Michael Gove announced this weekend that he would campaign to leave the EU. To accompany this announcement, he wrote a 1,500 word article giving his reasons for his decisions. Whatever you think of Michael Gove, his piece is very well written. In two paragraphs he distills the key reason why I think most people should vote to leave. Gove writes:
My starting point is simple. I believe that the decisions which govern all our lives, the laws we must all obey and the taxes we must all pay should be decided by people we choose and who we can throw out if we want change. If power is to be used wisely, if we are to avoid corruption and complacency in high office, then the public must have the right to change laws and Governments at election time.
But our membership of the European Union prevents us being able to change huge swathes of law and stops us being able to choose who makes critical decisions which affect all our lives. Laws which govern citizens in this country are decided by politicians from other nations who we never elected and can’t throw out. We can take out our anger on elected representatives in Westminster but whoever is in Government in London cannot remove or reduce VAT, cannot support a steel plant through troubled times, cannot build the houses we need where they’re needed and cannot deport all the individuals who shouldn’t be in this country. I believe that needs to change. And I believe that both the lessons of our past and the shape of the future make the case for change compelling.
This is the key reason why I will be voting to leave, and I think whatever the other arguments bandied about are – for or against – the whole referendum should boil down to this key issue. Do you want to be able to change the way our country is run through democratic means, or are you happy to continue to give up those means because they are outweighed by the benefits of remaining in the EU?
alittleecon 
The one thing that stands out in those 2 paragraphs: What did this corrupt government do to help our main industries in recent months? How many Corporations are being forced to pay the £billions they owe in tax? What measures have been put in place to secure our NHS?
Gove makes it clear, nothing has been done in the interests of the electorate and nothing changes – In or Out of Europe.
Regards
Steve Mackie
Sent from my iPad
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If it hasn’t, then you vote for a different government to take up post in Westminster.
Something you can’t do with the EU.
I can only agree. The raison-d’etre of a state is to act in the interests of its citizens, it cannot be expected to act for non-citizens (this is *not* saying that it should act against non-citizens!) For Europe the implications are quite clear; it means a full federal system or a reversion to a grouping of independent states (most likely with their own currency). The concept of a ‘EU citizen’ absent of discrimination and free to move can only work in a federal Europe. Promotion of these concepts in the current EU construct is clearly leading to destabilisation and divergence, economically and politically.
Genuinely surprised Boris has gone for the leave camp.
It’s a gamble regards his political career, obviously a huge coup if the vote goes to out (extremely unlikely IMO); he would walk into No. 10. However, perhaps if the vote goes to stay but Europe continues to fester and tear itself apart, it might make his position stronger in the long term (the “I told you so” case). But if it boils down to principles and he is simply being genuine with his beliefs then it supports my inclusion of him in a (small) grouping of agreeable Tories.
It feels like a Churchill move to me. Churchill was always warning about Hitler from day one.
It always boils down to “how do we get rid of you?”