I could spend a lot of time and effort discussing Brexit today.
I won't. That's because right now saying a great deal won't change much.
But saying the UK leaving the EU is the most terrible mistake is the right thing to do.
Firstly, that's because it is.
Secondly, that's because saying so makes clear that this wrong must, one day, be corrected.
This country cannot be an isolationist state. It must be outward looking, generous, compassionate and, overwhelmingly, cooperative. Brexit denies all of this. One day I hope it will be otherwise. Our job now is to make clear that this remains our direction of travel.
To those who say that the time to give in, to accept, and to simply move on has arrived I have a simple response. It is never time to accept the wrong thing, the mistake, and the affront to others. There is only time to make amends.
I hope one day that the countries that currently make up the UK - for I strongly suspect they will not remain united - will have the chance to put this mistake behind them.
In the meantime faith in a bigger politics that embraces all has to be the basis for hope.
And I still live in hope.
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Agreed 100%. I hope that before long we,ll see the end of the UK which will be the best outcome for each of the 4 constituents and will change politics for the better.
…..and may we be quite clear – the desire of the peoples of Scotland to have a new say in how they shall be governed in the future does not in any way represent an act of defiance against anyone. Only a colonialist mindset could perceive it so. Rather, it is a rightful and well considered act by a long-established, stable, democratic and thoughtful nation wishing to pursue and protect its distinctive interests. Making enemies is not part of it and it is not an act which deserves or should attract resentment or, even worse, punishment from neighbours.
Mr Trump has shown recently that international treaties do not necessarily have permanence and may be dispensed with as circumstances require. Likewise, we may consider it just to revisit and adjust as appropriate the Acts and Treaties of 1706/7.
As an aside, I am sure I’m not alone in feeling a certain resentment at having my EU citizenship stripped from me this evening. Loss of citizenship is usually a form of punishment and I can’t for the life of me recall anything I did wrong.
We are going out for lunch today, the last day where we have all the benefits of being European Citizens. Not a day for celebration but rather the reverse.
We live in France and are fortunate to be retired so we don’t have the stress and constant worries of many UK citizens who live in one country but work in one or more other European countries. We can afford health care unlike many who are terrified, Ill, and at risk of losing that basic human protection, we have enough money to not have to worry that we will be denied the right to live in this country, because we fail to reach the threshold on basic income, or some other reason. I could go on because there is so much more than even these things being lost as we exit the EU but I’ll leave it there.
We were born in the UK and loved our country but it increasingly feels foreign to us, gone is the social contract and many human rights once taken for granted, cradle to grave care, free education, a safeguarded NHS, workplace rights and protection, with a living wage to take home at the end of the day. The UK feels very different now, unwelcoming to many who have made their lives there, building it’s infrastructure , paying taxes and sharing, with generosity their own cultures.
For us this is a sad day but like you say Richard, let’s hope it will be a short lived venture before we return to take up our place back in Europe.
I agree with what you say about the UK. The problems that we have here may creep up in France too under Macron’s rule but more worrying is the rise of Le Pen and the FN, they are getting ever closer with every presidential election.
Yes, we should live in hope that eventually our country will vote again to right this wrong, or elect decent, upright MPs, who will do so on their behalf.
Meanwhile, we should resist any legislative moves intended to weaken our food, health and environmental standards.
We are European, not American; our values are European ones, not those of a divided and enfeebled USA, in thrall to President Trump and his Republican allies; and our laws will bind us to European standards, not those designed in the USA by multinational coorporations to favour profits rather than corporate responsibility towards the planet and its inhabitants.
Tomorrow will go down in history as the beginning of the Brexit chapter, one of isolation and poor economic performance as the UK’s competitiveness gets eroded away and its manufacturing base emigrates to the EU. Hopefully this chapter will end in our lifetime and those responsible will fall into disgrace and obscurity.
I share your sentiments.
In this context, the Guardian has an interesting take on the UK’s political engagement with the EU (or lack of it) through the eyes of senior officials:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jan/31/the-irony-is-we-got-things-right-by-2015-uks-brussels-envoys-on-brexit
Since Maggie’s Bruges speech, the UK’s political engagement has been sporadic, fractious and declining over time. Irrespective of the antics of the Europhobic press and political fringe, the patchy and scratchy political engagement of successive governments moulded public perceptions. We have never been more than semi-detached and the detachment increased over time to settle on a purely transactional arrangement. But, mentally, a growing proportion of voters had left. The referendum merely confirmed this. In parallel, the EU during this century was becoming increasingly infected by a nasty combination of ordoliberalism and neoliberalism and this was entrenched by the Barroso Commissions and the increasing dominance of Germany and Angela Merkel. Left of centre parties initially sought to triangulate, but then succumbed – leading to the inevitable result: political irrelevance and the rise of populist, illiberal economic nationalism.
