EU Referendum (part 2)

Back in 1975 I was against staying in because the EEC was little more than a Ponzi scheme to guarantee farmers, particularly French farmers, money for overproduction; my farming relatives were very much in favour though.
It really wasn’t until the late 80s that it started to behave more rationally, and I reluctantly have to credit Thatcher for that because the UK rebate and the final Maastricht treaty were very much down to her team, it was no longer just about farmers. Throw in the Nordic and Germanic nations becoming environmentally aware (thanks to acid rain killing their forests) and voting a significant green block into the EP, finally the EU started doing good stuff; acting to control acid rain and water pollution, promoting protection of ecosystems, and latterly a level playing field of workers rights to ensure that members can’t compete within the single market by exploiting their own citizens. Mistakes were made, but no more significant than those made by the sovereign parliaments of the member nations. But as the 90s progressed the big mistake we in the UK made was dumbing down our representation to the point where they just turned up to claim the maximum money for the least effort and actually represented the caricature portrayed in our national media of pigs in the trough profiting from the EU gravy train. This ultimately handed power to the Brussels civil servants who would invent and promote ever more obtuse policies knowing that the parliament had become ineffective. This wasn’t helped by our own parliament’s perverse willingness to then over interpret and legislate for EU regulations.
So yes the EU has become undemocratic but it doesn’t have to be. The real target of the free marketeer libertarians behind Brexit is in fact some of the really good stuff that has come out of the EU, things that protect our environment, our everyday safety and our freedoms. The libertarian right want these freedoms for themselves but don’t think you deserve them. Thanks to the tide of support for Brexit they probably will achieve the low tax, zero regulation, Dickensian free market they desire, a “society” that exploits the vast majority and totally screws the environment and future generations. It’s your choice – use it wisely.