Peace, security and prosperity have been ensured in Europe over the past 60 years through the combined hard power of Nato and soft power of the EU, previously the European communities. We must never forget what Europe was like in the first half of the 20th century. The European communities (and now the union) have provided an antidote to the poison of European nationalism. This is not ancient history. In the 1990s, the EU faced a task, for which it was uniquely qualified – that of helping to reconfigure the political architecture and security of Europe after the collapse of the Soviet empire. The UK was at the forefront of the project that brought 11 new member states into the EU and into Nato.
The EU is our immediate neighbourhood. If it were to fail in its geopolitical role, the stability and security of the UK would be profoundly affected. We need to be in a position to exercise direct and significant influence over the union’s performance of this role, to make sure that it does not fail; and also that EU foreign and security policy evolves in a way that chimes with our interests. That means being at the table when policy is being made. This is the overwhelming, the unanswerable argument for our voting on Thursday to remain in the EU.
Alan Dashwood QC
London
• On 11 April 1917, Company Sergeant Major William George Dromey died at Arras. He is buried in the Thiepval cemetery, lovingly cared for by the gardeners of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Some 67 years later, I stood in this cemetery as the national officer of the old Transport and General Workers’ Union, representing the gardeners. The great Ernie Bevin had affiliated the then Empire War Graves Commission to the T&G in 1938. The gardeners were old soldiers. Their leader, Bert Barrett, was an old soldier who stormed ashore on D-day, fought his way to central Belgium, was badly wounded and then fell in love with and married the nurse caring for him, staying on to care for the graves.
Bert took me down row after row of the graves. It was heartbreaking – 18, 20, 19, 23, unknown, unknown. The flower of British youth cut down on foreign fields. 80% of the war dead from the two great world wars are buried in those graves in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. More mowed down in their prime in those two wars than in all other wars in human history. I was close to tears. Bert, too, had a tear in his eye. Then, quoting Winston Churchill, he said: “Europe must come together, Jack. Some of my best friends died on Normandy beaches. Never, ever again. Europe is now at peace.”
Bert was right. We have had 70 years of peace in a Europe riven, to this day, with problems and tensions and facing growing threats from the east. But it is inconceivable now that our continent, standing together, would be engulfed in a third world war. That is a prize hard won through European cooperation and not to be tossed aside by breaking away from Europe on Thursday.
Jack Dromey MP
Labour, Birmingham Erdington and formerly deputy general secretary of the T&G
• I always tell my friends that relationships and marriages that break down never end – they merely change, sometimes radically. Though I have postal voted leave I have a loathing for both campaigns, each of which is selling a false prospectus. The real outcome of a vote either way will be neither remain nor leave. It will be a fundamental reshaping of our relationship with Europe. Neither the political class, nor the corporate sector, will allow us to simply cut our financial ties and trade agreements. Even if we vote to leave, that merely signals the start of a process over a period of years. Equally, if we vote to remain, the shockwaves caused by this close call will be augmented by similar pressures elsewhere in the union – Greece first, then Spain, Poland, the Baltic states – and the EU will be reshaped.
Meanwhile, all the warnings about recession, threats to jobs, devolution pressures, calamity for the NHS, erosion of sovereignty, incompetence at handling the refugee crisis humanely, capital flight and so on will continue as a home–grown, chronic disaster under both Brexit and Remain politicians. I voted leave because the threat of separation is often a useful shock, forcing both parties into long-overdue critical reflection.
Professor Saville Kushner
University of Auckland
• I read in one of Owen Jones’s books, so it must be true, that the establishment always give just enough to ordinary people to keep them happy while keeping the status quo of wealth and power for themselves. I have been door-knocking for weeks now as part of the referendum campaign and it feels to me that we are close to breaking point among ordinary people. There is a lot of anger and much of it is about the bread and butter services that government is meant to provide, rather than the geopolitics of the European Union. People have been told that all their problems are caused by the EU and that leaving will solve them. As this is obviously not the case, people are going to be very angry whatever the result. Anyway, I’m not sure who the establishment is or how to get in touch with them but thought I’d better let someone know.
Paul Brannen
Labour MEP for the North East of England
• With most of the great and good calling me stupid and racist, I’m starting to think they may be right. I live in a world where the minimum wage is the maximum wage. I wait for a text that allows me to work a 12-hour night shift with working conditions that are worse than when I started working in the 1980s. I’m told that working conditions are better now than ever and will worsen if we leave. I used to get a premium for working nights and weekends. I used to have a common language with my work colleagues, now I’m the one with a language barrier. Sorry, I’m being stupid and racist now. I’m competing for work against Eastern Europeans who are mostly upper-working class and who can earn more doing an unskilled job here than a skilled or semi-skilled job at home. What chance do I have with no qualifications? The jobs I used to do are no longer available to me. But thanks to the EU I can go and work in the east for £2 an hour. Or am I being stupid again?
If you want to help the people at the bottom, please vote to leave. If you want cheap social care, nannies, and cleaners and if you want two for a pound apple turnovers, vote remain. But don’t pretend that you care about the people at the bottom in any way.
Seth Neale
Launceston, Cornwall
• While not all trade unionists agree with the TUC’s view to remain in the EU (Letters, 22 June), it was good to see TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady speaking out for ordinary working people at the Wembley debate. A reminder that the referendum is about a lot more than middle-aged Tories in suits fighting it out to decide who the next leader of their party should be.
Keith Flett
London
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