Self Aggrandisement, was it worth it

Listening to the debate on the ins and outs of the Referendum is like listening to football supporters who see  no good at all in the other side.
It is always a feature of politics that only the extremes seem to be voiced with little of no middle ground. Problems are always viewed with an ideological slant and never seem to be seen for the issue it presents to the person needing help.
Even needing "help" is an ideological minefield, one side saying its societies responsibility to even out the disadvantages which present to an individual whilst the other believe it is wholly up to the individual to help themselves.
This mornings discussion between two women was the evidence, or lack off, whether the EU is more in tune with women's needs or conversely, the national parliament, left to its own devises would do a better more  comprehensive job.
The accusation and counter accusation frankly got us nowhere since claims are made but rarely substantiated. The arguments are not presented as rational consideration rather discussion and debate have been replaced with accusation and counter accusation.
In a general sense it is worth reflecting that the plight in Britain, something which is engaging everyone at the moment is not anything to do with the Europeans but sits squarely on our own shoulders. A patchy educational system in which one in five children leave school with no skill in maths and are nearly illiterate, a grotesquely skewed housing market and a tragic lack of investment in our national infrastructure, these are the things which inhibit growth and wages not some directive from Brussels.
One of the things we have to come to terms with is that the world has changed since we joined the EU and the national element amongst nations has diminished as the world draws itself economically into blocks.
The impetus with globalisation is to form even tighter trading arrangements of which the latest is TTIP and its Asian equivalent TPP. The arrangements bound up in these agreements are directed at the big markets and one must conclude we are too small to be included on our own. Going it alone, staying outside the German hegemony which is Europe is attractive only so long as one is aware that many things which we had taken for granted will not be on offer when we leave.
It's like resigning from a big company, waking up the next morning without the company car or the pension scheme, still less the salary. You struggle at first but eventually you buy a second hand car you put off investing in the pension scheme and you curtail the long lunches for a sandwich. You tell yourself that this is worth it you have your freedom, your independence but every so often when you pass the skyscraper block which used to be home and see the mechanism for making money still going on well enough without you, just a sliver of doubt crosses your mind, was that moment of self aggrandisement worth it.