It was a busy week on the referendum front, I wonder if public interest can sustain this until 23 June.
Lord Howard of Lympne came out in favour of leaving the EU. I was his parliamentary private secretary when he was leader of the Opposition, then when David Cameron took over I became his parliamentary private secretary for the next seven years. There is a growing spat over the question of a second referendum arising from a better EU ‘offer’ prompted by a ‘No’ vote in the initial referendum. Personally, I only want one vote in one referendum: Out! I am confident that we can amicably agree the details subsequently without another vote.
There are risks that will arise from leaving the EU, including a possible economic shock, but there are risks too from staying. I hope that leaving will prove quite as shocking and as economically liberating as Konrad Adenauer’s withdrawal from the stifling regulatory regime imposed on post war Germany, and the abandonment of which gave rise to the ‘Wirtschaftswunder’ – their economic miracle.
Just think of the shock of not paying £billions to the EU; the shock of being released from £billions worth of regulatory burdens; I could go on, -and what is truly shocking is that we’ve put up with it for so long.