I wish I could believe that my future is safer by breaking ties with our neighbours
Or that I will travel as freely when my passport is less acceptable
I wish I could believe my human rights will be as protected under the governments we elect that are dedicated to their erosion
Or that tax cooperation will continue when we are dedicated to tax competition
I wish I could believe that putting barriers to trade in the path of British exports will make people in this country better off
Or encourage innovation in anything but financial services
I wish I could believe that workers, part-timers, gays, lesbians, any minority, the armed forces, those with disabilities, women, new parents and children will be as secure in their rights without a court that has shown its willing to protect them
I wish thought, study and students would be allowed to flow freely in the future
I wish I could believe my government loves its neighbours as itself
Or that it even had any regard for the environment
I wish I could believe we'll still have peace in Europe when our leaders stop meeting and getting to know each other, often
I wish I could believe that the future is anything but lonely, which is a place that is, as they say, in another country
I wish I could believe in Boris Johnson
But I can't
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Hear, Hear!
Maybe this will be the beginning of the end of the terrible Brexit experiment and for that matter the government that supported it?
If not, I doubt my generation (those born in the 80s) will ever forgive the Tories (or the Brexit-supporting Labour leadership) for betraying our collective future.
Boris has spent much of his life lying to and betraying: his wives, his mistresses, his employers and his party.
As he might say himself to anyone inclined to believe him:
Caveat emptor.
He is an embarrassment and the sooner he is gone from public life the better.
Paul says:
“Boris has spent much of his life lying to and betraying: his wives, his mistresses, his employers and his party….”.
…and himself.
Like the inflatable boy with a pin; he is even letting himself down. along with everything he purports to stand for.
My friend’s daughter and husband moved to Ireland a few years ago as his employer re-located. Their daughters told my friend they are going for Irish passports as ‘we will be able to do more with them’. I presume to ‘work, study and live’ in the rest of Europe as well as potentially easier travel.
Hardly taking back control.
Well put, Richard.
A few months ago I would have said that no UK politician could match the egotism, arrogance, crassness, lying and general deplorability of Donald Trump. But after today’s speech by Johnson I now realise I was mistaken. At least by John Crace’s account pretty much everyone at the event was at the very least ‘underwhelmed’ by Johnson. But as a person with no shame and clearly with no ability to critically reflect on anything he does I doubt that bothers him. Shameful, and a stunning reflection of the depths to which the Tory party has sunk under May’s ‘leadership’.
When they say ‘Foreign Secretary’ presumably they mean foreign to anything approximating good manners or decency.
I had very low expectations of Johnson’s speech but it was dire
Absolutely no mention of Northern Ireland which could scupper the entire clean Brexit myth
A sad day for NI also as the DUP refuse to countenance an Irish language act which is wanted by about 60% of the NI population and 99% of nationalists and was part of the St Andrews Agreement and official UK government policy
I see also today that the Irish are planning to have the port and infrastructure ready for a hard Brexit possibly anticipating a border in the Irish Sea
Sean,
I’ve had a feeling all along that N Ireland might be the first card to fall and bring down the whole shoogly house of cards that is Brexit chaos, the incompetent and delusional UK Government and, in turn, the UK as presently constituted.
The collapse yet again of power sharing discussions and/or the DUP’s stubbornness over the Irish language could be the catalyst. Roughly 50% of the NI electorate won’t countenance Direct Rule by Westminster and may demand fresh elections for Stormont. Both the Irish and UK Governments want devolved rule to Stormont to be restored, so who blinks first – the DUP or the Tories? Would the DUP risk an election in NI which they might well lose, or will the Tories risk forcing an NI election that the DUP don’t fancy and potentially see the DUP withdraw their support at Westminster? The only certainty right now is that the SNP are watching and waiting for the right moment to act.
Also, what is it about Unionists that they abhor the cultural relevance and importance of native languages? For religious and political reasons, the DUP won’t recognise and protect Irish Gaelic while the Unionists in Scotland endlessly complain about the Scottish Government’s support for Scottish Gaelic and in particular about bi-lingual English-Gaelic road signs. Having said that, the DUP aren’t very interested in supporting Scots-Irish, the vernacular of the bulk of their supporters, and similarly the SNP is being very slow to support Lallans aka Lowland Scots.
Keep your eye on Ulster: there is built-in political instability and a number of sensitive non-constitutional side-issues which could easily have wider-reaching consequences.
I agree Ken
Not sure what you mean by ‘a court’. We’re not leaving the European Court of Human Rights … yet.
ECJ
The ECJ have given judgments supporting employers against workers.
But its mood has changed
As it has on tax
Johnson’s represents the absolute gutter world of post-integrity politics, the nadir of what politics has to offer. The cheapskate and thug would come out with any old bluster . This is an era of very poor quality politicans with Johnson representing the ne plus ultra of them. Unfortunately, some strange atavistic slide has taken place within the British Public who seem to be mesmerized by blather merchants from a public school background. If these people got in power, the whole country will enter a dark age.
