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.
