I AM writing this just after voting in the referendum deciding on whether Britain should remain in or leave the European Union.
The referendum results will be out before these scribblings go to press, but even so, it’s not going to change the facts.
And the key fact is that whatever Britain does, the EU experiment has not worked.
With a million refugees currently streaming into Europe, many of whom are not only unassimilable but virulently hostile to Western values, the continent is nearing a tipping point of cultural no return.
Also, taking into account that several EU members such as Greece are on the verge of economic collapse anyway, why would anyone want to be part of an organisation where the weak links are as brittle as old sticks?
I won’t bore you with the manifestos of either camp, although apart from anything else, the issue is splitting families down the middle.
In the Spence household we are divided evenly; the brats voted to remain while management and I voted to leave.
Fortunately, agreeing to disagree among us is amicable, but I think we are a snapshot of many middle-class folk; the oldies want ‘out’ while the youngsters want ‘in’.
That worries me more than anything else. If the ‘leave’ vote wins, a lot of young people will believe that the ‘selfish’ older generation has ruined their futures by being grumpy Middle-Englanders.
Generally speaking, the camps are divided along fairly predictable lines. Among the ruling elite, to vote to leave the EU is one notch lower than being a paedophile, but marginally better than being a racist.
For the affluent young, ‘remain’ theoretically means getting work anywhere in the EU, no visas for travel, and generally being part of a group-hug hipster ideology.
For blue-collar youngsters who don’t want to spend a year abroad as Starbucks baristas, ‘remain’ means unfair competition at the frontline with immigrants for the decreasing number of less-skilled jobs.
Strawman arguments
For verbose economists, those from the left say that Britain faces economic ruin if we leave – which doesn’t explain why some Eurozone countries are already ruined – while those on the right say to remain hinders trade with the real global players; China, India and increasingly, Africa with its huge untapped mineral wealth.
But to me, these arguments are strawmen.
What I have seen in my 16 years here are communities increasingly split to the core by often angry outsiders from the emerging world (the EU controls UK border policy) with whom they have nothing in common.
Indeed, the entire European immigration scheme could be a blueprint on how to break societal cohesion. Immigrants are encouraged to be anything they want – except English. Many councils ban the flying of English flags on their premises.
However, the issue is far bigger than mere immigration, and I am not saying that just because I am a newcomer myself. The biggest existential threat to the West – not only Europe – is internal.
The obvious external dangers are being handled: ISIS is on the verge of battlefield defeat in Syria and Iraq, while Osama bin Laden is at the bottom of the ocean.
But why is the world more uncertain and unstable than it has been for the last half-century? Why are there far more nuclear terrorism threats today than there were at the height of the Cold War?
It’s because Europe has a seething mass of citizens in our cities who hate everything people like me stand for. From drinking brewskis to freedom of marriage, I am as unassimilable to some cultures sweeping into Europe as they are to mine.
It is causing huge tensions, from collapse of health and education services in some areas to costs of policing.
For example, to put every ISIS sympathiser in England under surveillance would involve up to 60% of the police force. That alone has shaken the luvvies big time – I mean, if that many coppers have to watch ISIS suspects, who is going to police the ‘vast right wing conspiracy?’
The seminal issue is not whether Britain votes to leave or remain. It’s something far more irreplaceable; the cultural soul of a continent.
