Why I, as a pro-European, will be voting to leave – to save the EU from Britain

David Cameron's referendum is a chance to save the European Union from selfish Albion

General de Gaulle, President of France, was right to say 'No' to Britain's membership in 1963

Let’s be clear, I am a European.

Born in the Republic of Ireland, educated there and in England. My partner was born in England of Spanish parents (she has a Spanish passport rather than a UK one: €12 against £85). So how should I vote in the EU referendum: Remain or Leave?

To cut to the chase I think it will have to be Leave. Why?

When the UK applied to join the EEC, Charles de Gaulle blocked us as he knew Britain was incompatible with the rest of Europe, economically and culturally. He was aware that the UK looked after the UK’s interests – it was desperate for markets, and had no desire to see a single European entity emerge.

Is the UK a brake on progress towards a federal and democratic state called Europe? I believe it is. When a Prime Minister can say, “I have no romantic attachment to the European Union and its institutions; I'm only interested in two things: Britain's prosperity and Britain's influence”, you know he is not a team player in the EU. Imagine for a moment that the statement had been made by Angela Merkel or Nicola Sturgeon.

How would the political parties in the UK or England have reacted? Cameron himself would probably have put on his “I’m very angry” tone, red faced, cheeks puffed up. The press and commentators would have gone into meltdown. Yet here we have a Prime Minister telling his peers across Europe that he is only in it for what he gets and has no interest in putting any effort into helping them.

The UK will always act in its own interests. The expansion of the EU to the east was promoted by the UK. It is interesting see this expansion now used as an argument against the UK's being a member. Of course the feeling has always been that the UK pushed for this as it thought the east would back the UK position and be a counter to the Franco-German hegemony.

The left in the UK has been just as selfish. While in 1975 it campaigned for out, it soon found the social policies were exactly the type of legislation it wanted (I suspect to many leftwingers it was a way to get under the skin of right). To see the likes of Kate Hoey regurgitating the words of Bennites in opposition to the EU is galling. But who cares where Labour stands today?

On the radio we hear Nigel Farage saying that, by leaving the EU, Britain would regain its pride. Most will ask: when was its pride lost? Is he so lost in his own echo chamber that he believes a pint and a fag are nationhood? Mr Farage would do well to remember the old adage, “pride comes before a fall”. Of course it was a fall that first led the UK into the EU (remember “the sick man of Europe”): again, self-interest won the day.

I’ll always be a European, no matter where I live. It’s likely I will retire to Spain. I have the luxury of free movement by virtue of my birth. Will my UK friends? I don’t know. Unless there is a considerable move away from the narrow self-interested view of UK politicians over the next year, my vote, as an EU citizen with a vote in the UK, will be to Leave.