We've all got our reasons for wanting to leave the EU. Some are bad reasons that do not hold up to scrutiny. The main Leave campaign seems wedded to those - and leaving the EU won't bring any immediate relief to their concerns. And we won't deny that our own arguments have limitations. It is going to be a challenge navigating the complexities of Brexit and it won't be easy compensating for some of the pitfalls of not being EU members.

In this we will join Norway and other non EU states who do a great deal of business with the EU. Outside of the EU, they haven't been particularly successful in pressuring the EU, but with the world's fifth largest economy joining them, after we leave, there is sufficient leverage there, along with other independent nations we recruit to our cause. Together we can add pressure the EU from the outside in ways we never could as members.



This notion that we would be "going it alone" is risible. Nobody goes it alone. It's called multilateralism.



In the Article 50 Brexit negotiations, we won't get a better deal than Norway, but something akin to that is a starter for ten, just to get us out in the first instance. But nothing is then set in stone as it is when you're inside the EU.

Our new found trading agility will present certain mitigating opportunities while we organise concerted efforts to renegotiate the means by which partner nations access the single market. That could be the key to increasing trade with Africa and slowing the pace of migration.

The EU may be a large market, but it is a lumbering giant on the world stage and there are forces it cannot ignore even if they do not match it in size - and not necessarily trade blocs or nations either. These can be non-state actors with multilateral sponsorship. There are ways and means of getting things done.

In this we will have europhiles problematising and throwing spanners in the works saying that it cannot be done. But it can be done where there is the political will. There comes a point where you just have to set it out in the most basic terms.

They can ruthlessly take apart a great many classic eurosceptic arguments, but it still doesn't matter. It comes down to a point of personal preference: Do you want Britain to run under the umbrella of a supreme government for Europe? We don't and never did.

It then comes down to a second estimation - do you think that Britain has the sophistication, talent, passion, drive and energy to make it work outside the EU? We are certain that we do. We have the City of London and some of the finest universities anywhere - and they were world class before the EU was even invented.

For sure, we are no longer the leader of a vast empire as we once were, but our cultural influence is massive, our soft power is towering - and that can only increase as we are cut free of the EU leash.

We know that Brexit will not be the silver bullet many think it is, but we can say with absolute certainty that it isn't the Armageddon the Remain campaign pretends it is, and their dishonesty and cynicism actually says more about the EU and the europhile mindset than we ever could.

There will always be a degree of uncertainty, but with uncertainty comes a great deal more alertness and vigilance, and with that comes a much needed energy and agility. It's enough to shake the EU and the UK out of their complacency. It's time we found a new way of doing things and now is the right time. There is a world of opportunity waiting for us.

