Like the title suggests this will most likely be the first of many rants
about the, well I was going call it farce, but while there are many funny
things about the Brexit process the thing itself is
not.
Think of a dragon swooping down out the sky. It flies over London a few times then smashes into Number 10, says "boo" to the PM who simply looks back up at it denying it could mean anything other than an opportunity to declare the superiority of the British Empire at which point the dragon eats the PM, takes a big dump in the nearest conference room and leaves. Everyone thinks this is fucking hilarious until you realise that some fucking idiot in the Tory party let the bloody thing out and it is now eating everyone in sight because it doesn't fucking care about anyone and probably worst of all the UK has to face up to the fact that Boris Johnson is probably now PM and Jacob Rees-Mogg is Chancellor. So yeah really funny until everyone is poor and dying.
This whole thing started because of fighting within the Tory party. David Cameron decided he needed to give the racists, elitists and ridiculously over privileged in his party the vote they had all been longing for. Should Britain leave the European Union?
Well OK apart from being a really easy answer of "no it fucking shouldn't, don't be an arse, now fuck off and sit in a corner you useless lump", how about we put that to the side for one moment and have a look at why we maybe should?
Well we are told that we will get control back over our borders. Em... not sure that's how it works but OK let's just say for a minute that it does. What does that actually look like. We can stop people coming into our country (this is a union of 4 countries and associated territories, not one single country). But why would you? The people that come in contribute way more in taxes than they consume in services and benefits. They provide nursing staff and doctors, both of which we are short on, teachers, yeah short on them too, trades people, cleaners, security staff and others. We still have vacancies. All the crap that people like Nigel Farage spout about people coming over to use the NHS, well, it doesn't really work like that. At the moment the proposal to limit migration to those whose can command £30,000 salaries is ridiculous. Nurses don't earn anywhere near that and we certainly don't train enough nurses to replace those who would no longer be able to immigrate here.
Then there is the line about taking back control of our laws. OK we don't have final say on some laws. But has that really been to our complete detriment? This may be the one area where I might show some agreement on but only in a small way. It does not justify losing everything else we have gained.
So what else was said? If we stop paying the EU then we can put £350 million back into the NHS. The bloody government is trying to privatise the NHS. Tories voted against the NHS, and the whole bus thing is a proven lie! So, no more money for the EU and fewer nurses and doctors. Yeah this isn't sounding too hot to me.
Next up, the EU is antidemocratic and overly bureaucratic. We have just voted to select MEPs. That kind of sounds like democracy to me. As for the bureaucratic side, it is a union of 28 countries each of which has its own agenda, how would it be anything other than overly bureaucratic? You also don't change anything from the outside, you can only really affect positive change as part of the system.
We were also told that doing a deal with the EU to leave would be one of the easiest in history. Yeah, that didn't work out either. The EU doesn't want the UK to leave and it certainly doesn't want others to leave. If they gave the UK a sweet deal, then it would quite possibly spell the end of the EU. So that was never really going to be the case. In a similar vein we were told that over 40 new deals with other countries would be ready to go by the time we left. The last I heard it wasn't even 10 nevermind 40.
I can't really think of any other reasons I've heard of to leave. To keep this short and sweet I thought I would list some of the reasons to stay:
1. The EU is the greatest peace keeping force Europe and possibly the world has ever known.
2. As a founding member we have the power of a veto. If we leave and come back later that significant power would be lost to us. We would also need to take on the Euro as our currency. We only still have the Pound as we did not agree to take it when it was created. All new member states are required to use it.
3. Our local communities and farms get significant funding from the EU which is not being replaced.
4. Doctors, nurses, teachers and many other trades employ skilled workers from the EU using freedom of movement. We need these as we don’t train enough ourselves.
5. Freedom of movement works both ways. We can work, learn and live anywhere within the EU and ECC we chose, something millions of UK citizens do.
6. Greater say at the table than away from it. Yes, things take a long time in the EU but it will take longer out of it.
7. The Tories are using the EU and those from the EU as scapegoats for all the ills in the UK. The financial crash wasn't the fault of Labour, they didn't help much, but it was the fucking bankers who ruined the economy. The fucking bankers who cost people their homes and jobs. It was the fucking Tories that then let them away with it, instead of putting them all in jail, and then pushed an austerity agenda on the population instead of taxing those rich bankers who got us into this position in the first place. It wasn't the EU. Yes they spent large sums of money propping up Greece. But then our own government bailed out the banks to stop the economy collapsing even further.