Historically, Blighty has only ever engaged meaningfully with Europe at times of war and crisis – the War of the Spanish Succession, the Napoleonic Wars, WWI and WWII – at huge cost in blood and treasure. It seems incapable of engaging with Europe in times of relative peace and prosperity.
And so we are where we are.
Paul,
“the EU during this century was becoming increasingly infected by a nasty combination of ordoliberalism and neoliberalism and this was entrenched by the Barroso Commissions and the increasing dominance of Germany and Angela Merkel”
Damn right – which is why the Eurozone is a fked up mess characterised by asymmetric shock and sovereign debt crises – but then again the UK was never part of the Eurozone. The UK got that part right and this current part wrong.
I think one area to keep an eye on is the issue of international tax, tax havens and the rich.
If we can call out what is happening in this arena, it may help focus attention on what is happening and what one of the main drivers of Brexit was.
Agree with all the above. Leaving the EU is an act of unprecedented self-harm. While those who voted ‘Brexit’ enjoy a day of self-congratulatory celebration, I need a heavy dose of confirmation bias, which you – & above comments – supply. Thanks.
For others in a similar emotive state, here are 2 more commentaries I’ve just read that likewise express my feelings on this dull, overcast January day in Northern Europe. It’s heartening to know one is not alone!
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/brexit/2020/01/brexit-day-no-cause-celebration-moment-profound-national-shame
https://mailchi.mp/politics/week-in-reviewthe-end-of-the-dream-the-start-of-the-resistance?e=8b13019fc5
While the future of the country is looking more uncertain than at any time since the end of WW2, as you say ‘Brexit’ must be seen as an opportunity to rebuild a more enduring, peaceful and mutually rewarding future with the rest of Europe. ‘Partfois il faut reculer pour mieux sauter.’
Barrista – un caffè doppio per favore! 🙂
I might go for one, right now
Italian typo. Before anyone tut-tuts – I know, I know, it’s ‘Barista’.
🙂
Always even for early primitive life there was the issue of how to protect against cheaters and Brexiters whilst wanting to better regulate economic migration neglect acknowledging other nations or groups of nations will still want to protect their economies against cheaters. In other words the UK is going to have to compromise on standards and regulations alignment, especially now it no longer has Industrial Revolution and Imperialistic clout! To pretend that it won’t have to is in the end the delusion lying at the heart of Brexit.
it’s very sad and shameful. i’m trying to avoid it today to avoid getting worked up.
i just hope that whatever arrangements are made by the government do not harm too many lives. and i hope that it will not impact on the ability of my UK based family to see my NL based family, and vice-versa.
but really i’m burying my head in the sand today. Thom Yorke’s lyrics sum it up for me today:
That there
That’s not me
I go
Where I please
I walk through walls
I float down the Liffey
I’m not here
This isn’t happening
I’m not here
I’m not here
In a little while
I’ll be gone
The moment’s already passed
Yeah it’s gone
And I’m not here
This isn’t happening
I’m not here
I’m not here…
🙂
On a more optimistic note……
I noticed todat in Glasgow, that the equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington, which usually wears a standard orange and white traffic cone on its head, thanks to the diligent efforts of Glasgow’s youthful citizens, at least those with a bent for climbing (and who have always defeated the authorities po-faced lack of imagination); worn, of course, with suitably rakish elan; has now had a citizens’s impromptu makeover on this 31st January. As I walked toward Royal Exchange Square, where the statue stands on its pedestal in front of Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art, I realised that the traffic cone was now blue, with gold stars. Thank you Glasgow, I should have known! City of Hope.
Keep the light on, Europe; we will find our way home.
Very good!
