A vote for Remain is an endorsement of the United States of Europe

I thought he might look at the issue from a more oblique, slightly outré angle; but no, he gave us the usual Remain spiel about economic collapse and the possibility of another European war if the UK leaves the EU.

To be honest, I’m getting pretty tired of the peacenik mantra being trotted out. Yep, maybe we’re not arming ourselves for internal war, but France, Germany, the UK, Spain, Italy, Sweden and the Netherlands – all EU members – are in the top 15 of the world’s largest arms exporters. Keeping the peace at home while producing and delivering arms to others. I didn’t hear Eddie complaining about that: nor about the fact that the UK is assisting the US in a number of other wars.

The EU project – and there really is no other term for it – began in May 1950 with a speech by the French foreign minister, Robert Schuman, in which he proposed a European Coal and Steel Community. His aim, laudable at the time (just five years after the end of the war), was to “make war between France and Germany not only unthinkable, but materially impossible”.

But his speech went further, much further than that. He argued that the organisation he was proposing would mark the birth of a united Europe and transform the continent in a step-by-step process – building through sectoral supranational communities – leading to the unification of Europe democratically.

That’s the project that was born with the 1951 Treaty of Paris and that’s the project that continues today. The flag. The anthem. The single currency. The parliament. The commission. The president of the European Council. A foreign policy. Plans for an EU army. The march towards a United States of Europe is relentless – seemingly unstoppable.

The excuses for unity and expansion may have changed since 1951, but the end goal remains the same. Want to lessen the chances of a third world war – then bring a few European countries together. Want to make it easier to trade and work together – then add a few more countries to the circle. Want to see off the challenges of globalisation in the future – then keep on adding to the club. Want to ward off threats and challenges from non-EU members – then agree a foreign policy and create your own armed force. On and on and on it goes.

If that’s what you want, then vote for that on June 23. If you want to belong to this new superpower then trot off and mark the appropriate box on the referendum ballot. But don’t try and kid yourselves that continuing membership provides some sort of silver bullet for dealing with economic crises; or that it will safeguard your job; or that Scotland will stay in the UK; or that a future UK government will be able to withstand the pressure to suck us into a single currency and further integration; or that we won’t be forced to bail out weaker members and subsidise new ones.

Also, don’t try and kid yourselves that the rise of nationalism within the EU is going to lessen (and it’s worth bearing in mind that only around 35 per cent of people in EU countries actually approve of the structures and the direction of travel).

History marches to the drum of individual nations and peoples demanding that their own identities are protected. All empires end the same way, with those individual nations breaking off and rebuilding their own futures. We saw what happened to the British Empire in the 1950s and 60s and the USSR in the 1990s. Why does anyone think that the EU will prove the exception to this rule?

I’m not going to pretend that leaving the EU will be a trouble-free experience. It won’t. But I refuse to believe that the UK would be reduced to penury, let alone be forced to stand at the end of any queue when it comes to creating new agreements with other countries. We would remain a powerful country with enormous assets. We are big enough to stand on our own two feet; and experienced enough to make the sorts of deals we require. To put it bluntly, I’d much rather leave and face those new challenges, than stay because of a Remain argument which doesn’t go much further than, “Be afraid: be very afraid”.

So maybe the Remain camp could tell us, once and for all, if they’d be happy with a United States of Europe. Or, better still, maybe they could try and prove to us that the creation of a united political/constitutional Europe is just a figment of our imagination. Or, if that’s too difficult, could they explain why millions of people in the EU countries are supporting parties that want out. Or, how come David Cameron is reduced to making it up as he goes along because he doesn’t seem to have a coherent argument for staying in.

I remember the 1975 referendum. I remember the dire warnings about what would happen if we left what was then the nine-member European community. I remember the assurances that there would be no political/constitutional integration. I remember the pledges that it was just “cooperation and not the beginnings of a new state”. And yet, look where we are now!