All we read is the chant OUT, OUT, OUT followed by personal abuse.......

An image stands out . We were in Neath on Saturday morning I glanced at the group campaigning to leave Europe. I saw a middle aged man holding up a Vote Leave Sign near him were young comfortable peple supporting the campaigbn to remain. I am a late middle aged man ashamed of the ignorance and fear so many men of my age are peddling. We have a responsibility to confront and challenge the inner “Victor Meldrew”. So few men do that how apt was that description by Michael Moore of the “Stupid White Men” Just look at farages tweet and you see it all. Stupid white men going om historically about a history they have never known or read about , talking about people they have never met. Moaning about unelected EU officials yet never raising a thought or an objection to the House of Lords. I repeat stupid is as stupid does......all we read is the chant OUT, OUT, OUT followed by personal abuse........

I am finding the sheer unpleasntness of vote leave increasinly disturbing. In Oxfordshire a group allegedly nothing to do with the official leave campaign is publishing leaflets and posters saying "stop ze German advance" ,Nigel Farage is promoting the theme from "The Great Escape" as the theme for the leave campaign. Plucky English prisoners sneak away from evil centralising authoritarians with German accents or is the implication that the EU is like the Nazi party.? And in particular the migrant debate has slipped into a far right model of "ranking them.Amn engineer or a doctor is seen as more wortny than a fruit picker. When did we start bei g the determiner and judge of human value? Contribution to society is not measured by occupation, anymore than by culture, ethnicity or religion or colour. I look at Nigel Farage pontificating and sorting out in his mind, his stockbroker attitude, his public school about who shouldn't be allowed to live here and why, while he eats a curry and no doubt being happy to eat vegetables picked by Polish workers or to be cared for by Spanish nurses . The debate has done much to highten racial tensions. We were told that Farage was the wrong person to lead or dominate a leave campaign and yet here we are with only three weeks to go and look what is happening.......its unpleasant,vile and increasingly racist and xenophobic......then I look at those who say nothing about this trend and I wonder when will they speak up and distance themselves from the leave campaign. I think of those who have principled objections to the EU based on economic and philosophical arguments different to mine that I can respect and yet they say nothing....Would it not be good to show how multicultural societies with mixed ethnicities work rather than promote these myths that your leaders are using...I am waiting to here your answers.....I am expecting the abuse, the swear words that challenges like this bring up from some but for the more aware I would like some reasoned comments and some distance from these crude dog whistle measures....... we have seen how the leave side claim that leaving will reduce VAT on heating. Its quite clear that vote leave is seeking desperate claims as their vote slips away. They have given no arguments , no explanations...look at the racist abuse on Port Talbot Debate and Argue if it is till there?. I read there a few days ago how one of their admins how she hated bullying and abuse...and yet she has done nothing to remove these comments or put her actions into what she believes. I am no saint , have been and will be a hypocrite again but I acknowledge that and struggle to be better........