AHEAD of this week's EU referendum a series of Worcestershire people have penned pieces for the Worcester News on why Britain should back Remain or Leave.

Here former Worcester UKIP parliamentary candidate James Goad reveals why he supports Leave.

By James Goad

VOTING to Leave the European Union on June 23rd is a great opportunity for the UK.

We have the chance to set our country free from the shackles of a misconceived, dysfunctional political union and to embrace the opportunities given to us from political autonomy.

The case for leaving the EU is often made in dry economic terms.

Significant though these are, they are very much secondary to restoring our nation-state democracy and holding our heads up high as proud, independent Britons.

The very concept of the autonomous nation-state seems to be anathema to some, and it should not be so.

To be independent, to be sovereign, to be a true nation, is not a mark of shame.

It is a healthy, assertive and proven formula in the modern world for delivering health, wealth and self-determination.

One can look at numerous examples of nations outside of the EU, some within our own continent, to find that that that is the case.

Nationhood is something that the political institutions of the EU ultimately wish to dissolve.

Should the British public choose to vote Remain, the UK will ultimately become a ‘region’ within a federal Europe.

Our sovereignty will be eroded to nothing, and our parliament nothing more than a regional council chamber.

As far-fetched as that might sound, this has been the ultimate goal of the architects of the EU since the end of WWII.

Doubters should research Jean Monnet and other ‘founding fathers’ of the European Project. Be in no doubt that the EU has disempowered and subverted British democracy. On Remaining, it will continue to do so.

Rather than delegate most of our law-making to an unelected and unaccountable European technocracy (the European Commission) we have the chance to make our Members of Parliament 100% accountable to us, the people of this country.

Whether you want your government to introduce policies to reduce the size of government or create a more socialist state, you will only have the opportunity to do so after Brexit.

Currently, whichever way you vote, British governments are beholden to EU regulations and pass laws in our parliament based on directives from the EU Commission.

Their powers are limited and deferred upwards. We cannot even fully control VAT. That is not real democracy, and it will only get worse on a vote to Remain.

The EU has emasculated British politics and politicians. It has resulted in the production of lightweight second rate actors; sound-bite sophists who posture grandiosely over inane issues.

This is because the great issues are decided elsewhere. The EU provides a fig leaf for our pathetic leaders to hide behind, bleating meekly that they cannot do something because the EU or the European courts won't let them.

Voting to Leave will reveal our little emperors as the naked buffoons they are. It will leave the stage clear for real leaders and statesmen to emerge.

We are uniquely-placed in the world to benefit from our historical links across the Commonwealth.

As a natural trading nation, we can forge deeper and stronger links with the world’s fastest-growing economies.

We are presently confined by the limitations of Fortress Europe and its dysfunctional and protectionist trade policies.

The same policies which have, in recent decades, contributed to the impoverishment of farmers and fishermen across Africa.

The EU is acting as a drag on our economic growth. Voting to Leave will be a chance to set British business free from the self-interested, parochial confines of Europe and raise eyes to more distant horizons.

The world can truly be our oyster, and free trade arrangements currently denied us by the EU can assist in developing a more prosperous future. Once free of legal harmonisation with the EU’s system of criminal law, we can fully restore our centuries-old system of habeas corpus and the need for prima facie evidence to support extradition.

Legal principles developed since Magna Carta to protect citizen’s rights have thus far been sacrificed on the altar of European integration.

We have joined ourselves to a political project. It is run for the benefit of a European political elite and the multi-national companies that shape policies through lobbying in Brussels. This is bad not just for our democracy, but for our day-to-day existence.

It has meant higher prices, more intense job competition and depressed wages. We have seen intolerable strains on our schools and hospitals from an ‘open-door’ immigration policy.

There is a simple quality-of-life issue that we have the chance to manage if we take back control.

I would urge Leave-voters to stay the course. Ignore the hysterical claims in the broadcast media and the weak-kneed threats of Cameron-Osborne.

Vote based on what we can undoubtedly achieve as a truly internationalist, independent country.

Vote to Leave.

* 'Europe is good for Worcester'. City council's leader on why he backs Remain