UNFORTUNATELY, due to a former engagement, I could not attend the EU referendum debate on June 3 at the Royal Agricultural University (RAU).

But I was very disappointed that among the experts there was no historian.

As I lectured for the Open University on war, peace and social change in 20th-century Europe, I am very much aware that it was the nastiest, cruellest, most vicious and most destructive century the world has known.

The two world wars were fuelled by nationalism, and the Great Depression by greed, yet these two evils are behind the Brexit case.

There is no consideration of the effect on the rest of the European Union if so large a contributor leaves, or indeed of the attitude of their citizens to an increasingly isolationist Britain.

Since the experts gathered at the RAU were concerned with financial, legal and a segment of business, the basic truths which history shows us, were ignored.

As in fact they have been so far during an increasingly hysterical and ill-mannered campaign.

Most people voting will not remember the events I mentioned above and think they will not return, but those who ignore history usually end up regretting it.

In the European Union we have the antidote to nationalism, and an aid to understanding, working for, and developing of prosperous, generous and healthy relationship with our neighbours.

Of course, the union is not perfect, but we should help its further development for the benefit, not only of Europe but of the whole world.

This is the positive side of the EU, which was unlikely to be discussed at RAU.

The two sides of the debate have been too busy denigrating each other to care about the real issues – peace and understanding – but then the rise of nationalism always follows a long period without the obscenity of war.

Let us hope that on June 23, the British public will vote to avoid another decade like the 1930s, and accept our place in Europe.

ROY ARCHER
Cirencester