Happy referendum day! I'm voting for change; freedom and democracy. I believe the decision we make today has the potential to shape our nation in a life altering way. I hope people will vote to have more of a say in that future than we currently do. We are a island nation and there are benefits to being an island. I find the 'no man is an island,' (worn by some of the celebrities) rhetoric particularly lame. To vote to leave is not to vote for isolation; neither is it a cry for war if some of the nonsense that is being espoused is to be believed. I vote not to be subsumed by Europe, though I love our European cousins. Before the EU we got along just fine, and I believe we can again. No relationship should be forged on the threat of what could happen were that relationship not to continue. I vote for independence. I vote for democracy. I vote to have a say in the major decisions that affect the world. I vote, in short, for as much freedom as can currently be mustered and then (if we are able to come out), hopefully we can vote for more, not less!
I also vote as a Christ follower and as someone who despises slavery in every form, bureaucratic or otherwise. Don't forget, this is the country that has given us Wilberforce and many other abolitionists, philanthropists and reformers - look how we influences America to abolish slavery then - and without Europe Mr Obama! And how hard America fought for independence from Britain. It really is a grave thing to give up sovereignty, I believe. As a woman, I would never give up my hard won vote, to give up sovereignty is in the same bracket only worse so. We have a chance to get our sovereignty back before it is too late; if we do not, I believe we will see our best values eroded in the name of liberalism as we know it today.
Unity does not need to mean uniformity; let us cut the ties that bind and forge new ones: with Europe and the world. It concerns me that the time may come where the decisions we make regarding the Middle East will be out of our hands. It is important that Israel remains stable in the Middle East and Britain has always recognised this. I am not sure that our European neighbours will feel the same. This to me, is a terrifying prospect.
Let us take the opportunity to lead (or continue to do so) in the areas of compassion, reaching out to the world and beyond. A vote to leave should not be governed by the fear of the other; our country thrives on inclusion; nor of the fear of being out of pocket: we have, as a nation, always had finer qualities than the focusing on our own pockets: surely, qualities that have always reached out to the world in every sense. Let's exercise them! In the spirit of Wilberforce, let us do something radical and 'dangerous.' Let us go it alone and continue to affect the world as a force for good.
