I have been pondering whether to write this post. I try to avoid reading or hearing too much news, but so-called 'brexit' (who came up with that?) had dominated the UK political agenda for over 3 years since David Cameron mis-judged the mood of the British people by calling for a referendum on
Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?
A month before we got to vote Brexiteer in chief Nigel Farage said a 52-48 result would be 'unfinished business by a long way'. The actual result was 51.9-48.1 with a 72.2% turnout. I have not heard him request a further vote to get a more decisive mandate.
You will hear leavers saying we have to do what 17.4 million votes asked for, although none were asked what sort of deal, or lack of one, they wanted. 16.1 million voted against leaving and another 13 million seemed to have no opinion then, but might now.
This post was going to be about Boris, but I do wonder who is really behind Farage who has managed to become an MEP, but failed several times to become an MP. Despite that he has spent more time on TV than just about any other British politician. He is about the only person from the parties he has led that most people can name. It really is a cult of (strange) personality. It seems it is only the EU that he does not like about Europe as he married a German and his kids have dual nationality, so they will not suffer restrictions on their movement.
Talking about Farage makes me feel ill, so I will move onto Boris. Do not get me started on Rees-Mogg. Old Etonian Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson seems to have wanted to be prime minister for years, but when Cameron resigned after the vote he chickened out as he obviously knew it was going to be a horrible job to have.
Image from Wikimedia
It is interesting to read that he thought the replacement of the prime minister without a public vote was gigantic fraud. He puts on an act of being a bit of a clown, but he is obviously a smart man. That expensive education was not entirely wasted. He speaks several languages, but seems to struggle with English.
He has a long history of lies, gaffes and offensive remarks, including outright racism. His famous '£350 million per week to the EU could go to the NHS' has been declared a false statistic number by many. Of course the money will not go there if it every materialises. He has cleverly manipulated search results more recently by saying he paints model buses as a hobby, so Googling 'boris bus' now turns up that story instead.
The internet has played a big part in the manipulation of public opinion over the brexit issue. Wealthy donors paid for targeted advertising in which Cambridge Analytica may have been involved. Those donors have their own interest in this. They want to escape EU restrictions on how they can operate and investigations into their finances. The British people have been fed a series of lies about the scale of immigration that tends to omit its value to our economy. Illegal immigrant numbers are pretty small and many of those are not from the European mainland anyway.
He started sowing the seeds of dissent decades ago with stories about crazy EU laws. These may have been done light-heartedly, but it now looks like a shrewd move to portray them as the bad guys. Of course the EU has its faults, e.g. wasteful argicultural policies, but the UK is not the powerhouse of the past and a lot of people seem to believe in a fantasy empire that never really existed. The British empire was often brutal, divisive and exploitative. It is not like we will ever get it back.
I have not even resorted to my beloved Guardian for this piece as you can find plenty of evidence in multiple other outlets, much of it written by the man himself.
There is a petition British people can sign to try to cancel the proposed closure of Parliament that seems designed to stifle debate. 1.6 million have signed so far. Note that the original leave referendum was not legally binding. If it had been then it would have to be re-run due to fraud by the leave campaign.
I will not be surprised to get some heated opinions on this post. I may even get called a 'remoaner' or worse. I have been called worse. I do not actually belong to any political party, but I tend to vote Green as the environment issues are of much higher priority than which economic group we are part of. I think most people just want it to be resolved one was or the others so life can continue. Staying in would give some certainty as to what sort of life that would be, but the opionions of about a million people mean we are taking a leap into the unknown that will affect generations to come. The government does not seem to have been able to really prepare for it or tell businesses what the effects will be.
Boris will make claims that he can sort it all out in weeks where others have failed over several years. I am not sure what magical powers he has to do this. Not long ago he said the chances of no deal were a million to one. Did anyone take a bet on that as it seems like certainty now? Three years ago he said we would still have access to the single market. How things change.
With politicians these days it is hard to tell if they are cunning or imcompetent. They do their best to discredit the 'mainstream media' so that they can control opinions more. Journalists have a vital role to play, and I do not mean Joe Bloggs who has a webcam and an agenda.
I have not gone on about the Labour Party as I feel they have failed us for fear of losing marginal seats. This has fuelled the rise of Farage.
I have also not gone into Boris's personal life which is a bit of a mess.
I think I have ranted long enough and doubt anyone will read this far. I just need to get my thoughts out sometimes and it has been interesting looking up these articles.
The next couple of months will be 'interesting'.
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