Well I'll be voting to stay in the EU, and here are some reasons why:
1. Most of my friends work for multinational corporations who have their European headquarters here in the UK. I can't see those companies keeping their European operations based in a non-EU England. And it would probably be England, not the UK any more, because the Scots would vote to leave the UK so that they could stay in the EU, and they'd take their North Sea oil too.
2. I don't buy the line that all our troubles are caused by Europe. The EU is a convenient scapegoat, but actually many of our daily problems are home-grown. Nanny-statism, absurdly over-cautious 'Health & Safety' rules, unfathomable tax credits, massive City banker bungs? All born & bred in England.
3. The 'Norwegian model' is an illusion. Even those dangerous lefty europhiles at the Telegraph had this to say:
"The so-called “Norway” model – leave the EU but remain part of the European Economic Area – would incur 94 per cent of the same costs, but without any voting power to advance reform. Last week, meanwhile, the same think tank noted that leaving the EU and exposing UK business to the imposition of Continental tariffs would prove particularly damaging to our vital financial services industry."
And have you ever ordered a beer in Norway? Budget £10 a pop. Yes, Norway is a fabulously expensive country, with far higher taxes than the UK. After a year of the Norwegian experience the Brits would be begging to be let back into the good old cheap EU.
4. I don't care for nationalism. It's caused nothing but suffering, whether its the Germans fighting the French, the Bosnians v the Serbs, the Palestinians v the Israelis or any other conflict. I want to be part of a wider Europe, I really value being able to work, travel and live freely anywhere in the EU. My work colleagues in other European countries are genuinely perplexed by the Brit attitude of whingeing from the sidelines - they ask 'why don't you want to work together with everyone else?'
5. Things won't all be tickety-boo if we pull up the drawbridge and keep Johnny Foreigner out. Do you really want to go back to eating Spam sandwiches, drinking mild ale & measuring stuff in chains and furlongs? And of course you'll have to swap the Maser for a rickety old Austin-Healey when they slap import charges on those foreign spare parts.