“It made getting out of the UK a lot easier for me. “
I don’t recall before the EU that it was all that difficult to leave the UK. Do you mean getting out of the UK is now easier, jomifl, or that getting into other European nations is less difficult? If the latter (as I suspect it is) then it is a convenience we would be better off without. The reason for this is that the ease with which UK citizens can enter other European countries is matched by the ease with which citizens of other EU nations can enter the UK. As you have seen from some of the posts here, many of us “Little Englanders” (and I’ll not react too strongly to that oft-hurled insult) are none too keen on that arrangement.
“In the UK you can have the vote even when you can't speak English and that cannot be blamed on the EU. “
No it most certainly cannot. The problem lies with the succession of politicians who have allowed the UK to be occupied by vast numbers of foreigners, many of them taking advantage of the ridiculous “freedom of movement” afforded by the EU. So whilst it is not the fault of the EU that non-English speakers can vote it certainly is the fault of the EU that many of them are resident here in the first place.
I read the entire article in yesterday’s Torygraph and BoJo makes some very pertinent points. The idea of a united trading bloc has undoubted merits and many of the features to which Jake refers are testament to that. I don’t think too many people (even among us “little Englanders”) would deny it. There are plenty of free trade areas throughout the world and they seem to work perfectly well without having to subjugate the citizens of their member states, with no need for “free movement” facilities and certainly no attempt to impose a single currency, a single foreign policy, legislature or defence arrangements. The EU has indeed outlived its purpose principally because the Federal ambitions of its leaders are causing friction within and between member states. Most European nations are not prepared to take the step into a Federal nation state and have no wish to become so. The plans for a Federal Europe as a single nation state are the aspects that the EU that most people who object to it rally against. It seems, fortunately that the tide is turning and further integration (i.e. interference in the affairs of sovereign states) seems less likely. I’m hoping that this will lead to the reversion of the EU to a simple free trade area and ambitions of a single state are consigned to the place they belong - the dustbin.