The European in-out referendum dominated the South Central Regional Conference last Saturday. Speakers included Catherine Bearder, our own MEP, who spoke of the complete negativity of the large contingent of UKIP in the European Parliament.

Not everyone accepted that the EU is a force for good. As one questioner asked, how can our party muster enthusiasm to campaign for an organization that is obviously undemocratic and very deeply flawed? Perhaps the Outers are right; there really are sunlit uplands outside the EU, where the UK can benefit from truly representative democracy, run companies uninhibited by red tape and carry out extensive worldwide trade.

As a Libdem member who is lukewarm about the EU, I have found this a tricky question.

Nevertheless I will be campaigning with enthusiasm, and here’s why. Leaving the EU would only be the beginning of the journey. I want more representative democracy, but as the AV Referendum made it painfully clear, our political leaders have neither the faintest idea of how to achieve this, nor the will to push the job through. When the outers complain about red tape from Brussels, they forget that Britain has already achieved world class leadership in red tape, without any help from Brussels. We have by far the longest tax code in the world, amounting to 17,000 pages, and this might be even longer if our urge to write new tax laws was not constrained by EU regulations. By contrast Hong Kong, no economic slouch, has a tax code only 267 pages in length. We wish to carry out extensive worldwide trade, we will need to put in place dozens of trade agreements. Perhaps these will be drawn up with the public interest at heart. More likely they will be written to benefit the wealthy and powerful individuals who operate from our many British tax havens, who will breathe a collective sigh of relief at being no longer constrained by Brussels.

We may eventually reach the sunlit uplands that we are promised, but this would take competence, persistence, and dedication. Can we expect such qualities from Boris Johnson? Will Nigel Farage have the patience to stop his destructive grandstanding and engage in some self effacement?

So it is possible to muster the enthusiasm to campaign for staying in the EU, despite its flawed, undemocratic and lumbering nature. It helps to visualize the following scene. While our economy stutters, the pound tanks, and property values plunge, an Etonian fop with tousled blond hair breaks into an winningly self deprecating smile, and blurts “Cripes – sorry about that, chaps. All those devilish dull details- such a bore!”.

* David Cooper is a member and constituency treasurer of the Newbury Liberal Democrats and has been a party activist for over a decade. He is also secretary of Libdem ALTER (Action for Land Taxation & Economic Reform). The views expressed are his own.