Does the EU act in a ‘neighbourly way:
18.2% of the latvian populace emigrating through austerity measure.
40% Youth unemployment in Greece.
32% Youth unemployment in Italy.
Total unemployment in Greece similar to the great Depression
Speculative money allowed to cause a housing disaster in Spain, traumatising families as they are evicted.
Germany with the highest level of poorly paid work in the EU.
Millions with no health care in Greece and people going untreated with serious, life-threatening condition-all for 2% deficit (in EU wide terms).
German Harz Reforms create a sanctions regime.
Firesale of Greek public Assets.
These are all things that have contributed to the rise of the Right in Europe and the near utter failure of the left.
I know I keep mentioning these things but I do that to remind your readers that the EU is a neo-liberal monstrosity, that it wrecks lives and the ECB in tandem with the IMF imposes near lethal forms of Austerity that kills and destroys hope.
It’s true that the European Court of Justice have stepped in in some cases (for example making it harder to evict and foreclose in Spain) but this is an institution that predates the EU like the Convention on Human Rights during an era that was reasonably progressive in respect ot full employment and Keynsian demand management.
We can rebuild an EU with different economic ideology but that is not looking hopeful due to the near disappearance of the Left throughout Europe.
Yea but who is the EU who are not neighbourly?
The Commission do what the member states dictate. The banking interests demanded to be bailed out -in Ireland, Spain, Cyprus and the UK-and there seemed little choice. The rules around the euro were set by bankers and the father of the euro was Robert Mundell, who was an advocate of supply side economics of the ‘Chicago School’. As G Hewitt says, the policy is one in the ascendent in the US and Europe for 30 years.
It was not the people who inflicted the austerity on the Continent and most are happy to work with other nations for the common good. There is a non neo-liberal Europe movement out there and I don’t see how they will prevail unless they work together. Especially as the Brexit leaders seem to be largely ‘free marketeers’.
Sorry Ian,
But Robert Mundell’s original Theory of Optimum Currency Areas (1961) became accepted wisdom on that topic prior to the neo-liberal era and represents the antithesis of Eurozone thinking. Furthermore he had no involovement in the “Chicago School” whatsoever”.
Unfortunately, as an IMF economist ( and former IMF man), Mundell became intellectually corrupted by the rise of neo-liberalism and the Washington Consensus. He turned his back on his previous teachings and reversed his stance on many issues including currency areas. This turncoat career has led to the common observation that he is father to both sides of the Eurozone debate.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242079234_Reconsidering_the_theories_of_optimum_currency_area_-A_critique
https://people.ucsc.edu/~hutch/Econ241a/Articles/Mundell.pdf
Simon,
You say “We can rebuild an EU with different economic ideology…” WE can’t rebuild the EU in any meaningful way one we’re out of the EU. We might have been able to influence that prior to Article 50 being triggered, but in all the years of UK membership, particularly the years when the Tories formed the UK government, the UK failed to exercise a leadership role, much to the dismay of the Germans. My view is that, all along, the Tories have been so fearful of their anti-European faction that they chose to take a back-seat role rather than risk intra-party division. This attitude prompted a German work colleague to describe the UK as “sitting in the grandstand shouting at the players on the pitch.”
I agree with your comments about politicians and surely that is the key to the kind of failures of the EU you list. The EU is simply the sum of the kind of political-economic climate that’s been ascendant for the last 30 or so years, in the UK as well as in much of Europe. But a lot of positives have also come from the EU and it might be interesting to see a list of those – peace in Europe being quite important, for example. (if we ignore NI)
Such lack of faith! For heaven’s sake, stop whingeing. You’ll getta blue passport. Rejoice. Blue passport!!!!! Hoorah – or Huzzah, as Peece Bogg would doubtless say.
I’m with J M Barrie here and the Tinkerbell syndrome.
I wish every time somebody said they didn’t believe in Boris Johnsons one of them would die…….
………or at the very least shut the fuck up. The man has nothing to say. And he’s said it all before.
A word or warning.
As much as I think that Johnson is a parody of a parody (the principal parody being the modern Tory party itself) I think that what progressives might think of as crude populism (treating Europe as one big hen/stag party venue in his speech) may actually be an accurate depiction of our country’s attitude to Europe?
Have you ever thought that Boris and his ilk are actually closer to the truth or the ‘zeitgeist’ about British attitudes to Europe? This needs to be considered seriously. It’s unpalatable – but it needs to be considered.
This drug and cheap booze addled place that is the UK (that Hogarth would recognise if he were here now) all too often would rather talk about what happened in Coronation Street or Game of Thrones last night than what is going on in their Parliament?
I see the stuff I allude to here everyday where I work.
Boris and Co have tapped (and continue to tap) into something that is here in our public realm right now. Something progressives would rather not see.
Let us not forget that.
