By Peter Marshall
I don’t usually vote at the national level because there is no real choice between the existing parties. They are all committed to a national parliament and have top-down solutions. Voting only encourages career politicians; if it genuinely changed things, they would abolish it.
However, I have recently voted in the referendum to leave the European Union mainly for the following reasons:
I
would rather be a citizen of the world than a member of a
narrow,largely white,undemocratic, centralized, capitalist superstate of
Europe.
I don’t see why 70 per cent of UK law should be
made by unelected commissionaires in Brussels and UK judges should be
overriden.
I don’t see why rich European states in the north
should dictate terms to poorer countries in the south of Europe, such
as Germany with Greece. Greece will never be able to repay its debts.
It comes as no surprise that the head of the IMF, the President of the US and the main transnational corporations would like Britain to remain part of the EU. It would mean business as usual.
I think there
is more chance of Britain forming a loose alliance of countries of the
world and to create a democratic, participatory, ecological, equal
and free society in the future outside the iron fetters of the EU than
within it.
I am in reasonably good company on the left as
well as the bad company of the ‘little Englanders’ on the right. What
unites them is a belief in greater democratic control over Britain’s
future although we differ widely over our beliefs, visions and goals.
Obviously,
as my books and actions vividly illustrate, I am no racist. I also
think we should help and receive political refugees from war-torn
countries.
You may disagree with me but I believe in the
freedom of thought, expression and action. It is only through adopting
these principles that any moral or social improvement can be made.
I may disagree with you but I accept wholeheartedly your claim to express an opinion, whatever it might be.