I‘m more European than I have ever been

How have your political views changed over time?

I once distrusted the EU

A bureaucratic mess.

Rules and regulations

That really made no sense.

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Subsidies to farmers

To benefit the French

Germans in the driving seat

Or so it seemed to us.

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We came late to the party

Were always on the fringe

Played the awkward partner

And constantly complained.

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But come the referendum

I found my views had changed

The world is much too complex

For us to go alone.

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Climate, immigration, terrorism, crime

These are problems for the world

That won’t respect our borders

And cant be solved alone.

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Then there were the populists

Who pandered to our fears

I did not trust the lying words

That came from such as these.

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Wealthy politicians

Whose wealth was held offshore

Wanted out of the EU

Before a change of law.

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They blamed all immigration

On free movement, the EU

But folk are slowly finding out

That they weren’t told the truth.

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Our farmers and our fishermen

Thought they knew the score

But they got what they asked for

And they aren’t rejoicing now.

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Workers in the factories

Europe subsidised

Bit the hand that fed them

Common sense defied.

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They say my generation

Betrayed those who are young.

But you can count me out of that

The Brexit vote was wrong.

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The world is so much smaller

Than how it used to be.

We‘ve Portugese and Finns and Swedes

We call our family.

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Most of us now understand

We got it badly wrong

But politicians dare not tell

The voters they betrayed.

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We‘ll never get so good a deal

It’s too hard going back

But we must stay close to Europe

Nothing else makes sense.