Darren Grimes wins his appeal against the Electoral Commission on the issue of him being fined £20,000; cue Leavers using this as massive vindication. I can understand why: Remainers had built his case up into the ultimate argument against Brexit. This was always a bad idea on the part of Remainers, as is the whole “Leave won by cheating” line of thinking. It is possible that something dodgy went on with the Leave campaign and if that is proven correct it will have huge implications for how political campaigns are run in the future. God knows, electoral law needs to be reformed in this country, so if something kick starts that effort, then great. However, Remainers have got lost in this argument when it really does not matter to whether we stay in or leave the European Union. We shouldn’t go through with Brexit, not because of some conspiracy involving the Russians or Darren Grimes ticking the wrong box on a form, but because it is a really terrible idea.
If you want to say something about the referendum, say this: it gave the government of the time a mandate to try and secure a deal along the lines dictated by the Leave campaign. That turned out not to be possible. Also, it was an advisory referendum that produced a mandate not to be ignored – in the immediate. Whether anyone likes it or not, the mandate produced by the 2016 EU referendum gets steadily weaker the more time passes, which can be said of all democratic processes. This is one of the great things about democracy, in fact – people get to change their minds. Governments and ideas are given a shot and if they don’t work out, they are replaced.
Liberals compare Brexit with Trump and now the rise of Boris Johnson all the time. What I think they mean by this most of the time is “here are three things that are right-wing flavoured that I don’t like”. Yet there is actually something tangible that links all three: they are hyper-establishment movements and characters that have been disguised and then sold as anti-establishment. Donald Trump is the son of a millionaire real estate developer who went to an Ivy League school. Boris Johnson is an Etonian who went to Oxford. Some people have an issue with people who went to posh schools being in positions of power. I do not. In other words, I don’t mind there being an establishment. It just really, really irks me when those who have been given this gift of being on the inside try and claim outsider status.
Brexit is just that insider claiming outsider status trope turned into a movement and a sacred idea. It poses as something for the little guy, for those in the left behind towns, people on the wrong end of the socio-economic ladder, when in practice it is the precise opposite. The wealthier you are, the less you will be affected if we crash out of the EU with no deal.
Beyond that, a large section of the British establishment has embraced Brexit to an amazing degree. There is a very cosy group with great influence and/or power who have kept Brexit alive as its failures have piled up, one on top of each other. It was supposed to be about giving money back to the NHS – instead, we are now talking about stockpiling medicines. This is the stuff Remainers should talk more about, leaving the Russian conspiracy theories and the minutiae of electoral law to one side for now.
Whether anyone likes it or not, the mandate produced by the 2016 EU referendum gets steadily weaker the more time passes, which can be said of all democratic processes
Hm… but is it really democracy if you can get out of having to implement any mandate you happen to disagree with just by deliberately dragging your heels and then claiming the mandate has expired?
That would be a bit like me at work being given a task I don’t really want to do, so I invent spurious excuses to put off doing it until the deadline has passed and then saying there’s no point in me doing it because it’s too late.
It was supposed to be about giving money back to the NHS – instead, we are now talking about stockpiling medicines
Yeah but remember we’re only stockpiling medicines because certain groups of people started pushing ridiculous, baseless scare-stories about medicines running out and people got unnecessarily worried.
Nick –
All that has happened is that the rather narrow Establishment that runs Britain – in politics, the mainstream media, corporate business etc., etc., have had the shock of their lives. Having asked the great British public what they think of the European Union, they were given a raspberry in response. As Labour MP Caroline Flint shrewdly pointed out a few months ago, this could have happened at any time in the past ten years. Well, it’s happened now. And all the Remainer foot stamping tantrums and blue flag waving marches have achieved since 2016 is – incredibly – to push the greater part of the Conservative party to a full Brexit position and propel Boris Johnson towards Number 10 Downing – him having been a somewhat forlorn political figure just six months ago. Well done everyone!
“That would be a bit like me at work being given a task I don’t really want to do, so I invent spurious excuses to put off doing it until the deadline has passed and then saying there’s no point in me doing it because it’s too late.”
Nah, if you did that they would just get someone else to do it, since it’s so easy.
I wonder why this hasn’t happened with Brexit…
Nah, if you did that they would just get someone else to do it, since it’s so easy.
What — that other Parliament? That spare civil service we keep stashed away?
MPs and civil servants were given an instruction they disagreed with, and have responded by dragging their feet and refusing to do the job, in the hope that eventually people will forget about it, they can quietly brush it all under the carpet, and things can just go back to being normal.
It might even work — but it’s definitely not democracy.
Might have been an idea not to go hell for leather for a hard Brexit on a wafer thin win, mate. A compromise soft Brexit would been done and dusted six months ago and we would be out.
A compromise soft Brexit would been done and dusted six months ago and we would be out.
No, it clearly couldn’t, because (a) The EU would never have agreed to it — their whole strategy has been to only offer a deal so terrible we would be forced to stay in instead; (b) the civil servants would never have negotiated it — they want us to stay as much as the EU, so would have co-operated in that project, as indeed they did; and (b) Remainer MPs would never have voted for it, unless it also included a second referendum rider, because they want another go at the vote they lost last time.
A ‘comppromise soft Brexit’ was never a goer, because it would have required the EU’s active co-operation and the EU wants to bully us into remaining, not help us leave smoothly.
It all makes me laugh.
For decades the soggy centre from social democrats to liberal democrats have been imposing massive social and cultural change on this country without the vaguest courtesy of asking the public if they want it. Any criticism usually elicits the response ‘Well you can always vote for somebody else in the GE if you are unhappy’ in the full knowledge that the common purpose that straddles our political parties ensures change is always on the terms defined by the establishment.
Occasionally a referendum rears its head, and as long as the result matches what the establishment wants, they are implemented without question. There was barely a comment when Welsh devolution was implemented on a 50.3% for yes on a 50% turnout. 25% of the Welsh electorate voted for devolution, yet it was enthusiastically embraced by all parties.
Remain is lacking because it is anti-democratic, it is as simple as that, because if the result of this had been reversed in 2016, there would not be a single Remainer questioning the legitimacy of the result..
If the result had been reversed, David Cameron probably wouldn’t be pushing for a hard remain and transferring all powers to Brussels.
Social media warriors probably wouldn’t be saying it was a betrayal of democracy that we were failing to join the euro, change road signs to kilometres and shut down Westminster.
Maybe we’re just a bit more rational?
Oh, Cameron probably not. But others would have been only too delighted to reinterpret a 2016 Remain vote as the green light for joining the Euro, the Schengen open border scheme and any other political, economic or social contrivance with the word ‘European’ in its title.
Get a grip.
I have got a grip on how the EU and its fans work: “mission creep” I think it’s called. Thanks for the advice.