Are there positives to leaving?
Hi fellow Dusty 👋 😊
It depends what measures you use to define 'positives' tbh
For me personally, I've been vaguely Eurosceptic since early 90s. Was vaguely aware back then of the ERM debacle & John Major signing us up to the Maastricht Treaty & putting us on the path to an integrated Europe & single currency.
(It's only years later I actually looked into it all in more detail)
The accession of Eastern European countries in the 2000s made me more hardened against the European project as one size does not fit all - there is a place for a trading block of nation states, but not a federation of unequal parties.
The rapid advancements in technology etc & the subsequent shrinking world over the last few decades were unprecedented & big trading blocks such as the EU were less of a good idea in a globalised arena - better to have the ability to be agile, dynamic & competitive as an autonomous nation state in my view.
Gordon Brown signing up to the Lisbon Treaty was the point at which I became a hardened Eurosceptic. It was the EU constitution in all but name, and we had been promised a ref on it & then were denied it.
I do not want to be part of a federal Europe, I do not like that our Parliament is not the independent, sole & final arbiter of our affairs.
I think our MPs got lazy & inept over the last few decades because they were less accountable due to EU supranational governance. They rubber stamped everything & threw their hands up because 'it's been mandated, we have no choice 🤷🏻♀️' which was mostly incompetence & laziness on their part (imo)
I also hate that we are dictated to as to how to spend our own recirculated money (as a net contributor)
I did not want 'ever closer union'
I do not approve of the opaque & convoluted way that the EU is managed & run
I do not approve of the wastage that goes on such as the unnecessary schlepping between Strasbourg & Brussels
The slogan from the ref rang true with me: take back control of borders, laws, money, waters & sovereignty.
For me, they are the positives of leaving - we will be the masters of our own destiny & the people we directly elect to run our country, & who are directly accountable to us will be in control. We can directly kick them out if they let us down.
These reasons may not be 'positives' to you, but they are to me - & I understand that my reasons may seem intangible or ideological to you.
Nonetheless, your reasons for wanting to remain are just as important & valid to you as mine are to me (to leave)
Where I am now, is that I want democracy to be upheld & this is more important to me than anything else at the moment.
I'd like the WAB to pass as I think it provides a stable transitional arrangement with immediate freedoms from the EU.
I am not an advocate of no deal, not at all, but if it came to it then I would take that over revoke & remain.
Massive essay, sorry, but I tried to explain as much as poss instead of a flippant soundbite for a change...