But was any of that made clear in the referendum? No because while the Leave campaign was spouting lies and receiving dodgy funding the remain campaign was disorganised and spreading the wrong message. It should not have been about fear. It should have been pointing out all good the EU does and what good being a member of the EU can bring.
But neither side had a clue what Brexit was going to look like. No matter which side you voted for no one had the full picture. How could they? Nothing had been negotiated nevermind decided.
So, Leave wins the dodgy referendum, dodgy not in the vote or count, dodgy because of the lies and illegal funding. David Cameron then chucks it in realising he really fucked up big time. The Tories have a leadership contest during which Boris Johnson appears to get stabbed in the back by Gove. May win as the others drop out, probably realising what a poisoned chalice of a job it is. It is a dark day for the UK. May, looking to consolidate power and with the Tories riding high in the polls, calls a general election. BOOM! Such a bad idea. While the Tories win the election, they lose their big majority which pretty much allowed them to do what they wanted. Now May is stuck with a slender majority and so calls for help from the DUP, that then costs the taxpayer a BILLION QUID! Now with only a small majority, May calls for a vote on triggering Article 50 to start the countdown to the UK leaving the EU. It passes with most of Labour voting for it as well. The line about honouring the result of the referendum is born some time around here.
Now at this point you would think the sensible thing to do would be to get right on this shit and start speaking with the EU about a deal. Em.... no she waits way too long and doesn't really know what she is asking for when she does start. People in her cabinet start leaving left right and centre not happy with the way she is running things. Still nobody seems to know what the hell is going on and this goes on for ages. Businesses and normal people are getting twitchy and wondering if they have made the right choice in voting to leave. The Tories are wondering if May is the right choice for leader.
Eventually at what seems like the last minute a deal is done. Well by done we mean she has agreed a deal with the EU, but parliament still need to agree to it. Now begins the biggest farce in UK parliamentary history. The deal is voted down. It is the largest defeat in around 400 years. MPs on all sides hate it. "This isn't the Brexit people voted for!" it is declared. I in the meantime start wondering what the hell are they talking about. People didn't vote for one Brexit or another. The question was leave or remain, without giving reasons behind their choice. The fact is MPs made up what they wanted about why people voted the way they did. Oh I am sure they may be asked a few people why they voted for leave but the answers will have been varied and based on the lies of the campaign.
So, what do we do now? Convention says the PM should resign or the government should call a general election to get guidance from the public. Well May is of the opinion that she won't be defeated so she goes back to the EU and says "can we have some changes?" The EU says no the deal is the deal, because it has been the only consistent party in all of this. They make some word changes to the political declaration, which isn't legally binding, and we then have round two of the vote. BANG voted down again. Still a big loss though not quite as big a before. Time to go? Nope. Let's try again shall we. Ministers are still leaving the government left right and centre but no we will press ahead because MPs are nothing if not self-serving bastards so we might be able to sway some more round even though nothing has changed. Right enough on vote three some do come around but still not enough.
Now in amongst all this a movement has sprung up. It was there from the beginning after the referendum and it calls for something simple. Whatever the deal that is agreed eventually looks like, put it back to the people, let them have the final say if this is what they really want. It has been done before with the Good Friday Agreement and it was ratified then so why not now?
NO! There will be no referendum again because that would be the death of democracy. I'm sorry since when the FUCK did talking and asking questions mean the death of democracy. If I asked you, "Would you like a car? Yes or No, no other information" Most people would say yes. Then I say OK great that will be £5 million and it's a banged up old crap heap which will only do 10 miles a day and cost even more to run. Do you say OK thanks or do you stop and think and say em no that's not what I wanted? Of course you say no, why would you want the car now? People change their minds, especially once given real information and facts. Also, if May can take her shit deal for a 2nd and 3rd vote why can't the people have a 2nd vote? The only reason not to have a vote is because you are afraid to lose it. Well sorry but that is what happens in a democracy. Denying the people a choice, that is dictatorship pure and simple.
Leavers then complain that they wouldn't be getting a second referendum if they lost so why should remainers. Simple, there are 2 reasons. First in a remain situation nothing actually changes so what are you voting on again or confirming. Second, people forget this is already a second referendum on leaving the EU. This first was in the 70s. You could also argue it is the third vote as there was a vote about joining in the first place.
