Towards the sunny uplands?
My views upon Brexit are well-known to Rust stalwarts, so out of respect for them I shan’t rehearse them again here: furthermore I am sure that those with an interest in the subject amongst the average 23,481 new readers we gain per week [source: Bolton Research, January 2020] will work them out soon enough.
What I did find remarkable yesterday – and am still finding remarkable at 0022 hours on 1st February, listening to the Stephen Nolan Show on Radio Five Live as I type – is the extraordinary degree of entrenchment that still exists on both sides of the Leave-Remain argument in the media, on the airwaves and therefore, presumably, around the country.
It is difficult to avoid coming to the conclusion from all this – trying to look at it objectively – that it has come to a historical and very dangerous rum pass indeed when the losing side in an Unites Kingdom democratic vote totally refuses to accept the result.
Over the last 48 hours – well, no, let’s make that the last four years, i.e. ever since the UK’s 2016 EU Referendum – those on the Remain side of the fence have (ad ennui to this listener) continued to trot out their ‘learned by rote’ reasons as to why their cause is right and the other’s wrong.
They include the ‘certain knowledge’ that:
They are right and that Remain is better for the UK in every possible respect – including its future – than Leaving;
Those who voted Leave were (and are) either thick and/or bigoted, possibly racist, misguided, lacking in common sense – or indeed a mix of one or any/all of the above – and were duped into voting by ‘fake news’ propaganda;
No Leave voter had any idea what Leave would mean (alternatively “Now we know what we know about what any Brexit would really look like – which nobody could possibly have done in 2016 – we should have a Second Vote and/or an opportunity to vote again on the terms …”);
After any Brexit – sorry, as of 2200 hours last night, I mean now that we have left the EU – the future of the UK is now going to be a ‘dive off a cliff’ which will inevitably leave it a Third World country within about a quarter of a century.
[There, I think I’ve just about covered them].
All of which, apparently, gives Remainers the right – indeed duty – to demand a reverse of Brexit in order to keep the UK safe, secure and still ‘enjoying’ all the benefits that accrue to any country nestling, and being nurtured by, the warm benign bosom of the EU Commission.
Albeit, for completeness, I could list here the ‘equivalent’ arguments of the Leave camp, I won’t bother in the interest of brevity.
However, let’s just consider the logical implications of the Remain position, if it is justified in the circumstances (and let us assume for this purpose that it is).
It means that, on any future great issues that arise, the losing side – which, of course, would include Leavers if the UK EU Referendum had gone the other way – should have the right to demand a re-run of that decision, or indeed reverse it, at any point in the future.
Why exactly?
Well, because the losing side were “right”.
[Readers still awake and intelligent enough will have noted that to this point I have left aside the other Remain refrain, i.e. that Leave only won the 2106 Referendum because of either voter fraud, or Leave campaigners breaking electoral laws on expenditure, or dastardly propaganda, or indeed their leaders peddling “a series of outrageous lies” and/or unproveable claims as to the advantages of leaving the EU, all of which – taken together – managed to fool the gullible, intellectually-challenged and vulnerable into voting Leave.]
But hang on.
If a losing side in a democratic event – such as e.g. a major national Referendum or General Election – has some sort of entitlement to seek to unpick the result because they passionately believe (sorry, know) they were/are “right”, just exactly where is that going to leave us … or indeed the essence of Western democracy as we know it?
All this week my despair-quotient has been rising exponentially as I have listened to contributors to radio phone-in programmes (and/or pundits on both sides appearing on TV current affairs shows) still trotting out their same old, tired, arguments again and again, just as they were during the 2016 EU Referendum campaign.
Meanwhile, yesterday, I also chanced upon an extract on TV from a speech by SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, calling once again for “the democratic right of Scottish people – who all voted to Remain in the EU Referendum [really?] – to self-determination via an “Indie-Ref 2”, this even though the SNP argued for the first Scottish Independent Referendum on the basis that it would be a “once in a generation” event to decide the issue.
My attitude upon being confronted with this was a woke-dripping “You go, girl!”
Nicola Sturgeon – ironically in direct contrast to her reputation within her own party – is the biggest asset that we who would like to eject Scotland from the United Kingdom have in our locker.
Come on, UK voters, gird your loins and stand up for a brighter future for this great nation of ours!
Let’s Get Jock-Drop Done!
Let’s Get Jock-Drop Done!
Let’s Get Jock-Drop Done!
[Ad infinitum] …
