed conflict. Let's stay in.