I saw a skinny elderly woman bobbing from house to house leaving “Leave” leaflets. I asked her if she wouldn’t mind speaking to me.

“Of course, not, dear.” The typical kindness I’ve come to expect from the British populace.

I asked her for her reasons for wanting the United Kingdom to leave the European Union.

“Sovereignty!”

That that was the first word out of her mouth didn’t surprise me. It’s become a battle cry for  the Leavers. The first time I heard it was a few months ago before the referendum campaigns had gone into fever pitch. A close friend and colleague shocked everyone by announcing his intention to vote to leave. To him it was obvious. I was stunned. I asked him why:

“Sovereignty!”

In a word.

The elderly woman began to give me examples. “I used to run a B&B and there were all kinds of laws that effected us. We had to throw out misshapen fruit! The EU had laws about misshapen fruit!! It’s too much it’s just too much! ”

Sovereignty gives misshapen fruit more pride of place next to more prettily formed crop. Sovereignty also gave the UK crappy workplace and  environmental laws. Workplace fatalities in the UK have reduced by half since European safety directives were introduced in 1996. Being part of the European Union has given Britain cleaner beaches and drinking water, less air pollution, safer products and more protected wildlife

I’ve lived in a number of different places and have never have felt as much at home as I do here. But as an American with an Italian passport in a country that is no longer part of the European Union, misshapen fruit belongs whereas soon I may not.