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Why leaving the EU wouldn’t make Britain any more free

Sovereignty is not absolute, inside the union or outside it. And we have more clout as we are

19 March 2016

9:00 AM

19 March 2016

9:00 AM

One of the most appealing arguments for Brexit is that it will make British citizens freer than they are now. The greatness of Great Britain lies, after all, in its long history of relative freedom. But now, so the proponents of Brexit like to claim, Britain is shackled by the tyranny of the EU, as though ‘Brussels’ were some alien dictatorship in which Britain plays no part.

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Ian Buruma is the author of Voltaire’s Coconuts, or Anglomania in Europe.

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