OUR country faces an historic choice in next week’s referendum. I know people are thinking hard and very seriously, despite the campaign full of misrepresentation and a barrage of statistics.

For me, it is a combination of the emotional and rational that leads me to conclude we should remain in the EU.

I think of my family elders, two great uncles killed in action on the Somme in 1917 and in Normandy in 1944, who gave their lives for freedom and peace in Europe. I then think of my own two sons, too young to vote and yet for whom a decision to leave will, without doubt, impact on their future security, stability and prosperity.

That leaves me as the middle generation, holding the vote, and I have a very clear perspective on what should be done. For all its imperfections (and yes it needs reform which we can lead), the European Union has been central to the only seventy years of peace between its constituent nations in over a thousand years.

And, despite the protestations of the rich male elite running the Leave campaigns, the reality is that the vast majority of economists, world leaders, trades unions, industry bodies, major businesses and civic leaders have concluded that jobs and prosperity are at risk from Brexit.

It’s all very well for Farage, Gove and Johnson – they are all rich men for whom the decision will have no impact on the pampered lives they lead. Are we really going to put our country’s future in the hands of these three?

I hope not, and that good sense will prevail.

I hope you will join me in securing a clear and positive decision for the long term security and prosperity of our country by voting Remain on June 23. I for one would like to be able to mark my Great Uncle John’s centenary next year, on the Somme, still as a member of the sometimes frustrating, but ultimately remarkable, European Union that has done so much to foster peace and prosperity.

To be anywhere else would be an insult to his memory and those many, many thousands of fellow European foot soldiers.

Otley Town Councillor Chairman Ray Georgeson (Lib Dem, Danefield) MBE

North Avenue,

Otley