Which way did you vote?
It comes to something when I am slightly relieved that it might be Theresa May who is running the country!
The Brexiteers didn’t have a clue what they were doing – or so it seems – except they knew what they didn’t want. But they didn’t have a route map to get us to what they did want. And they didn’t seem to have given it much, if any, thought – possibly because they weren’t expecting actually to win, and perhaps they weren’t wanting actually to win. They just wanted to progress their Tory party credentials for future power? Surely not.
As I understand it, which isn’t very deeply, we are now more or less committed to a path where we will leave the EU and in the two years of so-called negotiation they have all the cards because if we don’t agree a deal then we leave with nothing. It’s a divorce which we agitated for, but in which we might not even end up with our own clothes, let alone the dog, or the car or the house. Well done us!
I do wonder whether, even if the ballot paper had looked like the one above, a good proportion of people would still have avoided ticking the Remain box.
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Oh it’s not all bad Mark. The Wash and the Severn might make quite nice boating lakes.
As someone said on the web ‘Roy Hodgson, the only man with a coherent plan for getting England out of Europe’!
Yes indeed, Dr. M Parry – whereas the Welsh had an effective plan to stay in Europe – and also voted to get out of it.
What an excellent cartoon – and a very good posting, Mark.
Funny then that Wales voted ‘leave’ but seems so keen to stay.
It looks disasterous. But Monboit’s article here suggests ways to be hopeful despite everything:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/28/brexit-disaster-crisis-changes-left
When will people learn not to believe what they read in the media…without at least some thought.
I must admit to a sense of bewilderment once the result became clear, if that’s the right word ‘clear’. For me Professor Michael Dougan confirmed my own thoughts and summed-up rather nicely where we are now. Worth looking at all the way through: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dosmKwrAbI
Great link – very informative, thanks.
Ditto. Thanks.
Even though George Monbiot might see a glimmer of hope he does nevertheless consider brexit to be a disaster and given that his ‘hopes’ appear to be grounded in some kind of reformulation of left-wing thinking then we are going to have to wait a long time. There is still a slim possibility that article 50 will not be exercised given that the great majority of parliament are for ‘remain’. If the economy dives before it is exercised it would be a brave parliament and prime minister that would push on into obvious disaster if there was still the alternative of maintaining our membership of the EU and bringing us back from such a disaster (if it wasn’t too late by then). Perhaps by then the EU might have come forward with some modifications to their conditions for freedom of movement (say) that might make staying politically acceptable to some ‘leavers’. The problem of rejecting the referendum result without riots would have to be faced, of course. As a committed ‘remainer’ I am still hoping.
Regardless of the result what is clear is that referendums are inevitably very divisive unless off course say over say 65-70.
But of course its not hard to work out that that is exactly what is intended by the proponents of it.
Divide and Rule…set the people against each other so the rich can continue to get richer and the poor poorer.
There is a phrase from Frank Herbert’s Dune, “Fear is the mind killer”. Turns out from neuroscience that this is indeed true. When we are in fight or flight, thinking goes out the window. So fear is a big part of the response to Brexit, fear of the unknown.In these circumstances people tend to emotionally return to an earlier age and turn to an “adult” to save them. There is another fear associated with the Brexit vote IMO and that is the fear of the ordinary working class people for their future. Fear of further attacks by the Bullingdon bully boys;how it is austerity for the poor and tax breaks for the rich. Yes I know it is our government doing it but you only have to look at what happened in Greece and what is happening in France to see the way the whole of Europe is heading. The EU is not some utopia keeping Europe free from war and nurturing its citizens.It is more a neo liberal rich mans club waging wars in the form of NATO, on other countries outside Europe and fomenting problems with nuclear armed Russia, together with squeezing its own powerless populations. Sure there are a few green bolt ons but like the Guardian you have to offer the middle classes a little of what they want in order for them to buy in to the rest of the agenda. Of course xenophobia is the big bogey man in the press regarding Brexit and Gove and Boris used it in the campaign, but that elite stream press is not going to discuss what the real concerns are. Neither wing of the Bully boys can help us as many of them went to boarding school and are therefore too emotionally damaged(a whole separate discussion). The good thing about Brexit is that people are talking about real issues and real politics amongst themselves for the first time for a very long time. Sometimes you have to tear down an old ruin in order to build something better.I agree that there are dangers; our dear leaders are not the epitome of an ethical caring group after all and nor are their paymasters, but it would be I think, naive to believe they are just because of Brexit. The bankers are unfortunately always with us.
The best news I have read this week is that the Green Party have written to the leaders of Labour, the Lib Dem’s and Plaid Cymru to propose the formation of a progressive left wing alliance to take the issue of voting reform, or rather proportional representation, to the next election.
I urge all the readers of the blog who are members of the aforementioned parties to write to their mp / local party chairman / party leader to push for this. This is a critical moment in British politics, without reform of the electoral system nothing will ever change.
Bad idea to hold any election while the Pilton Festival is on
With regard to the final paragraph, in the days following the referendum, a woman who said that she had voted to leave was interviewed on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme and said that she regretted having done so. She also admitted that she had voted to leave as a protest vote!!!
Do you really believe that the tories didn’t have a plan?
Do you not realise they knew labour was hopelessly divided?
When you don’t think deeply that’s when you come to all the wrong conclusions and help them get away with it.
This is all about the elite/establishment keeping control and making the rest of us poorer.
Ronnie – welcome and thank you for your comments
Sidetrack;
100 Club Update
Sheffield, Heeley
Congratulations to Sheffield Central’s wee neighbours (30,000 fewer constituents)!
And there’s your 49,000!
Jim – OUR 49,000!
Accepted for one and all!
The consensus seems to be that by voting for ‘Brexit’ political considerations won over economic arguments. Yet there seems an expectation by many in the “leave” camp that when it comes striking a deal with the EU they will do the opposite and base their policy entirely on economic grounds. So lightly dismissing the political pressure on the EU to be tough seems optimistic and foolhardy.
Important event on Tuesday night for those of you darn sarf:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/post-brexit-alliance-building-with-caroline-lucas-mp-clive-lewis-mp-more-tickets-26347951432