I voted for the Common Market in 1975 and, with hindsight, I realise I was sold a false prospectus and, while it may not have been the world’s biggest mis-selling scandal, it has certainly been the UK’s.
As a trading nation, having access to a larger ‘home’ market seemed attractive.
What we were not told was that 40 years later, more than 70 per cent of our laws would come from the EU, that the European Court would overrule British justice and an unelected elite in Brussels would determine our country’s future.
In the current campaign, neither side has covered itself in glory. However, what is clear is that the renegotiation we were told was an essential requirement for us to remain in the EU failed to achieve any material change whatsoever.
If we could not achieve the changes the EU desperately needs before the referendum, what chance do we have in the future as just one of 28 around the table? Quite simply – none.
The fact is, the EU is a failed experiment which is locked into the slow lane of history. It has a declining share of world trade and a financial system on the verge of collapse.
No financial adviser worthy of the name would invest in a company that could not produce proper accounts, yet the EU’s accounts have been subject to qualification for more than 20 years. If you would not invest in the EU, why risk your grandchildren’s future in it?
This debate, however, should not be about whether leaving the EU will cause famine or a plague of locusts, but rather what kind of nation we want our grandchildren to inherit.
Will we be a nation confident of its place in the world and free from the dead hand of the EU, or a province on the fringe of Europe at the mercy of the ever-increasing bureaucracy emanating from Brussels?
Freed from the EU, I believe we will see a release of energy and enterprise which will ensure our prosperity for generations. Ken DavyThe remainers cannot say what the EU will be like in 10 or 20 years, we just know it will get worse, with more bureaucracy and less democracy.
Equally, the leave camp cannot quantify the gains we will make. However, I believe we have every reason to be confident of our future outside the EU. We have the world’s fifth largest economy, a permanent seat on the UN Security Council and are key members of the Nato alliance.
We have also successfully traded across the world for more than 1,000 years based on our ability, creativity and courage, along with the determination and inventiveness of successive generations of entrepreneurs and business leaders.
We have all of these attributes and more, yet Brussels has total supremacy over trade. We cannot do a deal directly with Fiji, let alone some of the world’s most successful emerging economies.
Freed from the EU, I believe we will see a release of energy and enterprise which will ensure our prosperity for generations, and that our grandchildren will inherit a confident and successful UK.
Furthermore, we will be a nation which controls its own destiny and its own borders, makes its own laws and elects its own leaders.
The bureaucrats of Brussels cannot be trusted to safeguard our country or our values. We were mis-sold a vision in 1975 which has become a nightmare. Speaking personally, I am not prepared to be mis-sold again. My vote will definitely be for the UK to leave the EU.
Ken Davy is chairman of Simplybiz Group