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1/18 Someone implied yesterday that I lied when I said I’d voted leave, which has me quite perplexed.
2/18 I’m a serving member of the Armed Forces and the concept of personal integrity is pressed home so hard and so often during training that even 25 years later, the idea of lying about something as significant as how I voted is just completely alien to me.
3/18 I do admit there’s not much in my twitter history from 3 years ago to substantiate my leave vote. I never campaigned hard to leave and was on the fence for a long time. For me, leaving represented an economic gamble, but one which at the time I thought might pay off.
4/18 So, in the event, I did vote leave because I hoped greater deregulation, combined with the freedom to agree independent trade deals would give our economy the flexibility and agility to grow quickly.
5/18 I thought, and still do, that the EU economy is stagnating and that EU leaders are struggling to find a way which enables the spontaneity and innovation which seems to create the Amazons, Googles and Apples we see so frequently popping up in the US, but rarely in the EU.
6/18 I’m ashamed to admit, particularly as a member of the military, that I completely overlooked Northern Ireland. I hadn’t appreciated quite how elegant the Good Friday Agreement is.
7/18 Appealing to Unionists by keeping NI in the UK, whilst allowing Republicans complete freedom of movement with an EU enabled invisible border is rather brilliant, the answer is that we’re all EU citizens, regardless of which side of the NI political divide you stand on.
8/18 Given the number of deaths during the troubles, this on its own should be a reason to stay in the EU.
9/18 I also admit that whilst I know a reasonable amount about battlefield strategic communications, I know chuff all about international trade deals. #3blokes in a pub with @everycountry and @JasonJHunter were a great education.
10/18 Trade deals are phenomenally complex time consuming efforts. My hope for rapid and simple trade negotiations I now accept to be complete fantasy.
11/18 Plus, despite our economic global ranking we’re mere minnows compared to the economic giants of China and the US. We have far greater trading clout as a member of the EU than out.
12/18 I think the mood music from business is increasingly bearing out the significant economic threats we face in going it alone.
13/18 I’d overlooked too the nasty underbelly of deregulation and now I’m torn between still thinking that it might encourage innovation, whist acknowledging that chlorinated chicken and a raft of other dubious practices are absolutely things we should regulate against.
14/18 Perhaps debating and agreeing considered regulations as part of the EU is actually a good way of saving us from the ultra-capitalist and self-serving policies which I think some on the far right would happily push through without a second thought to public safety.
15/18 I suspect another #peoplesvote is unlikely, but I would dearly love a chance to make amends and as a dedicated #Remainernow, would absolutely vote to stay. Paraphrasing @DavidTCdavies, if democracy can’t change its mind, it ceases to be a democracy.
16/18 At heart I’m a moderate Conservative and voted for my local MP @Scrabbpembs in the last election. I would consider voting Conservative again if they supported remaining in the EU, otherwise I’ll support someone else.
17/18 I still think the EU has problems but their closeness to us as trading partners is not going to change. Helping the EU fix those problems from inside the organization probably has economic benefits for them and us over and above the amount we pay in.
18/18 I’m passionately patriotic but I think that UK patriotism shouldn’t necessarily be mutually exclusive from being passionate members of the EU. Who cares if we have to agree to straight bananas.
