I've changed my mind on the EU : I like healthcare reimbursements

I rarely state that I am wrong. But in the last 8 weeks, since returning from France, I have realised that I have been. Once.

In France, whilst  studying at the prestigious ESSEC (which means nothing to people outside of France and Singapore, where there is a campus) I took classes on the European Union. A boring module about parliaments, treaties and agreements named after otherwise insignificant places, the teacher, a typically arrogant Frenchman, argued dirtily when I took issue at his opinion of the British and prodded his ego like a caged monkey when I told him that the French had a secular system that was based on flawed and partisan Christian values. France did not, I explained, take time off for Eid despite taking time off for Easter : Not very secular.

But despite this teacher's inability to engage with the British psyche, the ignorance he displayed when he didn't understand why we'd want out of the EU and the lack of comprehension of the way of life on our islands, I feel compelled to make a single statement: I was wrong.

Now you may think that I could have changed my mind about the EU when they started providing me with a free education in France and throwing copious amounts of money to support this treacherous experience. But no. I did honestly understand the reason we may want out of the World's largest trading bloc and economy. Like bendy bananas and human rights, for instance.

You may also think that the time I managed to get around the entire of Europe without a passport might have convinced me. But I always do enjoy reading the pretentious proclamation on the front page, reminding me that the Queen will always look after me.

When I got hit with £35 of import duty for a pair of swimming shorts from Australia, I was almost convinced. But then clearly that diabetics are hypothetically banned from driving is much more important than a free trade agreement.

Today, however, I received a phone call from the Department for Work and Pensions: my medical expenses that I'd forked out for over a year ago in Paris were being refunded to me. I suddenly realised that, more than being a European citizen, being a British citizen of the EU lets you export the best parts of British culture and take it with you in a flask of NHS elixir. Fish and chips are of course excluded from this list, but in reality the EU does let the British maintain our identity whilst being part of a real global, free-thinking and innovative wider society. Great, I thought. Apart from one thing - I'm going to have to accept that I was wrong.