Opinion piece Artwork 201 November/December 2017
Wasn’t joining the EU the most sane thing we’ve ever done? For my generation and that of my parents, it was a proud moment. In their youths, my Mum and Dad were conscripted to fight Germans and Italians. Mum tried to shoot down German bombers while RAF pilot Dad, dropped bombs on Sicily. Damaged by war, they welcomed the founding of the then European Economic Community as, if nothing else, it would ensure peace. When an uncle, a diplomat, worked with Edward Heath, to secure Britain’s entry into the EEC, someone in the family asked why. “Isn’t it better to be part of Europe than a satellite of America?” he replied.