The vote to leave the EU was wrong. Totally and absolutely wrong.
The vast majority of MPs can see this, and it is what is coming across in the media. It is why over 4 million have signed the petition for a 2nd referendum. Unfortunately, in their pathetic attempts to maintain neutrality, they (BBC, in particular, take note) are insisting on printing a counter argument to every argument. Before the referendum – when everything was merely guesswork – this stupid behaviour caused confusion among the great unwashed masses. But now, in the face of harsh realities, these counter arguments are just coming across as childish and naive.
“Leave” Lies
The “Leave” campaign pretty much stated prior to the referendum that it would stop immigration completely, and give £350,000,000 to the NHS. These promises struck a major chord with the less intelligent people in our society, and undoubtedly won many votes. However, “Leave” reneged on both promises as soon as it became clear that it had won. Quite simply, immigration cannot be controlled in anything like the way “Leave” said, or in the way that dumb, nationalist people would like. And the NHS will not get £350m for the simple reason that “Leave” lied – absolutely and definitely lied – about the amount of money being paid to Brussels, and which it claimed could be given to the NHS instead.
Break up of The Union
As soon as we knew that Scotland had voted to remain, but England had voted to leave, the destruction of The Union was assured. Scotland held a referendum in 2014 on whether to remain a part of the United Kingdom. It chose future security over flag-waving and voted to stay, though the admittedly narrow margin of the “stay in the UK” vote has been the subject of much discussion ever since, and further referendums were always on the cards. Scotland’s future security flew out of the window on the morning of 24 June 2016, and within a day it was announced that a second vote on independence was definitely on the cards. Separate talks to keep Scotland in the EU have already begun.
Gibraltar voted by more than 95% to stay in the EU, and Spain immediately went off on one again over the issue of sovereignty. Although it has dismissed Spain’s renewed sovereignty claims, Gibraltar is now in talks with Scotland in order to try and retain its own EU membership.
Furthermore, Northern Ireland’s independence and Ireland’s valid claim to sovereignty on geographic grounds if nothing else has always been bubbling away under the surface. Northern Ireland also voted to remain in the EU, and it isn’t hard to see how the independence argument could bubble up again. The only problem there is that, unlike Scotland, Northern Ireland is likely to fall back into civil war as the Loyalists and Republicans are almost certainly not going to agree with each other. Just saying the words “Northern Ireland might seek independence” misses the realities of the situation by a million miles.
And if Scotland and/or Northern Ireland go, what will Wales – which has also talked of independence in the past – want to do?
Remember: before the referendum, no one predicted what has happened since. But what has happened since should provide a big enough warning of what could now happen moving forward. And it won’t involve blue skies and rainbows – more like black clouds and lightning.
Nationalism
The day the result was announced, I noticed a dramatic increase in the number of houses with flags hanging outside – many on dwellings such as the scummy one I mentioned before on Wigman Road in Bilborough – which had already been displaying “Leave” posters. As I pointed out to several pupils, these were not all due to England being in the Euro 2016 football competition – many were the response of a bunch of chimpanzees jumping up and down with glee at the exit vote. Although most were George Crosses, some were Union Jacks (one appeared on a flagpole on an exclusive property on Town Street in Bramcote).
This made me laugh, because there will be a new Union Jack within a couple of years – one with all the blue missing. A few years after that, Britain’s flag will just consist of the George Cross, and we’ll be called “England”. There will be no British Isles, since there will be no Britain.
It’s hard to fathom how the tiny minds of some people work. They’ve been going on and on for the last 70-odd years about how “great” Britain defeated Hitler and right-wing extremism, and yet they have now voted in such a way that they have destroyed the very mechanism by which that happened.
Fascism
That leads nicely on to the issue of racism – I’ll come to fascism in a moment. Within hours of the referendum result, acts of overt racism were already being reported. In Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, carefully produced laminated cards were being left at properties believed to be owned by Polish people. In actual fact, they were being left in the wrong places, but we already know that most “Leave” supporters were a little short on brains.
