Brexiters said we’d celebrate June 23 as our Independence Day. One year on from the referendum, are you really happy with the pig’s ear you’ve made of things?
Are you thrilled with the chaos in our government caused by the referendum? By Theresa May grabbing power – with her “Brexit means Brexit” mantra – even though she didn’t have a clue what to do and has now been exposed as an empress with no clothes?
Are you happy that the Tories are so desperate to cling to office that they are keeping May in Downing Street although she’s a busted flush? That they are grovelling to Northern Ireland’s reactionary Democratic Unionists to bail them out?
Are you pleased that the government still hasn’t a clue what to do on Brexit and that the two-year clock is ticking away like a bomb?
Do you cheer that we may have another election in a few months’ time – with a devil’s choice between Jeremy Corbyn and whoever is Tory leader?
Are you happy we’ve lost our first battle in Brussels? That we caved in when they told us to discuss how much we owed them before we talk about a new trade deal?
Are you delighted that the brain drain has already started, with nursing applications from the EU down 96%?
Are you congratulating the prime minister on making a “generous offer” to guarantee the rights of 3 million EU citizens living here, when we could have generated so much good will if we’d done this a year ago?
Are you still crowing that we threw our lot in with Donald Trump and prostituted ourselves by inviting him on a state visit only to discover that he’s scared of coming?
Did you really want us to fall from being the fastest- to being the slowest-growing member of the Group of Seven large industrialised nations? To be ripping us out of the EU just when it’s reviving? To see inflation rising to nearly 3%, making real incomes fall? And to damage our public finances when we need every penny we can get for the NHS, schools and old people?
Well, if you do, shame on you.
And, if you don’t, it’s not too late to change your mind. As Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, said yesterday when asked if Britain could still stay in the EU: “I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.”
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Edited by Bill Emmott
You missed out the UK being outvoted 94 / 15 at the UN in favour of Mauritius yesterday. (To be fair, they are in the right.) So much for buccaneering ‘Global Britain’.
https://twitter.com/brexology_uk/status/878009337322582018
https://twitter.com/philippesands/status/877929541850804224
I suppose it’s fitting that on Brexit day we had two more of our EU staff announce they would be leaving the UK. That’s two more highly skilled software engineers leaving Britain taking enough tax with them each year to pay the salary of an NHS nurse each.
I’ve lost count of how many have done this since the referendum and trying to recruit new people from the EU is impossible – applications have completely dried up. I’m not sure how much longer my employer is likely to put up with this before they simply decide to close down the London office completely and move operations to one of their offices on the mainland.
Happy Brexit day it is not.
Good paper.
We on the rest of the Continent of Europe are still trying to understand how the English could take leave of their senses to this point. It is beyond belief to see the country that gave us Adam Smith about to leave the largest free trade area in the world. And the land that is rightly proud of the Mother of Parliaments cuddling up with Trump and Erdogan, rather than western European democracies.
Something should be done about all the lies about the EU a large part of the British press have been telling the English people for decades…
Brexit Day?
Within 5years there will be a celebration of “Bonfire of the Brexiters.” When effigies of all of the cross-party of Brexiters, media and ‘Sellouts’ will be burned.
I think it should be a Day of Public Mourning with church bells tolling.
As a more pragmatic remainer, I have to say it’s a little churlish to only recognise the role of the Brexiteers in this mess.
The reality is that without the hubris, egotism, poor judgement and cowardice of many Remainers, we simply wouldn’t be here.
It is only because of Remainers that Brexit is actually happening.
Chiefly, in no particular order:
Tony Blair – arrived in office proclaiming himself a europhile, despite menacingly describing Europe as a dragon to be slain to his former BFF, Rupert Murdoch.
He repeatedly pledged to hold a referendum on the European Constitution, even going as far as to pledge a referendum even if other member states rejected it in their referendums.
Of course, he reneged on the pledge, citing the other countries’ rejection of it, ignoring the fact that it would have been a perfect opportunity to allow a legally futile but cathartic symbolic vote instead simply creating a grudge that would fester for a decade.
Blair sacrificed the good of the country and Europe because he didn’t want to risk personal humiliation, beyond reneging on his pledges.
Then David Cameron, who not only disastrously orchestrated the whole Brexit referendum farce, but practically, assuming the referendum had been won, guaranteed referendums in perpetuity with his sovereignty lock.
In fact much of what Remainers are hoping / arguing for now was actually ruled out by Cameron and the Remain campaign, membership of the single market are a second final referendum (which was mooted by the Leavers and rejected by the Remainers).
Even since June 23 Remainers have been busy shooting themselves in the foot.
Gina Miller has been lauded by some Remainers (I’d agree only when it comes to her bravery), yet all her actions have led to is further legitamising Brexit following the huge, and predictable, parliamentary majority for Article 50.
That decision was a boon for Brexiteers and another completely unnecessary, and unwinnable, fight.
Then there is the PLP, who rather than engaging with Corbyn and his policy platform from day one tried, disastrously, to undermine him, and not only failing, miserably, to do that but also squandering any political capital they might have had leaving them no room to influence the party’s policies.
Without the depth of failure of Remainers there would have been sovereignty lock, no Brexit vote, no red bus, no refugee poster, no embarrassing footage of a rich Remainer heckling poor Brexiteers on the Thames, etc – let us never forget that either.
But at the end of the day, the biggest question is how we can stop all this and get back on an even keel?
Everyone is analysing what’s happened, but no-one is standing up to take the role of challenger to get us out of this disaster.
Where is our Churchill to bring all interested parties together to fight the incumbant government, and their disasterous course of action? Too much of the “remainers’ fight” seems to be fragmented, which means it can never win, without all sides coming together to form a solid and structured opposition – who is going to stick their head above the parapet and bacome the person to lead the campaign against Brexit?
Any suggestions……….