Well, Nick Clegg, Richard Branson and Gunther Krichbaum, the chairman of the Bundestag's Committee on European Affairs have all waded in following Philip Gordon's comments about the implications for the "Special Relationship" with the USA were Britain to leave the EU.
However, the most annoying contribution to the current debate about Britain and the EU is the editorial in today's Guardian. How good, says Mr Rusbridger, that these "thoughtful" people are at last making the case for British membership in order to counteract the "banal anti-European populism" which is found on both the Right and parts of the Left. In other words, if you're a supporter of British membership of the EU, you're a sensible, rational, person, but if you advocate withdrawal, you're some kind of deranged nutcase.
I'll be honest - in my 12 years as a convinced believer in British withdrawal, I've met a few wacky types. You will certainly find a few "fruitcakes" and "pretty odd people" (to quote David Cemeron) in UKIP and on the Tory right. but you will also find plenty of sincere, balanced individuals. UKIP certainly contains a far lower percentage of oddballs than the Green Party, where being totally bonkers seems to be mandatory if you want to become a member.
Must the writings of a man like Professor Tim Congdon be rejected as "banal" because he has produced a well-researched paper showing the huge economic cost of our membership of the European Union, which reaches the conclusion that leaving would be in our economic interest? Or Ruth Lea, another able advocate of withdrawal who, in my dealings with her, has always struck me as an able, balanced and articulate advocate of the cause? I have met businessmen who know at first hand the damage that European Union legislation has done to their businesses. They want out. Does this make them completely batty?
Ans what about some of these "thoughtful", serious pro-Europeans? One such indivudal cited in The Guardian is Nick Clegg. Is there much thought in anything Mr Clegg ever says, once you have removed the clichés? I guess that Peter Mandelson, who has recently waded in to support our membership of the EU, ought to count as a thoughtful individual. After all, he went to the same Oxford college as me! Here is an example of one of his pearls of wisdom: in February 2010, just as the Greek Sovereign Debt Crisis was about to unfold, he seriously advocated that Britian should still join the Euro! - nonsense that he reiterated again as recently as last September. Trawl the internet and you can find myriad quotations from Mandelson, Clegg and others from 2000 onwards saying what a calamity it would be for British business if we stayed outside the Euro. They were wrong. As a Christian I can see that it was God's mercy to our nation that we did not ever join, and it is God's mercy that is pushing us towards the EU exit door.
Of course, to the left-wing humanist intelligensia that make up the bulk of Guardian readers, by bringing God into the picture, I've just proved that I'm one of those nutty types. However I believe that right and common sense are on our side, besides God's mercy. Whether you believe in God or not, the day we exit the bureaucratic nightmare that is Brussels will be the day a British renaissance will begin - and the ultimate vindication of banal, populist crackpots like me.
However, the most annoying contribution to the current debate about Britain and the EU is the editorial in today's Guardian. How good, says Mr Rusbridger, that these "thoughtful" people are at last making the case for British membership in order to counteract the "banal anti-European populism" which is found on both the Right and parts of the Left. In other words, if you're a supporter of British membership of the EU, you're a sensible, rational, person, but if you advocate withdrawal, you're some kind of deranged nutcase.
I'll be honest - in my 12 years as a convinced believer in British withdrawal, I've met a few wacky types. You will certainly find a few "fruitcakes" and "pretty odd people" (to quote David Cemeron) in UKIP and on the Tory right. but you will also find plenty of sincere, balanced individuals. UKIP certainly contains a far lower percentage of oddballs than the Green Party, where being totally bonkers seems to be mandatory if you want to become a member.
Must the writings of a man like Professor Tim Congdon be rejected as "banal" because he has produced a well-researched paper showing the huge economic cost of our membership of the European Union, which reaches the conclusion that leaving would be in our economic interest? Or Ruth Lea, another able advocate of withdrawal who, in my dealings with her, has always struck me as an able, balanced and articulate advocate of the cause? I have met businessmen who know at first hand the damage that European Union legislation has done to their businesses. They want out. Does this make them completely batty?
Ans what about some of these "thoughtful", serious pro-Europeans? One such indivudal cited in The Guardian is Nick Clegg. Is there much thought in anything Mr Clegg ever says, once you have removed the clichés? I guess that Peter Mandelson, who has recently waded in to support our membership of the EU, ought to count as a thoughtful individual. After all, he went to the same Oxford college as me! Here is an example of one of his pearls of wisdom: in February 2010, just as the Greek Sovereign Debt Crisis was about to unfold, he seriously advocated that Britian should still join the Euro! - nonsense that he reiterated again as recently as last September. Trawl the internet and you can find myriad quotations from Mandelson, Clegg and others from 2000 onwards saying what a calamity it would be for British business if we stayed outside the Euro. They were wrong. As a Christian I can see that it was God's mercy to our nation that we did not ever join, and it is God's mercy that is pushing us towards the EU exit door.
Of course, to the left-wing humanist intelligensia that make up the bulk of Guardian readers, by bringing God into the picture, I've just proved that I'm one of those nutty types. However I believe that right and common sense are on our side, besides God's mercy. Whether you believe in God or not, the day we exit the bureaucratic nightmare that is Brussels will be the day a British renaissance will begin - and the ultimate vindication of banal, populist crackpots like me.