I will vote to leave whatever the cost may be

Their obsolete politics does not belong to our age

For reasons outlined on this blog, I do not believe Brexit will come at a heavy price. Both the EU and the UK have too much to lose by doing this any other way than carefully and amicably. The EU doesn't want uncertainty, and to an extent nor do we. The EU isn't interested in creating an economic catastrophe. A recession for us is a recession for them. We could survive one. The Euro, possibly, could not.

But supposing for a moment there were a heavy price to pay, it still doesn't affect my voting decision. And would this be a petty act of nationalistic vandalism? No. It is my belief that whatever the price is now, it is better to pay it while we can take our time. Better do it now than to revisit this bitter row later down the line when leaving becomes a necessity. We don't know for certain that an amicable split will even be possible after this opportunity. Nobody can make that guarantee.

What I do know though, and have always known, is that unless the EU reforms, one way or another, the project will fold. And while the prime minister can bleat about staying in a reformed EU, he knows his deal isn't binding. He also knows that the structures, the processes and the DNA of the EU will not in any way change, even slightly. The Leave campaign knows it, and even the people running the Remain campaign know it too.

Those behind the campaign to remain are merely counting on public fear, ignorance and political narcissism to carry them through. And the shrillness and the forcefulness of their insistence tells us that they are scared. Not in a sense that the smell imminent defeat. It's just the very idea of democracy, power in the hands of the people, really is anathema to them. If we had democracy we might vote to do something they didn't like and that would never do.

It is their own self-righteousness that forces them to think this way. The belief that their way is the only way and theirs is the only right way - and thus anyone who opposes them must be, by default, ignorant, wrong and bad. Europhillia is the ultimate in virtue signalling.

Behind it is a certain nihilism; that democracy can only ever produce selfish and and insular results. It is a continuance of the mindset of the EU's founding fathers. The idea that we savages must be broken of our primitive national habits, customs and identities - and this can only be achieved by removing the freedom to choose, while maintaining the illusion of democracy.

It is the Remain campaign that really smacks it home to me. We have a prime minister who doesn't shrink from telling one of the biggest political lies of the century and an establishment able and willing to use every tool at its disposal - no matter how low. Much of the inherent establishment advantage is one purchased with our own money over decades. The founding fathers always knew this day would come when their project was threatened by the need for change.

In this we see how the structures are rigged to make leaving so complex that the public think twice even though they know in their hearts that we should leave. It is a machine for whom the ends justify the means. And while it's methods are benign, the endgame is the same as any other conqueror - to concentrate all of the power in the hands of the few at the expense of the many - for our destinies to be decided by those who think they know how to run our lives better than we do. It has only ever ended one way. It has never succeeded.

This is why I am voting to leave. Humanity will never learn the lessons. It will repeat the cycle until there is no humanity - but every now and then, we are offered opportunities to change our inevitable path. This vote is one of them.

The one size-fits-alll post-war settlement imposed on the people's of Europe, without their knowledge or consent is creaking. It's own rigidity, it's own immunity to reform cannot withstand the stresses both internally and externally. Even Russia's belligerence can be attributed to this. Putin smells the discord and the stench of death about the EU - knowing that it will never be capable of decisiveness or unity. In this he feels confident in eroding the EU's sphere of influence, from Ukraine to the Balkans and all points between.

The EU has never shown itself capable of adequately responding to a crisis, instead it waits for crisis to become emergency. Even in the face of Britain drifting toward the exit it has shown itself incapable of heeding the warnings. Even in matters of trade and regulation, as this blog has detailed at length, we are witnessing a continued obsolescence. Thus we are left propping up a decaying relic through fear of uncertainty, when the certainty ahead of us is too horrific to even contemplate.

This referendum presents us with possibly our last chance to let go of the past, to free ourselves of the paranoias of old and being building new, global institutions that can break open Europe to the world so that we may all prosper. Europe can offer us the certainty of stagnation, and the relative, but all too temporary, safety of the familiar, but it can not offer us growth, nor can it offer us freedom or democracy.

It will always a be a euro-centric club for political elites whose ambitions outstrip their abilities. It will always see openness with the outside world as a threat and it will only ever build more barriers to the outside. It is the "little-englander" mentality on a continental scale. Fearful, timid and paranoid.

Should we instead choose another path, we can show real leadership in reviving multilateralism and cooperation. We can lead Europe out from under the dead hand of supranationalism - to finally put the politics of first half of the last century into the proper context. We can design a world more befitting the internet age. And if that comes at a price, then it is a price I am willing to pay. We have gone as far as we can with the post-war settlement. It really is time for change, lest we pay a price none of us wants to pay.