LAST Thursday I chaired a lively debate in Marlborough between two of my good friends, famed Brexiter, Jacob Rees-Mogg MP, and chairman of the European movement and former MP Laura Sandys. I managed (just) to keep order while sticking to my aim of being a scrupulously neutral moderator, but as I listened to the arguments of those who would like Britain to leave the EU, I became more and more concerned that we are being seduced by rousing rhetoric and jingoistic jargon into possibly making the biggest political mistake of our lives.

At a time when the world is looking inward, when America is lurching dramatically away from its “special relationship” with Britain, when ethic and racial tensions are slowly rising to boiling point across the world, can anyone seriously think that Britain will be safer, stronger and more prosperous going it alone? The EU is a huge and critical market for us – and there is nothing that stops us trading more with non-EU countries – that is a function of offering better products and services, focusing foreign and trade policy on encouraging exports – as Germany does so well, despite being a core member of that pesky European Union.

What about the view that we would somehow be safer out? Entirely false. We already control our borders with passport inspections for all, and intelligence and security services that are second to none who identify, block and deport those likely to do us harm.

And what about the impact on the jobs and prosperity of millions of families across the country of the prolonged uncertainty and tortuous exit negotiations that a vote to leave would mean? Can people really think that fundamentally risking the improvement in the British economy that we have all fought so hard for over the last few years is a price worth paying for a bucketload of empty slogans about “taking back control”? I do not.

Yes, Europe needs reform – and we can lead that from within with a two-speed Europe now definitely on the cards. Yes, we need to stick two fingers up to unnecessary EU red tape – and we can start that by switching off the gold-plating machine lurking in every British government department. But when it comes to Europe I am with that great patriotic leader, Winston Churchill, who fervently belied that the people of Britain, sitting as we do at the heart of the ‘three majestic circles’ of the Commonwealth, the English-speaking world and a United Europe, will be better off, safer and stronger in the European Union.