Vote Remain for peace, equality, truth and simplicity

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Tomorrow is Referendum Day. This is the last blog I will write on the subject before the event. I suspect there will be many who will spend the next decade analysing the outcome and I will, no doubt start to do so soon but I have two other goals now.

My first intention is to ask you to vote. This Referendum is too important not to do so. Please do.

Then, I admit, my hope is that you will vote Remain. I have written a lot on why I will do so. Like many I am deeply disappointed that this campaign did not deliver positive reasons for voting to Remain. At this last moment let me do so.

Because of peace

I know many who criticise the economic foundations of the EU. I have done so and will do so in future. But they are not what it is what about, at its core. The EU is about creating sufficient common ground to prevent one of the most combustible regions on earth from collapsing into war. By and large it has succeeded. The dialogue of cooperation makes it likely that it will continue to do so. Please vote for peace.

Because of equality

Again I know all the criticism of the EU, and not least the over-powerful role of Germany. But for all its weaknesses the EU is an expression of belief in equality. All people can live and work where they want. And markets are open to all within the Union. I would reform some issues on capital movement, because that is not in my view a human right. But let me go to the core of this issue: the EU is opposed to discrimination and again, by and large, it has had some success in promoting this invaluable goal. Please vote for equality.

Because of simplicity

Many will laugh at this idea, but the fact is that the EU makes all our lives a lot easier. It may promote a lot of regulation, but to use an example I know well, very little of that relates to tax, where we create a pile of regulation all of our own. And in fact, as we know from all the abuse that granting individual nations the absolute right to create tax legislation all on their own has given rise to, this hopelessly unco-ordinated approach simply delivers opportunities for abuse, grief for some and ill-gotten gains for others alongside vast amounts of effort to try to get round the problems it creates. No one likes regulation but the truth is no modern society can survive without it. Regulation is literally the reason why I can sit confidently as I write this waiting to sip a cup of tea I have just bought knowing that, with a very high degree of probability, it is safe for me to do so. And co-ordinated regulation of the type the EU provides is the cheapest, most effective type there is. Sometimes we'll be irked by the rules, but any other option will be much more complex, less efficient and harder to enforce. Vote for the simplicity the EU brings to our lives, even if you have never thought about it until now.

Because of the truth

Truth has been peculiarly absent from the Referendum debate. I regret that. If you do however read this blog it is at least possible you have some interest in tax justice. The fact is that the EU has been more effective in delivering the tax justice agenda than any other to date. That does not mean it could not have done more, and better, but I am a pragmatist and I take what I can get. The EU has given me some of that. The EU Savings Directive was the first such effective information exchange from tax havens in the world. The EU Code of Conduct helped transform the tax regimes of the UK Crown Dependencies: I still suspect some will not recover from it. And the EU is, however hesitantly, taking the demand for country-by-country reporting on public record forward in a way no one else is. As with everything else I have noted, please vote Remain, for the sake the truth on tax.

I could of course, mention other positive reasons for Remain. Most though you will be familiar with. And I could discuss why vote Leave is a vote for a more divided, economically inefficient, unequal, fearful society where the chance to control many of the rules that impact on our daily lives will be lost, leaving us out of control of our destiny. But then, you know most of that too.

So instead please vote for peace, equality, simplicity and the truth.

Please vote Remain.


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