IT seems in the national press as if the Referendum is like a: ‘whether to buy a cinema ticket or not’ argument. Reality check: it is a possible vote for years of extensive, complex unwinding and replacing of all useful EU laws and regulations instead with our own ‘re-inventions of the wheel’ and protracted trade agreement-making.

Consider our environment, Keith Clarke, vice-president of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), has bluntly stated: “I don’t think the UK would have got anywhere close to the same level of air quality and water legislation without Europe.” So don’t assume the UK would champion the same environmental standards that we’ve enjoyed from Europe, nor that Europe will bend over to make everything so convenient for us at their expense. The argument: ‘we can enjoy the same trading benefits outside as inside’, is glib, fanciful nonsense.

My late uncle, who lost both his brothers in WWII and survived to be 94, knew how wicked and stupid war was. It was conflict born out of walls not bridges. Austria has only just narrowly defeated a racist far-right presidential candidate. In Greece, 2015 continued to see the rise of the nazi-like Golden Dawn whilst in France, Marie Le Pen maintains solid support. They are building walls to isolate, and isolationism breeds extremism. Our ready-made wall is the sea, which calls for us to make a greater effort to engage.

Xenophobic-like reactions fuelled by austerity and the sight of barrel-bombed refugees across Europe, serve these Brexit evangelists of isolationism. Whilst across the Atlantic, the dangerous clown Trump mimics.

Our UK austerity, simply stoking these pressures, is a political choice. When, instead, we could be investing to make the country cheaper, more efficient and more civilised for the future. With the plausibility of yet another financial crash all Europe, UK included, is still not safe from further political repercussions.

In my lifetime, the planet's population has trebled. My childhood neighbourhood no longer matches my memories. The climate is changing catastrophically, the natural world’s biodiversity is being crushed, 60 years on, I do not want any of this change. But there is no choice. so we must work with the world we have, engaging with each other, and strive together to better our world. We can learn the best from Europe as much as they can learn from us. Our Europe and Our Country: the best of both.

The genesis of the EU was the visionary riposte to WWII’s 55 million dead. Edward Heath, who observed the fascist Spanish Civil War, who after D-day fought across Europe and into Germany, and who attended the Nuremberg Trials, knew all too well the fragility of Europe’s civilisation. More than 40 years ago he argued for the UK to be part of a European vision and for the UK to work to improve it.

That Vision is about community, about moving forward the best of European civilisation. There lies our history and our future. Our vote should be for our children, for the decades to come.

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