Brexit sounds like the name of a bad cut and that's just one of countless reasons I'll be RSVP'ing count me in on 23rd June 2016 aka Vote Remain and you should too.

Hi, Ciao, Bonjour, Hola, Hallo, Xaipete

I know it's been time and I promise to catch up properly very soon and actually talk about sewing for a change ;)  However, now I have slightly more pressing matters so bear with.  I've just launched version 3.6 of myself and initial results are proving very positive.  They'll be more positive I hope come Friday 24th June 2016 when we do the right thing and vote to remain in the EU.

I want to stand up and be counted because that's how my Nan raised us. My Nan believed in people and when you get more guests than you expect to dinner you don't shut the door you set another place and count yourself lucky.

Yes that's right our pig bothering bag of detritus that masquerades as our Prime Minister has sent our tiny island into a state of panic by declaring an EU referendum.  This was to appease the sleaze that passes for the tory backbench ooh and just to add to the mire he doesn't want to leave the EU himself.  Can you imagine how it feels having to be on the same side as the devil?  However, it will feel a damn sight worse to wake up Friday alone on our tiny island with the tories.  I can go back to despising him and the rest of his cronies lunch time on Friday but we will not however be able to go back on a decision that will change the face of our lives for generations.  A decision that I feel at its darkest aims to stoke the worst feelings you can experience in life - fear, isolation, jealousy but on the other hand appeals to what makes humans glorious - compassion, hope, love.

I'm voting remain because I want to be part of the solution not part of the problem.

This choice has brought out an ugliness that I believe isn't generally who we are in the UK.  I am proud to be British and proud to be European too.  Right now though people are throwing around accusations, there are threats of violence and a woman lost her life because of it. Jo Cox, a mam of two and the Labour MP for Batley and Spen, Yorkshire  was shot and killed on 16th June 2016.  The day before I turned 36 and today (22nd June 2016) she would have been 42. The view is that she was killed for her beliefs all of which, may I add I hold - love, kindness, compassion, hope.  It was only the day before she was photographed on a boat on the Thames flying a flag for the remain campaign against Nigel Farage and the leave flotilla.  Don't worry if that sentence confuses you it does me too and just highlights the madness of what we've been dealing with for the 100 days since they announced the dreadfully named Brexit.

On the side of leave we have this. I fall to the words of Billy Bragg as I have often done, "This image, of a smirking Nigel Farage in front of a poster of dark skinned people, sums up why I decided to vote to remain in the EU: Not every Leave voter is a racist, but every racist will vote Leave.

On the side of remain we have this.  RIP Jo Cox 22nd June 1974 - 16th June 2016. I promise to love like you Jo and  I vote remain in your name.

Aside from my abject horror at all the mania that is being fuelled by politicians, the media and so called experts I have my own personal reasons for wanting to remain.  I believe in people and I believe in hope.  I was an immigrant too you know, which sadly seems to be what this circus is being driven by.  Conveniently, people from the UK that settle elsewhere in the world are titled ex-pats that's just another name for immigrant.  The definition of an immigrant is: A person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country.  I spent part of my university years in Spain and I received a grant from the EU to help me out.  The only requests were that I had a go at learning the language and I should try and improve European links.  I was out there for nearly a year so the EU basically paid for a year of my higher education, which is frankly 365 more days than the UK government. I'm now semi-fluent in spanish, which will help no end when I journey to Latin America next year.  Oh and I also worked out in Spain as a radio presenter.  I didn't know how long I was going to be there so again I was an immigrant.  

Me clogging up the airwaves when I was a radio presenter and an immigrant in Spain.

During the time I was living in Spain I experienced so much kindness but one specific occasion is something I think about when I'm reminding myself to do the right thing even though it might be the hard thing.  I was cycling from San Sebastian back to Barcelona.  My bike decided to break in the middle of nowhere on a Sunday morning between two mountain ranges.  I sat down to have a cig and a swear and decide what to do next.  Ten minutes later a load of middle aged men on bikes were heading towards me.  Turns out they were on a mountain race despite them being on course to place highly they took themselves out of the race and transported me and my bike using their bikes to the next town and gave me money for lunch and the bus.  They didn't know me from Adam but they knew they had to help me.  The only thing they asked is that when my time came to be kind to strangers I took it.  Now if that's not what the best part of being together is about I don't know what is.

It's not just me that's leading me to remain it's the babies in my life and all the other babies that deserve to benefit from being part of something that has brought peace for the last 40 years.  I look at all my nieces and nephews both my ones by blood and those who's lives I been adopted into. They say once you have children it's like having your heart outside your body.  I want the very best for them and I want all the opportunities I had and more.  Just like anyone who loves their children would.  Those families of refugees that are making these treacherous journeys they do so because they love their babies and they want what's best for them and they should damn well have it.  I don't want division I want cohesion.  I want to stand up and be counted I feel that is part of being British.  I'm proud of my country and I realise how lucky I am to be born here because that's exactly what it is luck of the draw.  Anyone of the babies I know and love could have come into this world in the middle of some god awful war somewhere and I sure as hell know I would do anything to provide them safety and love.  We have a choice in that.

I choose to remain because I want everyone to feel loved and safe.

I could write and write about this topic because it is so important and I feel so passionately about it. However, I know we are all busy people so instead I urge you if you haven't made up your mind yet, I will say if you like what I go on about and I know I do gone on then you should vote remain.  All the stuff I put out the interwebs and through the media is powered by hope, love, compassion and kindness, that's what makes me so happy it's no big secret recipe.  So if you want in on that you know what to do tomorrow.

And finally, although this is a very serious topic I don't see any reason to not get my point across in a light-hearted way. If you follow me on my other social media channels you'll know I've started to record some vlogs aka Bev cams.  It's basically tales from my beloved bike, Bev.  Tonight is a remain in the EU special hosted by one of my icons ;) Enjoy!

All the love and hope in my heart.

Rehanon 

xxx