As for moving to Ireland – I have two brothers who live there now and have done so for around 20 years. It’s not a bed of roses. What I see is an extremely poor country over dependent on EU aid. Infrastructure is still very poor. And I’m not anti-Irish by any stretch of the imagination – far from it.
And for Brother Cohen I say this: neo-liberalism starts at home. If the EU is neo-liberal then it is reflected in the membership of the individual states.
Over turn neo-liberalism at home and the EU will follow.
Over turn neo-liberalism at home and the ECB is dead in the water.
PSR
You may well be right
I met a very old friend recently to catch up on old times and see what had happened in life
He knew of some of my escapades
He had no idea who John McDonnell and Caroline Lucas were
He knew of no Scottish politician
Bernie Sanders? Who he?
But he certainly knew where he was on Brexit….
So we talked of other things, as he drank considerably more than me
It is scary
Richard
Since Boris Johnson’s absurd speech I’ve been trying to work out what Brexit is really about in terms of our culture which of course includes our economic self interest as a country. A couple of days ago I was speaking to a successful self-employed travel consultant who I have known for a number of years about a trip I am planning when the conversation turned unexpectedly to Brexit aka immigrants using our NHS . I was totally shocked , but it has stayed in my mind for several days and I think the reason is that this atavistic feeling that Brexit allowed to come to the fore goes well beyond a bunch of disaffected, unemployed people in the provinces. The very idea of the Referendum as thought up by Cameron was a reaction against his own party ( ‘ put up, or shut up ‘ ) to which the majority response was also reactionary ( and I mean that literally not pejoratively ) because we the voters were in effect told that that was okay . That it was no more than that we were not told and so now we find ourselves in this pit with none of our leaders able to articulate a vision of where we are going. The stumbling block politically and economically is undoubtedly the single market and the fact that part of that is the free movement of people and that brings me neatly back to the conversation I referred to at the beginning. Even Switzerland is signed up to that, but it’s hardly overrun by immigrants . I can understand why Corbyn can’t bring himself to articulate a vision of the UK leaving the EU, but remaining in the single market – there are votes at stake among his core supporters who voted to leave the EU. But he has a lot of support from those who want to remain in the EU ( particularly in London ) so he could take the risk and spell out a vision that said that immigrants are not the problem, but being outside the single market is going to be a big problem – possibly an insurmountable one – for us as a country . Perhaps if you suddenly realise your living is at stake you will be able to persuade yourself that immigrants are not the problem you thought they were.
Like the agricultural sector seem to be doing.
I’ve read WTF by Robert Peston
The most interesting thing was the centrality of the NHS being destroyed by foreigners claim and the money spent on the infamous split screen ad showing the NHS with and without immigrants
All nonsense of course in that leaving the EU will damage the NHS possibly terminally given if you meet an EU citizen in hospital it is far more likely to be a Dr or nurse than a patient
”I wish I could believe my government loves its neighbours as itself”
I wish we had a government that cared for the people, rather than being dedicated to putting the boot in at every opportunity.
‘I wish we had a government that cared for the people, rather than being dedicated to putting the boot in at every opportunity.’
I certainly agree with this sentiment Jim Green. Why one government feels it needs to constantly denigrate, and threaten to impose punishing sanctions against another nation’s people because of a democratic decision taken by those people is beyond me.
Politicians huh ? One could almost believe that the health and welfare of people was not their primary concern !
I live in the UK on an Aussie passport.
Australia isn’t in the EU and we don’t fret about any of these things. Nor do Americans, Kiwis, Canadians, Singaporeans, Japanese, South Koreans (apart from their one troublesome neighbour which we don’t have) or Swiss.
If these are your biggest problems, then you don’t have serious problems.
How wrong you are
Australia frets continually about its neighbours
And rightly so
Which neighbour does Australia ‘fret’ about (and I assume you mean a military threat)? The only two I can think about are China and Indonesia.
Relations are pretty good these days, when you take into account the vast cultural, economic, political and demographic differences. You overstate the fretting.
Which country in the EU is an equivalent of China or Indonesia for the UK? It isn’t obvious.
I was talking trade as well
The only fretting about Australian trade with Asia from within Australia comes from the tin foil hat brigade who think there is too much, not too little.
Most knowledgeable people are optimistic about the direction of travel. It isn’t something keeping people awake at night.
I think you’re worrying over nothing.
I share your concern that we are degenerating into some kind of equivalent of ‘Eurasia’ and Johnson’s laughable reassurances ought to be treated with the derision they deserve. One thing I would point out is that I don’t even think this shower are mad enough to jettison the European Court of Human rights which is independent of the EU, being part of the Council of Europe…..
You acknowledge that is is we that elect the government, so if we don’t want a government that dismantles our rights, it is encumbant on we to not elect a government that will dismantle our rights.
I confess that my main reason for voting remain was because I believed that membership of the EU was the best protection I had to protect me from the idiocies of my own Government.
So well said – just how I feel too….