brexit

for me there was always a sensible and practical reason why the country should have voted to stay in europe. a simple reason really, one that was above ideological, political and nationalistic concerns. a reason that has previous and current evidence to back it up – not the lies of the leavers or the scare tactics of the remainers. 

now i must declare that i was a remainer. i also must admit that i wasn’t for remain out of love of the european project, no sir i had long since lost patience with johnny foreigner. while i am a believer in big government there is a point at which you move the seat of power too far from those that are governed and it loses all sense of accountability. (one wonders if those who voted for nigel farage as an mep really think they got their money’s worth from him, or didn’t they realise that he was a money grabbing sponger on the public purse?) 

as a small digression when it comes to the tory plan to shrink parliament to save costs (and not at all to guarantee that they stay in power – that is just happenstance, lucky for them…) i am against that – in fact create more mps, that way we are all a little closer to our elected representative. with fewer constituents to count on they would have to work harder.

anyway, back to the meat and potatoes of this little piece. mrs. may is preparing to invoke article 50 and thus start the process of leaving the european union. loads of people are saying that this can’t happen – even though the result of the referendum was pretty cut – close but clear cut.

now i know that if the result had been the other way around we would have had that nice mr. farage bleating that it was too close and there should be a second referendum (and he would be calling for a third, a fourth until the result went his way – we’ll call it the scots technique. sadly, though nigel got his way and to show what a good leader he was promptly admitted lying and decided to bugger off leaving real politicians to pick up the mess he had created.

so yes, i was a remainer. yes, i want people to be aware of the lies that iain duncan smith and co spouted at the time. but i am not a remoaner. people spoke now it is the duty of parliament to follow through and do the democratic thing.

if only it were that simple. now some mps are telling us that they know better than the people – and perhaps they do (on this me and richard dawkins agree: we should never have been asked the question in the first place).  now it is too late to claim it was an advisory or that it didn’t really count. anything else is a dismissal of democracy as we know it – and frankly undermines the legitimacy of parliament – as from now on there is always a possibility that we can ask for it to be rerun until we get the result we want. 

but pat you said you were for staying. i was. now i am for doing what was voted for.

this brings me to my main reason for initially being against leaving europe. judging by past experience and how adroitly governments have avoided making decisions on projects such as heathrow – surely a must decide type deal that is about the national interest rather than party seats and yet every year it get kicked into the long grass because it might cause a bit of a ruction for the party in power. same sort of thing for hs2. let’s not even mention constant hot topics such as housing and the national health service. if as a government you are unable to deal with these issues and problems i don’t think you have much chance of negotiating a sensible, efficient and effective departure from europe. 

however, i was on the losing side. now i hope that mrs. may and co prove me wrong.