I also heard about the blue cone,,, and just wondered where on earth did they find one of them from?! Aye, the cone-wielders are a persistent bunch, and now one wonders if they may be an artistic bunch too…
On a far more positive note, do read David Allan Green’s blog post:
https://davidallengreen.com/2020/01/the-discharge-of-the-mandate-the-real-significance-of-brexit-day-31st-january-2020/
So, the mandate has been discharged,,, how much change will there actually be? We don’t know of course.
Very good
You say “This country cannot be an isolationist state”. I do not think that was ever the plan. The plan is and has always been to make it a vassal of the PM’s country of birth; a country to which he clearly has greater allegiance than the country he is employed to serve. We’ll be a sort of temperate (until Mr. T’s energy and environment policies bear fruit) version of Puerto Rico. As regards the possibility of rejoining at some point in the future, I can’t see them ever having us back. I do not believe anyone’s powers of forgiveness, not even the EU’s, can stretch that far.
Oh of course they’d have Britain back. It would be a shining example, a definitive victory against nationalists. The symbolism alone would be irresistible.
As the witching hour approaches, this may lighten our sombre mood a little –
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/brexit-eu-liberation-day-mark-francois-boris-johnson-wine-a9310071.html?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1580488090
It has taken the brexiteers mostly of the Tory kind 47 years to achieve their goal and in the process destabilise most Tory governments in the process notably with John Majors and his “bastards”. They never ever believed in the “will of the people” only in their democratic right to voice their opinion and dissent which they are now trying to deny to remainers. That they achieved their victory through deceit, misrepresentation and downright mendacity matters not one jot to them nor to the courts or the spineless MP’s who supported a flawed and basically fraudulent outcome as the “democratic will of the people”. Where is the delivery of the referendum promise to only leave with a deal “which would leave us no worse off”? We are now out of the EU with no such deal nor any prospects of it ever being delivered within the transition period when brexit becomes BREXIT, a fact they should be constantly reminded of. We are part of Europe whether we like it or not and the days of absolute sovereignty are long gone if they ever existed at all. Mutuality of benefit between neighbours means a dilution of mutual sovereignty.
Not one firework, not one Union Jack waved last night in Aber. Was it because people weren’t aware of the date? I do wonder… So many, the vast majority, are indifferent to this historical disaster. People just don’t want to hear any more of it.
There is a gathering of pro-EU groups today on the prom, they may gather a few.
Time to gather and protest is over though, for now.
It’s time to sit and think.
Think how we go about exposing the lies better, we have failed in that.
Think about how to show people they’ve been lied to. We have failed there too.
Maybe reality will convince them better than people.
It’s time to think of new strategies.
It’s also time to re-organise and better coordinate, in political parties and campaigning groups, across the UK, to challenge an increasingly autocratic Westminster government.
They have no mandate in Scotland, or in Northern Ireland.
They must be held to account in Wales, where the growth in Tory voters is a big worry.
I agree with you, it is most certainly not time to ‘accept’ Brexit.
We have to accept only one thing: it is happening, and that’s painful beyond belief.
But we must not accept it, the very principle of it. It cannot be left unchallenged. If it is, as so many now, even former campaigners, are saying, it means we accept that fraud, lies, corruption, xenophobia, racism, have won.
Not happening.
I was in a country pub in high Brexit country near my home last night
I have to say there was no sign of celebration
Thankfully
This might raise a smile, on this sunny, but nevertheless gloomy day.
AN ABC OF BREXIT
A
BOTCHED BORIS BREXIT BESPOKE BY
CALAMITOUS CUMMINGS COULD CAUSE
DISASTER DAMAGE DESPAIR
ENDING EMPLOYMENT & EVEN ENTERPRISE.
FAKING FARAGE, FALSIFYING FACTS. FAILING FACTORIES
GHASTLY GOVE GUTTER GERRYMANDERING GIBBERISH
HELP!!!
IDS IDIOTIC, ILLOGICAL, INTELLECTUALLY ILL-INFORMED
JACCOB FLEESE MOBB JAUNDICED JINGOISTIC
KNACKERED KNOW-IT-ALL KNAVE
LAUGHING-STOCK.
MANY
NORMAL
ORDINARY
PEOPLE
QUITE
RIGHTLY
SUSPECT
THAT
UNDERNEATH IT ALL
VILLAINS
WORKED
XTRA HARD
YELLING
ZEALOUS CLAPTRAP
Good effort 🙂
“To those who say that the time to give in, to accept, and to simply move on”
I say: fat chance buddy. Nothing here is over its only just begun.