Brexit or Bremain – who wants something different?

I was on the fence and seriously considering ‘out’ based on a quote I often use ‘if you want different results you have to do something different’. 

But in amongst all the scare-mongering from both campaigns, I started to spend time looking at the facts and how they impacted what is important to me. For the campaigns are of course trying to scare us

to choose a decision that they want and the cynic in me believes they are typically lead by people with huge egos and wanting something for themselves at the end of it rather than for their democratic people.

There was a brilliant chart somewhere that showed the wide spread rumours of the cost of Europe, the numbers of immigration and all things to support OUT, then against that it showed the true figures to be considerably less.
Then it showed the widespread belief of what we gain from Europe and against it the true figure of what we benefit from – which was considerably higher. This fuelled my research further.

Also unable to track down that brilliant visual based on facts, I stumbled upon this video and it helped me further realise that by being part of the EU we are then at the table where decisions are being made and can influence them. The UK has only ever had 2% of its requests turned down. So are we making sure that our Government are taking the things that are important to us – to that table for debate?

If we want our Government to fight for things important to us we need to take responsibility for our destiny and take time to lobby them so they hear what’s important to us on a regular basis, like filling in those online Government petitions – they work! I’ve helped the bee population by signing the petition to prevent the use of the bee killing pesticides and I’ve also helped get the sugar tax on soft drinks and the 5p charge on carrier bags again through the Government petitions. It doesn’t always go the way you hope, for not everyone shares the same view – I also signed for the UK not to use missiles on Syria.  For it is things to do with humanity, the environment in which we live and health matters that are important to me. What’s important to you? Are you regularly letting the Government know what is important to you?
Our Government – our democracy is exactly that, and they can only respond to things that we are actively letting them know how we are feeling. There is no point sitting back moaning about it till the moaning gets so loud they hold a referendum and then find out things that you want sorted aren’t really going to be how you want them – again it’s still going to be necessary to be an active and responsible citizen – they can only respond and fight for things that we the citizens (in the majority) are letting them know are important to us.

Some of the facts and myth busters stir up that awkward feeling of not liking something because it is against your train of thought or has forced you to consider something that previously you were adamant you’d never consider.  I don’t like some of those facts as much and also believe that with time (who knows how long) there would be some benefits of leaving the European Union. Overall the facts – rather than the widespread myths are none the less – the facts and it’s really important to base a life changing and future changing decision on facts rather than hearsay.  So facts, together with the notion that I believe in a world and future of love and understanding, inclusivity and openness, while still being uniquely independent at the core – I realised that I was more a supporter of REMAIN.
So if I go back to that saying ‘if you want different results, you need to do things differently’…

I realised what needed to be different is my participation and role as a citizen and I need to be a more active citizen letting the government know what is important to me. And yes this takes time! It takes time to understand what is important to yourself and to make decisions to support your morals based on facts.  Perhaps in a society and time where time is of the essence we forget that and expect all those decisions to be made for us, based on voting once every four years.  How many of us really review the arguments and facts to support a vote?  I’ve realised that in order for different results, I need to do things differently,  I need to take more responsibility for my life and destiny.  We all do.
And here’s the video that I found while searching for the facts on Brexit.  http://gu.com/p/4yx9v/sbl  

I’ll step down from my soap box now! 😀