02 Jun COLUMNIST: The 23rd is our last opportunity … writes Sabina Lee
I believe Britain is the greatest country in the world with a rich history of leading the way for others to follow. We invented the light bulb, the telephone, the television, the internet and of course my personal favourite, the chocolate bar. However, it is the British invention of the modern system of democracy that is arguably our most important invention.
Britain has the fifth largest economy in the world. We have the best armed forces in the world. Our capital city, London, is the financial centre of the world and we have a leadership role in NATO. Yet we are being told by some that we if we vote to leave the EU on 23rd June, we face disastrous consequences to our economy, to our ability to defend ourselves against terrorism and to our financial and political standing in the world.
Whilst she was Prime Minister, Baroness Thatcher argued against Britain joining the Euro; a position which ultimately played a significant role in her being forced to resign. However, her far reaching vision has now been recognised with the catastrophic failure of the European single currency project. The Euro has created economic misery for Europe’s poorest people by destroying jobs and creating recessions. If we had of joined the Euro would we still be the fifth largest economy in the world now?
Over the centuries, Britain has fought many wars and lost millions of lives in our fight against Europe falling under the dominance of a single power; a concept at the very heart of the Napoleonic and Nazi regimes which brought war, death and destruction all four corner of Europe. We fought these wars to preserve the sovereignty of the European countries and the freedom of the European people.
Since we joined the EU, or the ECC as it was then called, in 1973, our sovereignty and our freedoms have been slowly eroded. We have lost our fishing waters and seen the destruction of our fishing fleet at the hands of the EUs Common Fisheries Policy; we have witnessed the criminalisation of our weights and measures system; we have experienced the collapse of our ability to control our borders leading to uncontrollable immigration that has overwhelmed our infrastructure, public services and housing supply; and we have been left helpless as our British courts of law have been overruled by Europe when trying to deport known terrorists and preachers of hate from our country in the name of human rights.
Baroness Thatcher wrote that the attempt to create a European ‘Superstate’ would be seen in the future as having been ‘the greatest folly of the modern era’. I believe the referendum on 23rd June is our last opportunity to abandon the foolishness of this failed experiment before Britain not only loses our identity, our sovereignty and our freedom, but more importantly loses the ability to ever self-govern again.
