I was all geared up to write a big, detailed, Harvard referenced (ok, maybe not the last one) case for remaining in the European Union, but you know what? I'm shattered. As well as fairly intense day at work, I made the mistake of attempting to have a sensible debate and to put to bed some of the lies and half-truths scattered around social media. I've spent an awful lot of time having any reasoned, researched arguments thrown back in my face. I could rebuke false claims until the EU-regulation reared cows come home, but anything I say, no matter how sensible or well, true, proves about as effective as telling a stubborn Brit it's too wet for the BBQ. No matter how many flaming lies I put out, someone's there desperately trying to light a new one.
So it's time to try a different tack. Clearly no-one trusts anyone any more so the notion of real evidence has been thrown out the window. I can only plea for some common sense and human decency to shine through. We're facing some huge global problems right now. Climate change, terrorism, economic instability. We shouldn't be facing them alone, we shouldn't be isolating ourselves, sticking our fingers in our ears and hoping the rest of the world will go away. It won't. We may be surrounded by the sea, but we exist in a bigger world and - for all the horrible things we see and hear about - a lot of it is actually rather nice.
So many people are talking about 'taking control' or 'getting our country back'. On the contrary, we'd be giving away control - losing our voice on an international platform. As for 'our country back' - from who exactly? From what exactly? I've grown up believing our pride in being British comes from our tolerance, our diversity, our irrefutable status as 'world's greatest but most begrudging queue formers' and our ability to mock anything and anyone - starting with ourselves. If our British-ness is being stolen, it's a culture problem stemming from this country and not from the EU.
As with so much in politics at the moment, it's my generation that will bear the brunt of the consequences if we wake up on Friday to find Britain has voted to leave the EU. We'll take the brunt of the economic fallout, we'll be the first to lose out on the fewer jobs available, and we'll be left to try and rebuild those precious, fragile bridges previous generations have fought (sometimes literally), to build. We've lost free education, decent graduate jobs, affordable housing and for the under 25s, even the right to be paid the same minimum wage, for the same work. Please, let us at least keep our EU membership.
The EU is about as perfect as my blister-ridden right foot (lovely image for you all there), but you get blisters from moving forward - running, jogging, wheezing, panting, putting one foot in front of the other until you finally make some sort of progress. No democracy is without its problems. Just as no family is. Just as no one person is. However, we've got to work together, with the people we like and the people we don't. Let's not be divisive, let's be progressive. I don't want to be the person standing alone next to the BBQ in the pouring rain, looking in on the rest of the family making some more realistic plans - together.
Please, I beg you, turn up tomorrow and vote for unity, for co-operation, for solidarity, for our future.
Don't leave it to chance
Don't leave it to someone else
Don't leave our voice in Europe
Vote remain tomorrow.
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