As the British Government continues its humiliating negotiation with the European Union, and former Prime Ministers advocate a second referendum on leaving, one thing is conspicuous by its absence from general debate. That is a positive argument in favour of remaining.

 The disadvantages of leaving are being spelt out in lurid detail: but where are the arguments in favour? Who is singing the praises of ‘ever-closer union’? Who is rushing to embrace the Euro? Who is enthusiastic for subsuming the MoD in a European Army?

 The case being made is the defence of a status quo which is clearly not available. The European Union is nothing if not dynamic. What is needed, surely, is a willing embrace of the expansive future which is the declared aspiration of the EU 27.  

Surely there needs to be a positive case for a decision so significant and, considering the difficulties in exiting this time, effectively irreversible.