Nigel Farage: Why you should vote for Brexit this Thursday

I believe we're big enough and good enough to govern our own country. If we Remain, we’ll get swept up into a United States of Europe

Ukip leader Nigel Farage, who is supporting the Out campaign (Reuters)

The decision we face on Thursday is one which is fundamentally about who we are as a nation.

Remain would mean we stay part of a political union that makes the majority of our laws, which is engulfed in a calamitous eurozone crisis, and which has clear ambitions for further, deeper integration – including plans for a full EU army.

Leaving would mean that we would be taking back control. That those we elect as MPs would be the ones who make and decide our laws, rather than a bunch of unelected old men in Brussels who most people cannot name and who we cannot vote for or remove. Leaving the European Union would revitalise our democracy and mean that the big decisions were made by us instead of for us. I believe we're big enough and good enough to govern our own country.

The fact is that the European Union is a hopelessly outdated, stagnant, failed project. It is inwards looking in a global world, painfully ill-equipped to deal with the realities of the globalised world we now find ourselves in. Just look at how the EU has gone from one disaster to another, including a Eurozone crisis that has been the cause of huge amounts of human misery.

Don't forget that so many who now insist that we would be diminished as a nation if we leave the EU said that our economy would suffer if we did not join the euro. They were wrong then and they are wrong now.

Just as it was a historic, wise decision not to join the euro, it would be equally as wise for us now to untangle ourselves from a European Union that is restraining our country's potential.

EU membership increasingly holds us back from representing our own interests on the world stage. We are unable to negotiate global trade deals because we have to allow the EU do it on our behalf. But outside we would be free to act in our own national interest, unrestrained by EU bureaucracy.

As an independent country we would be free to cooperate and trade with our European neighbours whilst re-engaging with the wider world including our kith and kin in the Commonwealth.

So this decision is not about isolating ourselves in any way. It's about us taking back control of our own destiny as a nation and being free to blaze our own trail in the world.

The EU cannot be reformed. It will continue down a path of deeper, full political integration. If we remain inside we will be swept up in a United States of Europe with open borders and which is soon to expand with the addition of more countries as full EU members.

This decision is a defining moment in the history of our country. I hope that we vote to Leave and to take our place on the world stage as a country focused on the wider, global picture, free and able to act in our own national interest. On Thursday, vote to leave the EU and let's make 23 June our Independence Day.

The EU referendum debate has so far been characterised by bias, distortion and exaggeration. So until 23 June we we’re running a series of question and answer features that explain the most important issues in a detailed, dispassionate way to help inform your decision.

What is Brexit and why are we having an EU referendum?

Will we gain or lose rights by leaving the European Union?

What will happen to immigration if there's Brexit?

Will Brexit make the UK more or less safe?

Will the UK benefit from being released from EU laws?

Will leaving the EU save taxpayers money and mean more money for the NHS?

What will Brexit do to UK trade?

How Brexit will affect British tourism

What will Brexit mean for British tourists booking holidays in the EU?

Will Brexit help or damage the environment?

Will Brexit mean that Europeans have to leave the UK?

What will Brexit mean for British expats?