There are reports of people openly confronting “foreigners” and telling them to go home. In one case in Manchester, the “foreigner” being abused is an American. The perpetrators are clearly too thick to understand that they are a) abusing people who have been here for 5 generations or more, and b) who are not European (Muslims are also being targeted).
In a way, this illustrates the deeply ingrained racist beliefs held by the older generation in this country, and which has been passed on to generation after generation of their offspring. They are incapable of understanding that someone who was born in the UK, and whose ancestors – that would be great-great grandparents – emigrated here are just as British as they are. To believe that they aren’t… well, I’ll come to that shortly.
I want to go back to the Second World War for a moment, and the 70-plus years we’ve had to endure the message that we saved the world from a right-wing monster; the repetitive snide comments about Germany or Germans who do anything we don’t like (such as win sports events, or be involved in global politics); the snide comments about France for being occupied and having to be rescued; the snide comments about anyone smaller than us, or with a less illustrious history; and the “fact” that we singlehandedly saved them all from Hitler and fascism.
When you take all of that into consideration – and believe me, you could write a book on the subject – who would ever have thought that right-wing seeds should so readily sprout in the British Isles? You know, the country that defeated extremism again and again for almost a century (longer if you want to consider Britain’s imperial past)?
The vote to leave the EU has unleashed this right-wing bile by the bucket load, and not being part of Europe guarantees that it will fester and grow as we try to pretend we can become “great” again. The worrying thing is that we already were – but now we’re not.
Don’t try to convince yourself that it is “only a minority” of people who are racist. Anyone who voted to leave the EU solely because of immigration is already part of that same group of Neanderthals to a greater or lesser extent. Immigration was a problem for the whole of Europe and the whole World. It still is. Except we’ll have to deal with it alone from now on.
Economy
And that leads me on to the the economy. The shockwaves created by the referendum result have surprised everyone except for those who were too stupid to understand what they were doing by voting to leave. The GBP (£) immediately fell to its lowest value since the depression of the late 70s and early 80s. Shares in any company which relies on international trade plummeted, with trading even being suspended in some cases. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has warned that the country will be poorer as a result of the vote, and has also warned that taxes will have to rise by 2-3%, while spending will have to be cut (and let’s remind ourselves that a vote to leave was going to give an extra £350 million to the NHS, whereas it looks now as though it will actually end up with less than it was already getting). There are plans to increase duty on fuel and alcohol, as well as an increase in inheritance tax.
Don’t be misled by stories that the markets have “stabilised”. Global markets might have – temporarily. But UK companies are still almost 10% down on pre-referendum figures. The propaganda tells us that the GBP (£) is “up” to 1.35, yet it was 1.50 this time last week. Since it fell to a low of 1.32 or thereabouts, it is actually only “up” by 0.03 – whereas in reality, it is down by 0.15 as a direct result of the decision to leave the EU.
Referring back to the Chancellor’s comments, you have to laugh over that inheritance tax thing. There was one prat called “Graham”, who wrote a comment at the bottom of a recent BBC article (all in capitals, as is typical of his kind). He said he had voted “leave” for the sake of his children and grandchildren. I wonder what he thinks now? Well done, Graham. I hope waving your St George’s Cross goes some way to making you happy – but f__k everyone else, eh?
Forty years of net prosperity, growth, and success has been wiped out overnight, and replaced with uncertainty – a bunch of aged idiots, white van men from council estates, and f brainless football supporters all waving flags and rattling on about “making Britain great again” (those words have been written more than once by more than one “leave” voter).
We already were “great”. Now we’re not, and there’s no sign that we will be during the lifetimes of anyone now living.
The Referendum
It should never have been held. A decision like this should not have been made by idiots. It should have been made by economists and academics.
As I said at the start, this decision was wrong. It is obviously not working, and it obviously cannot and will not work in the future. Ever.
The government knows the result was wrong. It needs to stop prattling on about “democracy” and overturn the result quickly before Europe kicks us out. Then, it really will be too late.