Why I am an English internationalist who will vote for the UK to leave the EU in the referendum

In my experience, most committed "Out" activists in England are angry reactionaries who have a poor attitude towards dialogue with other European nations and their leaders.  This includes a number of MEPs.  However, there are a number of reasons why I will be voting "Out", all of which I believe are totally consistent with a highly democratic and internationalist position.

I write only from my perspective as an Englishman.  I do not presume to speak for people from Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

For me, the most important reason for voting "Out" is that England's "redemption" from its colonial past has never happened, in or out of the EU.

In my experience, very few people in England have a good sense of the horrors of our colonial past, which included stealing land from other people, killing and enslaving people, and plundering their resources.  In fact, we are often proud of the fact that Britain legislated to abolish slavery sooner than some other nations. If challenged on the issue, many people will also point out the investment in infrastructure of poorer nations that Britain made.  We have "moved on" as a nation, it seems, though by burying our heads in the sand.

The people of England have not really faced up to the colonial past of our nation.  We have not been forced to deal with our national demons, like Germany was in relation to the horrors of Nazism.  In contrast, our energies have been spent seeking to maintain our military and political influence in the UN, and seeking favourable market access conditions, especially in the EU.  The very different focus of the EU itself has run counter to the British international agenda.  British foreign policy remains very much steeped in attitudes inherited from our colonial past, as seen in our desire to retain nuclear weapons, get involved in military intervention alongside the USA, and generally in seeking to remain a global superpower.  In pursuit of this agenda, many of our foreign policy decisions have been wrong, and some colossally so.

With such grandiose, global ambitions, it is hardly surprising that Britain has no real enthusiasm for the EU project, or for working with other EU nations on an equal basis. While Germany has built for itself a positive national identity through the painful process of facing up to Nazism, British national identity (mostly English-inspired) has withered, while trying to cling on to past glories and also somehow pursue its economic agenda in, what is for us, the alien political environment of the EU.

Britain's redemption is not happening in the EU.  It may not happen outside the EU either but, in my opinion, it can only happen seriously outside the EU.  England needs to set itself at rights with the countries it plundered, including by making serious reparations.  This painful process could pave the way for a more constructive engagement with our European neighbours.

As a believer in real democracy, there are other issues I have with the EU, its founding ideology and working methods.  However, from the English perspective, I believe that we have to put our own house in order first, and that we need the political space to do this outside the EU.  This is an imperative for the nation of England, and not one which can be shared with other EU nations.  This imperative will not disappear as a result of political integration.  The redemption process will also be a long one, and I have no real idea if there will be any interest in it at all. It may be an issue which emerges more clearly as we seek to connect more closely once more with other countries in the world, and as former colonies such as India and Jamaica become more confident in challenging us to acknowledge the crimes of our colonial past.  Our friends in Scotland may also be more willing to engage in this process, and so drag us along, conscious of their status as something of an English colony itself.

As regards our relations with the EU and its member states, our position following an "Out" vote should be, in my view, the maintenance of close alliances alongside a willingness to accept considerable anger from fellow European nations for our persistently poor approach to the EU project over the past 40 years.  In this context, David Cameron's renegotiation efforts are little more than a circus sideshow.