Now at this point in writing this blog we have just had the EU election results. Bad, bad things have happened people. Nigel "I'm not a racist but" Farage has just seen his new Brexit party basically win. It should be pointed out that his party did not gain a majority but having only formed 6 weeks ago his party did gain the biggest share. It could be that people don't value their MEPs and this was just a protest vote. But it is still very bad news.
So this is where we are now; Nigel Farage has just "won" the EU election vote, the union now faces the prospect of an unelected Boris "The dangerous clown" Johnson as PM, if not him then some other poor-hating Tory idiot. Brexit is still a mess and the people can't do a damn thing about it. People are more divided on the subject than ever and as a result hate crime is at its highest level in years.
Who should we blame for all of this? I would say the biggest share should go to David Cameron. He is after all the one who got us into this mess. He is the one who effectively gambled the future of the UK and, it would now seem, his party, to try and shut up his Tory opponents and consolidate his power. Oops!
But he can't be blamed for it all. Both campaigns spouted lies and focused on fear and hatred rather than facts and hope. That means MPs on all sides did this country a massive disservice and almost all of them should hang their heads in shame.
Theresa May needs to shoulder some major amount of responsibility as well. Her lack of leadership, self-serving nature, non-existent ability to compromise and lack of communication skills led the UK further down this nightmarish path.
Of those voting against a second referendum, they too should look at themselves and ask, am I truly representing a democracy by denying the people a vote? This isn't about trusting the people, since when did main party MPs care anything about the people (I am generalising here, I'm sure some do, just not enough), it is about doing everything they can to win and boost their own coffers. If we leave the EU without a deal can anyone truly be considered a winner? Certainly not anyone is isn’t already mega rich.
No matter which way this goes the UK is going to be changed forever and I don't think it will be for the better. Even if this result is overturned it will not heal the division created within the population nor the even greater level of distrust of the political system. And why should it when those elected to power don’t use it in the ways they have been instructed to?
As a final point I want to state that I am aware there are more facts and points out there regarding this subject. I feel I have picked to biggest points and certainly the ones I feel most strongly about. To truly do this mess full justice I would need to write a rather lengthy book and that’s not what this blog is about. But no matter your position on Brexit I hope you can see that the Political mainstream does not represent the public but that we do need to keep voting or we will simply allow the negative and greedy elite to run this union for their own self gains and the rest of us be damned.
Think of a dragon swooping down out the sky. It flies over London a few times then smashes into Number 10, says "boo" to the PM who simply looks back up at it denying it could mean anything other than an opportunity to declare the superiority of the British Empire at which point the dragon eats the PM, takes a big dump in the nearest conference room and leaves. Everyone thinks this is fucking hilarious until you realise that some fucking idiot in the Tory party let the bloody thing out and it is now eating everyone in sight because it doesn't fucking care about anyone and probably worst of all the UK has to face up to the fact that Boris Johnson is probably now PM and Jacob Rees-Mogg is Chancellor. So yeah really funny until everyone is poor and dying.
This whole thing started because of fighting within the Tory party. David Cameron decided he needed to give the racists, elitists and ridiculously over privileged in his party the vote they had all been longing for. Should Britain leave the European Union?
Well OK apart from being a really easy answer of "no it fucking shouldn't, don't be an arse, now fuck off and sit in a corner you useless lump", how about we put that to the side for one moment and have a look at why we maybe should?
Well we are told that we will get control back over our borders. Em... not sure that's how it works but OK let's just say for a minute that it does. What does that actually look like. We can stop people coming into our country (this is a union of 4 countries and associated territories, not one single country). But why would you? The people that come in contribute way more in taxes than they consume in services and benefits. They provide nursing staff and doctors, both of which we are short on, teachers, yeah short on them too, trades people, cleaners, security staff and others. We still have vacancies. All the crap that people like Nigel Farage spout about people coming over to use the NHS, well, it doesn't really work like that. At the moment the proposal to limit migration to those whose can command £30,000 salaries is ridiculous. Nurses don't earn anywhere near that and we certainly don't train enough nurses to replace those who would no longer be able to immigrate here.
Then there is the line about taking back control of our laws. OK we don't have final say on some laws. But has that really been to our complete detriment? This may be the one area where I might show some agreement on but only in a small way. It does not justify losing everything else we have gained.
So what else was said? If we stop paying the EU then we can put £350 million back into the NHS. The bloody government is trying to privatise the NHS. Tories voted against the NHS, and the whole bus thing is a proven lie! So, no more money for the EU and fewer nurses and doctors. Yeah this isn't sounding too hot to me.
