AS WE rush hither and thither along the Brexit highway seeking the

imagined utopia just over the horizon, could we find time to step aside

a moment?

When we were offered the referendum in 2016 we were given a clear choice

of staying in or leaving the EU. We received no information as to the

advantages, the disadvantages or the likely consequences of voting

either way - it was "in or out".

It was only later, as the unforeseen problems became somewhat clearer, that the simple choice was shown to have been inadequate.

Whatever the weaknesses of the EU, in its various guises it has maintained peace and harmony in Europe for decades. As economic advantage and self-interest become the guiding principles, rather than unity and cooperation, the widening of the fault lines becomes obvious and we are already seeing this within the UK.

If we leave the EU many other will follow and the result will be a fragmented Europe, allowing the biggest bully in the most powerful fragment to rise to the top, and we could find ourselves back where we were in 1939.

Have we learned nothing in 80 years?

Alan Lord, Staveley