Why I’m In: I don't fear immigration or taxes, I fear that bleach-blond megalomaniac Boris Johnson

I like the idea of opting in to a positive, forward-looking community that takes – and has taken – serious steps to affect climate change, animal welfare, employment rights and humanitarian responses to global conflicts

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Visceral disgust stirred as I listened to David Cameron’s speech this weekend, where he implored every right-thinking UK citizen to vote Remain because otherwise other countries would “think of us as quitters”. It sounded like he was the dad getting too involved on sports day at Eton, aggressively yelling at his skinny, knock-kneed son that he better not bow out of the rugby team to go and join the drama society because the “Camerons aren’t quitters, goddammit, and I’ll see you in a winning game, just like my father saw me, even if it destroys us both”.

When you see it like that, it takes every fibre in your being not to stick two fingers up at Daddy Cameron and become a committed thespian. But I’m going to stay on the rugby team, as it turns out – principally because the drama society is being run by a terrifying bleach-blond megalomaniac.

Yes, fear has got hold of me, but not in the way it has grabbed others. I don’t fear immigration; I fundamentally support the idea of open borders, think we should take in far more refugees and know that our economy would collapse without a steady influx of immigrant labour to work as nurses, teachers, scientific researchers and many more besides.

I don’t fear that the banks will up and leave. Good riddance if they do, although I very much doubt that they’ll suddenly transfer all their workers, sell up their offices and change how they do business overnight. I don’t fear that the rest of Europe or the world will hate us, love us or call us quitters.

What I fear is a Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his government-in-waiting, comprising Iain Duncan Smith, Michael Gove and Priti Patel – the right-wing of the right-wing, the most ideologically conservative UK government that’s ever stood on the brink of power in my lifetime.

I like having the freedom to live and work in countries across Europe, with access to benefits and healthcare in the country of my residence. I like the idea of opting in to a positive, forward-looking community that takes – and has taken – serious steps to affect climate change, animal welfare, employment rights and humanitarian responses to global conflicts. As a born and bred Geordie, I saw what EU money did for Newcastle and Gateshead, transforming run-down, poverty-stricken areas into the vibrant and cultural quayside that houses the Baltic art gallery (£113,000 in EU money), the Sage concert hall and music venue (£5.6m in EU money), and the Millennium Bridge (5.4m in EU money).

Finally, what I really don’t like is the idea that the people who would suffer most in an almost inevitable recession after Brexit would be working class people, whose rights in work could be swept away as protective EU legislation is removed, and who will be on the front line of jobs cuts, salary stagnation and rising costs of living. I especially don’t like the idea that Johnson and his gang of Brexiteers will have achieved exactly what they wanted for the benefit of their political careers, and will unlikely have to suffer the economic consequences of their actions.

I’ve considered the arguments for ‘Lexit’ (a left-wing exit of the EU) and I know there could be a brave new world out there. But, pragmatically, I don’t believe it’s possible in 2016. Whenever I start convincing myself that a post-Brexit house price crash might be worth it all to finally get me on the property ladder, that Rupert Murdoch quote comes back to mind. Asked about why he opposed the EU, he replied: “That’s easy. I go into Downing Street they do what I say; when I go to Brussels they take no notice.”