Next up, the EU is antidemocratic and overly bureaucratic. We have just voted to select MEPs. That kind of sounds like democracy to me. As for the bureaucratic side, it is a union of 28 countries each of which has its own agenda, how would it be anything other than overly bureaucratic? You also don't change anything from the outside, you can only really affect positive change as part of the system.
We were also told that doing a deal with the EU to leave would be one of the easiest in history. Yeah, that didn't work out either. The EU doesn't want the UK to leave and it certainly doesn't want others to leave. If they gave the UK a sweet deal, then it would quite possibly spell the end of the EU. So that was never really going to be the case. In a similar vein we were told that over 40 new deals with other countries would be ready to go by the time we left. The last I heard it wasn't even 10 nevermind 40.
I can't really think of any other reasons I've heard of to leave. To keep this short and sweet I thought I would list some of the reasons to stay:
1. The EU is the greatest peace keeping force Europe and possibly the world has ever known.
2. As a founding member we have the power of a veto. If we leave and come back later that significant power would be lost to us. We would also need to take on the Euro as our currency. We only still have the Pound as we did not agree to take it when it was created. All new member states are required to use it.
3. Our local communities and farms get significant funding from the EU which is not being replaced.
4. Doctors, nurses, teachers and many other trades employ skilled workers from the EU using freedom of movement. We need these as we don’t train enough ourselves.
5. Freedom of movement works both ways. We can work, learn and live anywhere within the EU and ECC we chose, something millions of UK citizens do.
6. Greater say at the table than away from it. Yes, things take a long time in the EU but it will take longer out of it.
7. The Tories are using the EU and those from the EU as scapegoats for all the ills in the UK. The financial crash wasn't the fault of Labour, they didn't help much, but it was the fucking bankers who ruined the economy. The fucking bankers who cost people their homes and jobs. It was the fucking Tories that then let them away with it, instead of putting them all in jail, and then pushed an austerity agenda on the population instead of taxing those rich bankers who got us into this position in the first place. It wasn't the EU. Yes they spent large sums of money propping up Greece. But then our own government bailed out the banks to stop the economy collapsing even further.
But was any of that made clear in the referendum? No because while the Leave campaign was spouting lies and receiving dodgy funding the remain campaign was disorganised and spreading the wrong message. It should not have been about fear. It should have been pointing out all good the EU does and what good being a member of the EU can bring.
But neither side had a clue what Brexit was going to look like. No matter which side you voted for no one had the full picture. How could they? Nothing had been negotiated nevermind decided.
So, Leave wins the dodgy referendum, dodgy not in the vote or count, dodgy because of the lies and illegal funding. David Cameron then chucks it in realising he really fucked up big time. The Tories have a leadership contest during which Boris Johnson appears to get stabbed in the back by Gove. May win as the others drop out, probably realising what a poisoned chalice of a job it is. It is a dark day for the UK. May, looking to consolidate power and with the Tories riding high in the polls, calls a general election. BOOM! Such a bad idea. While the Tories win the election, they lose their big majority which pretty much allowed them to do what they wanted. Now May is stuck with a slender majority and so calls for help from the DUP, that then costs the taxpayer a BILLION QUID! Now with only a small majority, May calls for a vote on triggering Article 50 to start the countdown to the UK leaving the EU. It passes with most of Labour voting for it as well. The line about honouring the result of the referendum is born some time around here.
Now at this point you would think the sensible thing to do would be to get right on this shit and start speaking with the EU about a deal. Em.... no she waits way too long and doesn't really know what she is asking for when she does start. People in her cabinet start leaving left right and centre not happy with the way she is running things. Still nobody seems to know what the hell is going on and this goes on for ages. Businesses and normal people are getting twitchy and wondering if they have made the right choice in voting to leave. The Tories are wondering if May is the right choice for leader.
Eventually at what seems like the last minute a deal is done. Well by done we mean she has agreed a deal with the EU, but parliament still need to agree to it. Now begins the biggest farce in UK parliamentary history. The deal is voted down. It is the largest defeat in around 400 years. MPs on all sides hate it. "This isn't the Brexit people voted for!" it is declared. I in the meantime start wondering what the hell are they talking about. People didn't vote for one Brexit or another. The question was leave or remain, without giving reasons behind their choice. The fact is MPs made up what they wanted about why people voted the way they did. Oh I am sure they may be asked a few people why they voted for leave but the answers will have been varied and based on the lies of the campaign.
So, what do we do now? Convention says the PM should resign or the government should call a general election to get guidance from the public. Well May is of the opinion that she won't be defeated so she goes back to the EU and says "can we have some changes?" The EU says no the deal is the deal, because it has been the only consistent party in all of this. They make some word changes to the political declaration, which isn't legally binding, and we then have round two of the vote. BANG voted down again. Still a big loss though not quite as big a before. Time to go? Nope. Let's try again shall we. Ministers are still leaving the government left right and centre but no we will press ahead because MPs are nothing if not self-serving bastards so we might be able to sway some more round even though nothing has changed. Right enough on vote three some do come around but still not enough.
Now in amongst all this a movement has sprung up. It was there from the beginning after the referendum and it calls for something simple. Whatever the deal that is agreed eventually looks like, put it back to the people, let them have the final say if this is what they really want. It has been done before with the Good Friday Agreement and it was ratified then so why not now?
NO! There will be no referendum again because that would be the death of democracy. I'm sorry since when the FUCK did talking and asking questions mean the death of democracy. If I asked you, "Would you like a car? Yes or No, no other information" Most people would say yes. Then I say OK great that will be £5 million and it's a banged up old crap heap which will only do 10 miles a day and cost even more to run. Do you say OK thanks or do you stop and think and say em no that's not what I wanted? Of course you say no, why would you want the car now? People change their minds, especially once given real information and facts. Also, if May can take her shit deal for a 2nd and 3rd vote why can't the people have a 2nd vote? The only reason not to have a vote is because you are afraid to lose it. Well sorry but that is what happens in a democracy. Denying the people a choice, that is dictatorship pure and simple.
Leavers then complain that they wouldn't be getting a second referendum if they lost so why should remainers. Simple, there are 2 reasons. First in a remain situation nothing actually changes so what are you voting on again or confirming. Second, people forget this is already a second referendum on leaving the EU. This first was in the 70s. You could also argue it is the third vote as there was a vote about joining in the first place.
Now at this point in writing this blog we have just had the EU election results. Bad, bad things have happened people. Nigel "I'm not a racist but" Farage has just seen his new Brexit party basically win. It should be pointed out that his party did not gain a majority but having only formed 6 weeks ago his party did gain the biggest share. It could be that people don't value their MEPs and this was just a protest vote. But it is still very bad news.
So this is where we are now; Nigel Farage has just "won" the EU election vote, the union now faces the prospect of an unelected Boris "The dangerous clown" Johnson as PM, if not him then some other poor-hating Tory idiot. Brexit is still a mess and the people can't do a damn thing about it. People are more divided on the subject than ever and as a result hate crime is at its highest level in years.
Who should we blame for all of this? I would say the biggest share should go to David Cameron. He is after all the one who got us into this mess. He is the one who effectively gambled the future of the UK and, it would now seem, his party, to try and shut up his Tory opponents and consolidate his power. Oops!
But he can't be blamed for it all. Both campaigns spouted lies and focused on fear and hatred rather than facts and hope. That means MPs on all sides did this country a massive disservice and almost all of them should hang their heads in shame.
Theresa May needs to shoulder some major amount of responsibility as well. Her lack of leadership, self-serving nature, non-existent ability to compromise and lack of communication skills led the UK further down this nightmarish path.
Of those voting against a second referendum, they too should look at themselves and ask, am I truly representing a democracy by denying the people a vote? This isn't about trusting the people, since when did main party MPs care anything about the people (I am generalising here, I'm sure some do, just not enough), it is about doing everything they can to win and boost their own coffers. If we leave the EU without a deal can anyone truly be considered a winner? Certainly not anyone is isn’t already mega rich.
No matter which way this goes the UK is going to be changed forever and I don't think it will be for the better. Even if this result is overturned it will not heal the division created within the population nor the even greater level of distrust of the political system. And why should it when those elected to power don’t use it in the ways they have been instructed to?
As a final point I want to state that I am aware there are more facts and points out there regarding this subject. I feel I have picked to biggest points and certainly the ones I feel most strongly about. To truly do this mess full justice I would need to write a rather lengthy book and that’s not what this blog is about. But no matter your position on Brexit I hope you can see that the Political mainstream does not represent the public but that we do need to keep voting or we will simply allow the negative and greedy elite to run this union for their own self gains and the rest of us be damned.
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